Cutting down on using heating

No thanks, I don't want to sit inside my own home freezing my tits off.

House is already as insulated as possible, new roof and windows and not suitable for external cladding.

I'm luckily in a slightly better financial position than last winter so will be using it more not less.

The best way to save energy is usually through insulation.

If you haven't considered insulation there are normally some quick wins that you can do that reduce your energy consumption considerably.

Thermal imaging cameras are a pretty good way of finding out where the worst heat leaks are in a house, although they can be a bit pricey. I have some other applications for them that make them better value for money. Maybe in a couple of years you will be able to get a half decent phone attachment one for less than £100.

If you want to live in the cold you get on with that. I don’t want to wear a jumper indoors nor do I want mould growing up my walls.

Here is your gold ⭐️

I, however, don’t care about taking a moral high ground point, and instead will enjoy being warm and having a nice environment to live in.

My house is about 13 at the moment. I heat the rooms I am in to higher temperatures, and turn the gas on when the outside temperatures get below freezing to prevent the pipes freezing up.

I never get mould because the humidity levels are 40-50%, kept that way with a dehumidifier.

The problem is that a lot of people think that turning the heating on and off is the only way to manage the environment in a house, when in actual fact managing the humidity is just as important. A lot of people have a massive light bulb moment when they finally realise this.

Heat pumps are the worst and a lot more expensive. Nordic countries they work great but not in the uk and I do not know why.

Last year we kept thermostat at 18 but use log burner in living room in the evening. If it's very cold, we'll have a fire during the day but that's rare and not generally term time.
DH WFH full time whereas I am hybrid and might go into work more if I'm cold!

I won't go less than 18 as we get mould. I do ventilate but have thermometers with humidity on too - I do get concerned at humidity levels sometimes but keep an eye on it. I think my bedroom is the worst for that, possibly due to en suite. Bedroom door open all day and window on vent.

I line dry washing and have a ceiling mounted laundry airer in the living room (no humidity issues here with fire and windows vented). I do have a tumble drier but am too mean to use it other than emergencies (1 school uniform emergency so far this year)

We had ours at 14, which meant 14 at the thermostat downstairs, warmer upstairs, 16 in the sitting room with the door closed. Evening only if we were leaving for college or work. It wasn't miserable but I think any lower would have been. We are a healthy adult and teen. We will have a young child staying occasionally this winter, it will be set to 18 then.

Last year we kept the thermostat at 18 during the day (it's always off at night) and it was miserable.

18 is what we have our thermostat set at to be comfortable. We turned it down to 16 last winter. 16 wasn’t miserable but it’s going back up to 18 this winter

Just me, 2 bed ground floor purpose built apartment (built 18 years ago)
I WFH so am here all the time!

I meant we could have four people in the house (a couple with two children would fit comfortably) and it would cost the same to heat as with two people.

Well, in our case the size of the home is relative to the number of people who are in it.
If we were atomized into five, single dwelling properties, I imagine that we would use far more on aggregate despite having quite low energy costs individually on paper.

I'm in a council property. It has solar panels but tenants do not get Anything from it. The council make money from it 😥. Last winter I had my heating on for 3 days for around 4 hours each of them days. I was to scared to put it on.

Heating is about the size of the house, climate, and how well insulated, not the number of people. Our house is relatively easy to heat, but we also have the thermostat set quite low and heating only on in the evening if we are leaving the house in the day.

Yeah, I was wondering if maybe we weren't too dissimilar on a per person basis - but even then, being a family of five, we still use far more.

Two people, semi detached house

@Pleaseme

Chopped up pallet wood basically. Wouldn't go near the chemically treated stuff (MB) but they all seem to be the heat treated stuff (HT) nowadays. Chimney sweep said crack on.

Log burner. Local, air dried logs. Almost carbon neutral.

Do you mean you burnt bits of old pallets? You want to be careful. Some contain nasty chemicals that turn into gas when burned.

AvengedQuince/ 2023shady, do you mind me asking how many people are in your home?

Similar here
1897 electric
4804 for gas

Still costs too much!

That's why I object to this 'everyone should use a bit less than last year'! I cut our usage last year, as I'm sure many others did, because of the doubling of the price cap. It's not going much lower unless I was to just stop using heating completely.

Gosh, that's incredibly low.

I’ve gone from using the portable AC last Monday, to central heating this Monday! 28 degrees living room temp to 19. Bedrooms were cooler and daughter was cold so put the heating on for an hour to take chill out. We are in a flat, so I’ll use a lot less than I used last year as gone from 5bed detached to 2bed flat, so much warmer here. So happily be using less but will be warmer as that house (my ex’s) is impossible to keep warm. The bathroom has so much damp, so if less is used I dread to think what it will look like. Don’t care as my kids not staying there now, thanks to dad bringing a new family back from overseas working!

@Oaktree1233
What is your annual usage? Ours is 1100kwh electric and 3300kwh gas, well below the average. Why should we cut our usage?