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?

I often despair at how inefficient and wasteful it is for single homes to have their own boilers and heating systems..

I lived in St Petersburg, Russia for a few months in 2018. Things are a lot different there in the cities.
Essentially buildings government and residential are provided with hot water at a district level.. Just like we get water & gas through the pipes, they also get hot water.

we are using less and have thermostat set to 19 now. But three hours in the morning and four at night.
I believe houses need hearing to stave off mould etc. I’m lucky to afford it

We've not had our on yet but not for a competitive see how long you can go with out switching it on! We have had the woodburner on most nights. The wood comes from DH job so it has been free so far with just the odd bag of coal to pay for.
By the time we get home most nights it is not worth putting the heating on. So far it has been quite mild where I live.
I think in a week or two we will have it on.

We lowered the temperature comparing to last year. Heating goes on when temperature drops below 18 when we're not at home and at night. When we're at home, it goes to 19-19.5, and we put it on manually when it still feels cold.

Pretty much the same as normal tbh. I refuse to suffer regardless of the cost. It is set for 7am-9am and then 4pm-10pm. Stat set to 19. We never had heating on overnight, so no difference there. The coldest the house has been so far this winter is 15 first thing in the morning. We feel cold at 18, so anything below that for us would be uncomfortable regardless of clothing.

Not competitive coldness I promise but I'm warm. No heating since approx Feb. All 4 windows open up stairs (I'm upstairs wfh). I've joggers and an oodie on. No damp or mold. Even DS hasn't complained its cold yet.

I still haven't got a duvet on my bed!

That is what we are doing. I'm not sure if it is set at 17.5 or 18.

We have turned it off at night most nights at we don't like being warm in bed.

DH feels the cold more than me and I've told him to put more clothes on if he is cold as he wanders around in the evening in a t-shirt.

We have put it on more than normal but we have a young baby so don’t have a lot of choice. I’m keeping a close eye on our bills too.

Our heating comes on for an hour in the morning, plus and hours and a half in the early evening, but only if the thermostat in the hall is below 16 degrees at the relevant time(s).

We only put it on because the towels wouldn’t dry though (and the bathroom was staying too damp)

6.50am - 7.50am

4pm - 6pm

Have a coal fire lit from about 5pm to keep one room warm.

Congratulations!!

also a perfect excuse to have the heating on!!!🤭

Hasn't gone on yet and it won't be going on. I bought DS and me an Oodie if we get cold.

We have the thermostat set to 18 in the evenings and 15 during the day. I've clicked it on for an hour during the day today as it got to 16 and my hands were to cold to type for work. But we are really trying not to have it on to much and have stocked up on blankets, slippers onesies etc for everyone. Luckily, once the house has warmed up it keeps its heat fairly well.

19 degrees is not cold - 🤣 - we have not had ours on yet just wearing extra layers - south-east - personally I hate hot stuffy houses they give me a headache and no way could i have heating on at 21 degrees - way too hot 🥵

7-8.30am in the morning and 5-8.30pm.

We have 1 hour in the morning 7-8 and 2 hours after school 4-6. Fire the rest of the time. It's cold and miserable but the bills on top of petrol and food are horrendous and going to get worse

We've invested in smart radiator thermostats this year. I know that puts us into a fortunate position that many can't be in. It means that we can fine tune our rooms.
So for example, the bedroom is only on in the morning while we get up. The dining room and living room are on as needed. DH gets a bit chilly in the afternoon, so his office is set to warmer than the rest of the house. I'm comfortable at 17c and 15c when I'm moving around a lot when I'm working as I seem to be my own furnace nowadays. He needs to be at about 18.5c to feel warm with a good jumper on.

Its hard to make a direct comparison compared to last November, but we do seem to have saved 46% on gas doing a direct comparison and we are both more comfortable.

I hadn't had mine on, but had a sore throat on Sunday & felt a bit miserable, so Monday I fixed the thermostat display (had been meaning to do it for months, but putting it off) and had it on for about an hour. Yesterday I felt dreadful so I put it on from about 11 to about 10pm. My house is bijou
( or like a toddlers shoe box) so it cost under £4 (according to smart meter) I had intended to leave it on 18, but it was still very cold, so I put it up to 21° and really warmed the whole place up properly.

it went off at 10pm last night and had stayed at about 16° all day, which is fine for me right now. Plus it's a sunny afternoon here, which psychologically helps!

I have to go out about 4:30 for a couple of hours, but I expect ill
put it on when I get back & it'll stay on until about 10pm and by the time it cooks down it'll be time for bed.

it won't go on a timer for a couple of weeks yet as (for me) it's not necessary & my home/out schedule is all over the place and my system isn't yet app controlled.

these threads make me so envious if those with fireplaces!!! (And even log burners!!!)

[it's my 'owned' (quite a lot by the bank🤣 ) house & i'd put one in if I could, but I cant (local restrictions) <sob>

I've got ours set 18-18.5c (before it was 18.5c so a fraction lower). Heating normally kicks in around 17.1c and heats up to 18.3c. I've got it set 75mins in morning (normally takes that time to come up to temperature) 60mins early evening - occasionally it doesn't come on.

OP, I find it helps to keep busy and occasionally I've put my dressing gown on over my clothes.

we have 1 hour in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. Thermostat is at 19 i think.
We've got a gas fire for later in the evening after DC are in bed. I wfh some days and try not to use heating but will use the gas fire (or save my shower till lunchtime!) to take the edge off, as it's extravagant to heat the whole house just so I can work at a desk in one corner of it.

really interested to know how everyone who hasn’t put the heating on dries their washing. I have a tumble dryer but it would constantly be on for the amount of washing I have to do and also I don’t put certain clothes in the dryer. If I didn’t put the heating on the washing would take days to dry and then start to smell. So what is everyone doing to dry their washing if they don’t use the heating?

7am-8am 18.5
8am-4pm 16.
4pm - 5.30pm 18.5
5.30pm - 8pm 17.
8pm - 7am off.

I work from home. In previous years it was set to 19 all day.

The house generally stays above 16 during the day without the heating coming on after 8am but it has kicked in once or twice this week. I'm using lots of layers and hot drinks to keep warm.

It's costing about £6 a day in gas though that also includes the standing charges and four showers.

It's tricky because if the house is allowed to sit for longer at cooler temperatures then there is the potential for mould and damp which could cost more in the long run.

@Yolanda524 we dry ours outside or in the garage. Never use the dryer.

so long as it’s not raining and the floor is dry, laundry will dry outdoors. Best days are windy ones.

otherwise, it hangs on a pull-out line in the garage and dries there

Temp has fallen to between 15-17 degrees - it had been that for a while but not sure if its now the damp weather outside but it def feels colder now. We have started knocking it up to 18 degrees to warm up the living room in the morning and in the evening before bath times.
We have turned off the radiators in the hallway, dining room and the underfloor kitchen heating. I got some cheap knock off oodies from Vinted and some fleecy blankets and 4 quid hot water bottles from argos to warm the bed up.

Thing is, now weve had the heating on, the house feels even colder when its off! Wish we had held out just a tad longer but normally we would have started back in October so at least its later than usual.