What temperature do you set your thermostat to?

[Tawdrylocalbrouhaha]

As the colder weather kicks in, I'm wondering if I should go wild and set the thermostat to 20 (when we're home and awake), or stick to a conservative 18.

This has got me wondering whether people in the north set a lower home temperature, and how much depends on your childhood heating situation (chilly in my case).

What is everyone else going for this winter?

I’d prefer it at 19 but at 19 the house gets damp with black mould on the walls/curtains. At 20 it doesn’t.

My heating is generally set to 19, but the heating has never been triggered to come on at that temp (new build and very well insulated). If I feel a chill I’ll pop it to 21/22. DH wasn’t feeling great yesterday and set it to 25😳.

Definitely not heating on over night (and window open, I like to be a little cold at night)

Oh and I grew up in Surrey and parents always kept the house ridiculously hot!

I grew up in a country renowned for no central heating.

You'd heat one room - the living room - by whatever means. Usually an electric heater/radiator that cost a fortune to run, or an open fire or wood burner.

In our case, it was an open fire. Being in the living room was gorgeous, lovely and warm.

About an hour or so before bedtime, you'd venture out of the lovely, warm living room and streak upstairs to the icebox, watch your breath steam out, and turn the electric blanket on to make bed bearable.

Showers in the morning were a desperate affair, shivering with the towel wrapped around you before hurriedly dressing and running downstairs.

We didn't realise this was weird. And this was a comfortable, middle class upbringing.

Most people here still don't have central heating. We had it installed at monumental cost, and if it's on, it's 21 degrees.

As God as my witness, I'll never be cold again.

Ours is set at 19. It goes off at 9.30pm and on again at 6am.

My parents house is 24. Uncomfortably hot.

Ours is currently set to 20 but I've not flicked it on to the timer setting yet, I'm currently just putting it on as and when needed. Not on overnight. Hate being stuffy at night. We have an electric blanket so no need for heating. I feel sick and headachy if I sleep in a house with the heating on overnight.

I'm quite worried that lots of people are leaving their heating on for no good reason overnight.

My thermostat lets me set a minimum temperature so that I can be sure nothing freezes if I go away for a few days in the winter and turn it to "off". So my minimum temp for inside the house is 5 degrees. I do live in a city in a mid terraced house in the south of England but I know we'd be ok if the temp went down to 5.

Are the people who are leaving their heating on all night living in places where the temp might drop so severely that they'd go below freezing in 8 hours or so?

I don't think most of the people quoting overnight temperatures are actually having their heating come on during those times, they just have a higher acceptable minimum than your 5 degrees.

Ours is 18 morning and evening (and I boost of I'm chilly or up later than usual) and 13 on a weekday and overnight, mainly so I'm not worrying about the dog. It rarely comes on overnight (the odd night last winter) - I like to check the temperature graph, lol, and it usually only drops to about 15 unless it's below freezing outside.

No heating on overnight - the duvet is plenty then.

16 overnight, 20 when were in.

19/20 during the day and 17 overnight. We don't normally have it on overnight but have a newborn in the house (that's my excuse anyway!)

18 in the morning, 20 for the rest of the day and 10 at night, when out or away. It has never dropped below 15 though, even when the house has been unoccupied for a week or two. We have it at 20 as I work from home and I can't sit wrapped up in blankets and I can't work if I'm cold. The heating isn't really on a lot though as the house holds its heat. It was really cold out yesterday but it was only on for an hour and a half all day.

18 degrees for most of the house (old house, high ceilings, no insulation, single glazing - rarely reaches this!) . Sittings rooms typically 21 degrees (heatedly independently by wood burners).

I’d always rather be be too cold too hot.

21 I the day and 12 at night. Hardly ever comes on at night.