have you got heating on and if so, for how long?

[novemberlights]

my husband wants the heating to come on only when it drops to 18 degrees in the house. It's 19 currently and feels cold!
Are you all keeping heat off unless essential?
The bill is already rising steeply and we're not even in the really cold months yet. Our teenagers think that other families are just putting the heating on as normal. Is this true? Are you all putting the heating on as you normally would?

We put ours on in the morning for 1-2 hours and in the evening for 2-3 hours currently. On Saturday when it felt really cold we had it on all afternoon though. It feels miserable and I don't like my own home anymore.

Currently about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, currently set to 20. We both work from home and I'm finding it very cold during the day but we have an oil boiler with a pretty shit thermostat and haven't quite worked out yet how reliably to leave it on at a certain temperature so it keeps it fairly level. I've just ordered a room thermometer as I think the thermostat is way off.

We have a dormer bungalow (thin that's what they're called) so the main bedrooms are in the roof/eaves and seem to feel constantly freezing even with the heating on. There's insulation in the loft but I can't get up there to see whether the whole thing has been insulated - it's very small and shallow and a person couldn't really get into it.

We used to turn the heating on in the morning before we wake up. We haven't done that this year. But tbh, it's not cold at all.
We turn on the heating in the evening as usual.

i have turned the thermostat down and also reduced temperature on the boiler. I have hot water on a timer which I also reduced the time for. Heating has only been on for around an 1hr in the evening if it’s really cold

We don't have a thermostat, in SE. Live in a Victorian terrace with high ceilings and are really struggling with damp at the moment. It's only just become cold enough to have the heating on but struggling with washing, have never had a tumble drier.

It's not a COL thing thankfully for us but at the moment it's set to 6-8am and 1700-2230. I've just flicked it on for a bit of a boost as I'm cold.

If you can manage the cost out the bloody heating in, who wants to be cold? My husband seems to have developed an issue with lights. He walks around turning them off eg the halll when I am cooking and going between living room and kitchen and cba with turning the light off that costs about 10p pa to have on, when it's dark

@novemberlights

i don't have any, but from everything I've read they are very cheap to run. A couple if pence for an hour and they only need to be in for an hour to warm itself & you up & then you can turn the off and they stay warm for ages.

look at some online and see what wattage they are for an hour then use the syst-it website to see how much they cost. (Remember to use wh not kwh!!

apparently the thinner cheap ones work well as they fold into you better

This month I’ve had the heating on for 2 hours a day until this week when it’s gone up to 3 hours a day. My house is at 12 degrees on a morning and max temp it gets go throughout the day is 16.8 degrees.

i wear lots of layers and the DC & I have electric blankets each. I’m not looking forward to this months bill.

I don't know how you'd calculate it but I understand what you are saying. We turned the flow down on our combi boiler in February which means that it takes the house much longer to get up to temperature but that it is more gas efficient in doing so.

We have the thermostat set to 18 for an hour in the morning and 2 hours im the evening and then 5 for the rest of the day so it doesn't come on, that's how we had it set last year and the year before (since WFH) so not actually changed it this year. It's currently 14.8 in the house but I feel fine (fleecy leggings, a couple of layers on top and my heated blanket over me). When I started WFH I made the decision to invest in keeping me warm rather than heating the house during the day as that seemed a huge waste.

Ours is on at the moment because the house was 13 degrees downstairs and colder up (no thermometers upstairs but you could feel the difference). I'm trying to dry washing and DH and I are both wfh, and decided that having the gas central heating on was better than running the tumble dryer because it will warm us up too. We also both have horrendous colds just now. Because it is getting so cold between times it's taking all day to come back up - it's now 15 degrees in this room. On days when I'm not trying to dry washing I'm just heating the room I'm in with the door closed, and DH is being hardcore and is wearing his winter coat in his room. We can't work in the same room because we both do lots of Teams calls.

The house I'm in is old and cold, so I've been putting the heating on up to 18 degrees a couple of times ago to prevent damp/mold/frozen pipes etc. A couple of hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the evening. All doors are kept shut to keep heat in the right places.

