Please tell me about your winter heating routine!

[Trulyatraditionalman]

I'm in a pickle. Until now, I usually turn my heating off at night and then turn it on when I go downstairs in the morning with the thermostat set to 21 degrees. However it's FREEZING! The last few nights have been so cold (thermostat showing 14c), and it takes the whole morning to actually get the house up to a bearable temperature. I've not really noticed it in previous years, but now I'm WFH, I have to spend the whole morning wrapped in blankets!

What do you all do in the winter? Do you leave the heating on but turn the thermostat down at night? Is it more cost-effective to do this rather than heat the house up from scratch every morning?

Thank you!

On from 7.30-9 in the morning. Use a heated throw in the afternoon when it cools down, light the stove at 4pm then heating on for an hour before bed.

If its freezing the heating stays on 18. I work full time but my cat is 20 years old and I cant allow her to get cold and sick.

Our heating is ‘on’ 24/7 , we ten the thermostat down to 17/18 overnight and when we are indoors ( most of the time at the moment) just turn it up and down as desired .

We operate the heating very differently in thus house (well insulated) compared to the old house - which sounds more like yours.
It sounds like you dont have timer? I think I'd turn the thermostat down a bit when you go to bed, and back up in the mornings. Ours is set to 18, and drops (no heating) to 16 overnight, with heating back on before we get up, so house back to 18 before we get up. If yours is normally at 21, what about trying 18 overnight?

We leave ours on 17 degree's over night when it's freezing, it's on about 18.5 during the day all day.
If you have draughty windows have you tried blackout blinds? They really keep the draughts at bay, also I have door curtains up to combat the cold coming off the doors and on my patio doors iv attached thermal linings to my curtains.
You can get all these from Dunelm

Ours is on full blast practically all the damn time.

Our winter heating routine is my husband having the heating at max and me having a fan pointed at me all day and night. Me turning the heating down then my husband turning it back up again, claiming that the cat is cold. Me opening a window then him closing it again making the same bloody joke every time about me heating the streets. Me turning it off at the boiler and him turning it on again. Me complaining our bill is nearly £200 a month and him laughing and saying we'll have to live on mother's pride and processed cheese (quote from TV) and normally ends with me pondering the practicalities of bathtub dismemberment.

I keep mine on all day on 21/22, from about 7.00 in the morning till about 9.00 at night, and then off on a night, averages about £4.50/£5.00 per day

set at 19degrees but rarely goes on, new build well insulated, even in negative degrees its still 19 -20 throughout

No one likes the heating on at night, so it goes off at 11pm then back on at 6am (oil fired central heating). Slightly different with another part of the house that has a different heating system - it's new and very well insulated with an air source heat pump, and that is set to stay on at 17 overnight on cheap rate electricity, and then it's switched off most of the day apart from the occasional boost if someone is in there and it's feeling chilly.

Ours is set to 17 over night, and 21 during waking hours when we're home (when we worked from offices it used to be off between 8:30am and 5:30pm).

These threads always turn into a competition about who's thermostat is set to the lowest. I hate being cold, and since we're now at home all day, our heating is on all day. If the house takes too long to warm up in the morning, I would set the heating to come on earlier or set it to a constant minimum temperature at night.

I don't ever turn my heating on as I live alone. I just wear appropriate clothing. The temp in my living room was 5.8 degrees earlier, it's now risen to 6.6..!

OP why are you manually switching the heating off when you go to bed and then on again when you go downstairs? Does your heating not have a timer? Mine does, and is set to come on around half and hour before I get up so that the flat is warm when I get out of bed. But me telling you that is absolutely no use to you if you don't have a timer and thus need a solution which doesn't require a timer.

I turn mine off at night. I have it on at 18 all day and then turn it up to 19.5 at about 6pm.
I live in a new build.

5 celsius and above outside and I'd usually have it off for most of the day and wear layers. But this week it's been on full blast. I hate being cold, though.

Draughty single glazed house here. I work from home.

Winter Heating on at 6am to 18° - I have to wear a jumper and fleecey socks while working. At 5pm it goes up to 20°. At 11pm it goes down to 9° just to keep the edge off if really freezing. Bedroom radiators are turned right down so the heating is barely on all day and we aren't heating empty rooms. They come on just enough so it's not cold upstairs, but it's not really warm either.

On at 6.30-8am, 20 degrees downstairs, 15 upstairs. On again 5pm -7.30pm same temps.

It's usually around 13 degrees at night, but we wrap up when sitting. Our combined gas/electric bill was £100 for two weeks 😱 - just moved in - so we're being economical for the time being. Big house, but Covid struck incomes at present.

@Shehasadiamondinthesky. Can I just recommend a heated cat bed. Best thing I ever bought for my lady.

Programmed for 18 from 7am to 10pm. It's also set at 16 from 6am to 7am so the heating comes on an hour earlier if it's been a particularly cold night.

Our heating goes off at night, on in the morning for a couple of hours if we are WFH, off during the day and back on in the evening.

The house is ancient, I have paperwork going back 300 years, but it seems to hold on to heat once warmed through. It only drops a couple of degrees overnight.

Mine is set to 22.5 (big, cold house) between 7am and 7pm. However the thermostat is in the kitchen so in reality the heating goes off closer to 5pm when I start cooking.

We have a heated blanket on our bed so it’s warm when we get in.

Electric fire in the lounge if it gets cold after the heating has gone off.

I have gas central heating with an ancient timer.
Mine is on 4.30pm - 11pm then off all night (unless it's really cold then I leave it on constant), it then goes on from 5am - 9am.

When I'm at home I just override the timer & leave it on.
I usually set it at 22c.
My house isn't insulated so it can get really cold quickly at lower settings.

Today I feel cold for some reason so I've turned it up to 24c!! Very bad I know.

I'm getting a new boiler in March as this one is approx 20 years old & keeps breaking so I'll use the Hive system which will save me a lot on bills hopefully.

I switch mine off at night. Never left it on. Living in a 250+ yr old cottage its cold. Knew that when moved here so part of the parcel.

Warmer in the new part and i use the. Multifuel to warm the living room. I rarely switch it on in the morning. Kids bedrooms are in the warmer part so stay pretty warm. Its the living room and kitchen which are cold.

We have Hive. For us, the benefits lie in the remote control facilities. It hasn't reduced our heating bills.

@LucyfurMorningstar You really don't need to live in freezing cold temperatures inside your own home. It must be miserable