House temperature during the day

@GasPanic I don’t really understand your reasoning tbh, all I’d say is I can heat the main room in my home all day for three days for £4, it would cost far more to put my heating on. Plus the oil is odourless.

We have ours set to 22. Any lower, and me and DP feel cold. Life's too short for that. I don't care what it ends up costing. Our solar panels offset the bills in the summer months anyway, by the vast majority of the winter increase.

I do similar when it's just me and maybe DH. It stays at 18 during the day and very rarely kicks in but I've just knocked it up to 18.5 because the air is damp, my nose is running, my fingers are getting stiff and the room that DH is working in, which is always a couple of degrees colder than the rest of the house, feels like a fridge.

My house is bloody freezing downstairs (open plan, loads of windows, shit insulation) and it would literally cost me about £500 a month to heat it all day.

I had it on timer (6.30-8.30am, 6.30-9.30pm) to heat the house to 19 and it was costing me £10 a day.

So now it's set to heat to 16 in the morning and 17 in the evening. It's chilly but bearable in oodies and slippers.

Our CH was out of action for 3 days last week. When I woke up on the morning of the last day it was 12ºC, which was pretty grim. Thanks goodness it's now fixed.

That's not a bargain.

A litre of lamp oil is about 10 kwh, so you are paying 40p per kwh.

Electricity is about 27p per kwh.

Plus it is less likely to emit nasty smoke and burn your house down.

If your oil lasts 4 days, then you are using 2.5 kwh per day. So you lose 2.5x(40-27) p per day = 32.5 p.

An electric convector heater would cost about £20, so would pay for itself in two months.

Sometimes I also put my Aldi heated dryer on, minus washing, £1.50 per day it costs me. It’s like a mini radiator!

when wfh just heat the room you are in with a small convection heater.

they cost about £25 for a 2kw one. If you are in a small room this will probably cost far less than running the central heating.

For example in my house gas CH is about £1 an hour. To keep my 3mx3m home office at 20 takes about 1kW continuous, which is about 30p an hour.

The gas CH is better value for money (more kw per £) but you end up heating the whole house rather than the little bit you need.

I live in a rented home and it's like a tent. It doesn't hold heat at all. I also have a pay as you go gas meter. I've turned off the radiators in most rooms (except for the bathroom and living room, I'll turn on the bedroom and kitchen if I'm using the rooms). I turned the boiler down and the water temperature. It's costing me £15 roughly a week. Sometimes a bit more. I can't stand the cold. On my bed I've got fluffy bedsheets which really helps. I also wear a jumper etc all the time.

They can't just increase it to whatever they like though. The price they charge is based on wholesale energy prices and is capped by Ofgem.

I put our (ugly but fab) oil lamp on 30 minutes ago. The temp was 16.8 (according to the Hive display), it’ll be 18/19 within the hour. A litre of the lamp oil lasts 3 days and costs £4. Bargain. It only heats our sitting room but it’s fine when I keep the door closed.

Ours is on for an hour in the morning and an hour late afternoon. We sometimes put it on for an extra hour in the early afternoon if it's dropped. During the day it tends to stay around 15 which is chilly but ok for just me at home if I keep busy and moving. We have it warmer when the kids are at home.

This sounds utterly miserable. Who told you that you aren’t allowed?

If you just need to heat yourself when WFH you could have a little blow heater and heated blanket. Heated slippers are amazing too. But you’ll need to put the heating on around 2 hours before 6pm anyway to get the house up to 19 degrees if it’s 14 in the day (unless your system is one that “preheats”)

19 downstairs, 18.5 upstairs. I wouldn't let it drop more than a degree or so from those temps during the day. I HATE being cold. Our house is well insulated though and small.

Friends have a small tearoom open daily their energy costs are 2k a month, commercial isn't capped, so I'm trying to be grateful.

Heating two hours in the morning and four hours in the evening 18c Have a heater in the office that used to be in the nursery.

We've been lighting the log burner at lunchtime in this cold snap. No mould yet.

I think as a country we are saving a lot of energy which will be hurting shareholders so anticipate a price increase 🙄

We rarely put ours above 16, ever. Feels fine, I think we’re just used to it. And we’re never ill, I actually think it’s healthier, I hate over warm places

I consider myself a warm person but I have it on at 18 all day, 16 all night, with a burst of 20 in the evenings! Life is too short to shiver if you can afford not to (which is a massive privilege in its own right, I realise).

I have a 1 year old and 6 year old, we have the heating on for a max of an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening set to 16.The rest of the time it's off and we have to layer up, the coldest it has gone down to is 12.5 degrees. most of the time it's around 14 degrees. I can't afford to put it on more often, my ex refused to pay child support and as soon as I got collect and pay going he quit his job. I only work part time because I have no childcare other than my parents who can do a max two days per week. They have the heating on set to 18 when they are here so I have to offset their usage by having it off the rest of the week as much as we can tolerate. You get used to it being 14-15 eventually, a hoody blanket and fingerless gloves make it more tolerable.

YANBU we have a cold house too and ours is on at 20 all day at the moment. I'm not usually a cold person (lots of shops are too hot for me in the winter) but I couldn't cope with anything below 18.

Ours is always around 19 during the day if I'm working from home and maybe 20 in the evening. Heating is switched off during the night but probably doesn't drop below 16 degree as the house is well insulated.

It was only "normal" not to have heating on during the day when people were out of the house all day. If you are working at a desk during the day, no way is it normal for temperatures to be only 14 degrees. Workplaces wouldn't (or shouldn't) get away with those temperatures if people at sat at a desk so why should those who work from home freeze?.

I’m very lucky to live in a well insulated new build house so it retains heat very well (too well in the summer, hence why we’ve now had air con installed in our bedrooms!) thermostat is set to 17 overnight and if we’re mostly out, if I’m working from home or we’re home at the weekend/after school I turn it up to 20. Looking at our app I can see over the last 2 weeks it’s been on between 2 and 6 hours a day (mostly 4-5 hours a day). I don’t think it’s at all healthy to sit at a desk and wfh in 14° temps as some people are reporting on this thread.

Yikes. I feel guilty. I don't do cold!
Although, we do generate electricity for the solar battery which helps reduces bills.
South facing back garden so get some natural light and warmh. The old lounge and 2 bedrooms face North and are really cold.

I do now regret making the kitchen and living area open plan. It is so much colder.

Can I move in with you!🤣 I don't even think our house is capable of getting upto 25! Sounds blissful.