Sometimes I feel warm enough at 18 degrees, other times not, so I wear plenty of layers and have blankets and a hot water bottle for when I'm sitting/sleeping.

It's working so far but it's not been properly cold during the day yet.

It’s not on in the morning at the moment, comes on if it goes below 16 during the day and I switch it up to 18 at night. No different to previous years though

I put it on for 30 mins before dd gets up and 30 mins after. It then comes on when she comes home about 3 30 until 10pm. 19 degrees.

Noticed mould in sons' room the other day so currently having a war on humidity and cold and testing various strategies of heat, dehumidifier and ventilation. Humidity is lower if the window is open overnight (obviously) but then they wake up to a freezing room plus DS2 has asthma so cold air not ideal.

Started having the heating (never set above 18) come on at 6am for an hour so it's warmer when they get up and then set again to be on 6-9pm for evening baths and homework time, but I will be tweaking it on and off with the thermostat so I doubt it will on all that time. DH is home during the day at the moment, but he has cats to keep him warm (plus house is actually quite well insulated considering it's age and fact it's a neglected rental). We have thermostat radiator valves but half of them don't work.

But no one else should base their usage on someone else's as you have no idea of the outside temperature or how many rooms, insulation, drafts, how many people in & out of the front door etc
mine is much less for that time, but my house is tiny & only me!

Not as much as before but I'm not sitting in my house cold, I refuse. Also I have 2 hairless cats so have no choice but to maintain a reasonable temperature all day. So it's set at 18 all day and then a boost to 21 degrees for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening, but I will do an extra boost if I feel the need.

In the old days of being out at work all day it would be on for an hour in the morning and three hours or so in the evening. Plus, my monthly has was about £20 (ha!) so I didn't really care.
We moved house in January so our tariff is all over the place and we're both WFH most of the time so I'm being very careful and the moment. It tends to go on for half an hour or so to take the chill off. I have a heated throw, which is fantastic and I've asked for an Oldie for Christmas. I feel the cold a lot more than my husband.

Ours is set to 21 degrees between 630 and 9am and then 1630 to 2130

No gas here so no central heating. In the day I'm fine with [woollen] layers and a hot water bottle if it's really cold/damp. I move about a fair bit, am out for a couple of hours each day and the house is very well insulated.

I light the woodburning stove at 6pm-10.30pm which I've done for about 8 times so far this year - less than usual [due to warmer evenings, although wood has risen in price so I'm conscious of that too]. The room stove is in gets toasty in no time. I've never had heating in the bedroom, don't like it.

If it is really cold I will use an oil-free radiator in the afternoon and it soon heats a room up with the door shut. It's all the norm for me and I'm happy with the arrangement.

Mine drops to 13 overnight. Max we have on is 17 at the moment! That's for 2 hrs in the morning. Its getting cold now at 15.4 But the dcs will be home soon, tunning around, ill be cooking then baths etc so it feels warmer. In the evenings we have a sofa blanket and has been ok so far

@AriettyHomily

explain to him, it'll cost a lot more if you trip
ovee in the hall & he needs to pay for home help!

plus it's not good to be turning them on & off all the time!!

@Shanksponyorbust i have a theory, nothing to support it, just a theory. I think it's better to really heat the house up & warm the fabric of the house up & dry out any moisture, then it seems to retain some of the heat & take less to warm up.

Ours is on 24/7 but the thermostat is turned down overnight so it’s very rare for it to come on . My husband turns it up in the morning before I get up and then how much it is used during the day depends on whose in / out etc . I have a few health issues and can’t do cold and fortunately we are ok to not have to worry too much at the moment.

On office days (OH and I do the same hybrid pattern) it is on for an hour between 6 and 7, then in the evening from 5 to 8.30.

WFH days it is set to 17 all day and I boost it if I'm feeling a bit chilly.

Weekends we're quite often out so my default is to set it fairly low (15) and boost it if we need it rather than forgetting to turn it off when we go out.

I also turn the radiator in my office down for the 5 days I don't use that room (I only wfh thursday and Friday so I turn it down on Friday evening and back on on Wednesday evening)

An hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. Some radiators are turned off.