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?

really interested to know how everyone who hasn’t put the heating on dries their washing.
So far I have I have still managed to line dry mine and then if needed finsh off on the maiden and leave them in the room with the wood burner on to air as the burner dies down.
I haven't done any washing this week as the weather has been atrocious and the rain has hardly stopped.
I haven't used the tumble dryer since my DS left home. Funny enough my washing mound disappeared at the same time!

I do wonder how much variance there is between thermostats, once my house gets up to 18 it's warm enough to be in just a t shirt, 21 would be sweltering I don't think I've ever had ours set that high.

I time our washing so I'm hanging it up when the heating is briefly on in the evening, it's hung up in the smallest room of the house with a dehumidifier going, I find even 15 minutes of it being in there with the heating on is fine as that is enough to get the dehumidifier really working.

I put it on as and when I want to.

I'm not living like that. If it puts me into debt so be it. My babies aren't being cold.

Not like we used to when the thermostat was set to 21 in the day and 15 at night. Now it's 18 and 15. We have a pretty sunny house so it's warmed quickly on nice days but they've been few and far between. Have a heated throw for when we're sitting around but haven't actually needed the heat on more than once or twice so far. We only turned the heating on as the house was starting to feel a bit damp rather than us being cold. I'm intending to get a dehumidifier but the ones I'm interested in are all out of stock at the moment.
Washing has been line dried as far as possible then finished off on a heated airer.

I'm not doing what I used to that's for sure. Heating would set at 20degrees and come on and off all day between 6am-10pm. It would also come on overnight if temp dropped under 17 degrees.

Now we are putting it on when we get up so usually about 6.30 until I put it off which is usually when it hits 19 degrees, just now it can take about 4-5 hrs to hit that! Then I put it on again in the afternoon if it's got really cold but trying to hold off until 4-5pm and then have it on until about 8pm often I let it get up to 20 degrees in the evening.

I'm really dreading this months bill! I'm also trying not to use tumble dryer. Putting clothes on radiators which maybe isn't the best but it dries quickly. I worked out it's about £2.20 a cycle so that would easily be about £70 a month just to use my tumble dryer once a day!

really interested to know how everyone who hasn’t put the heating on dries their washing.

Mix of condenser dryer - de humidifier and clothes horse and heated drier with open door/window- have put it out last week when it's been dry and it's done nothing it's just as wet as there's been no wind- extra spin cycle does seem to be helping as well.

We only have central heating - no gas fire or wood burners. Do have hot water bottles and one heated blanket - it's gone down to 15 degree bit as felt fine as air is very dry due being very concerned and thus active about damp. It's also a warm house. We haven't put it on yet but I really don't think it will be much longer.

However IL were saying they haven't had heating on either - then MIL was going on about drying the washing in front of the wood burner - turns out they'v been using wood burner for months - which is good but not really same as not having any heating.

My electric blanket was £30. Money well spent!

It comes on when the house gets to 20°, so most of the day it is on

My house is currently 16 degs and I feel cold. This past two weeks we've had heating for half an hour each morning and evening. It's not enough but I can't afford more. We have oodie dupes plus an electric throw for the sofa and thick fleece throws on the beds. It's shit isn't it?

Heating automatically comes on when temp drops below 22 degrees, regardless of the time of day/night. Our house is nearly 200 years old so needs to be properly heated & aired.

Ours is set to 18.5. On for an hour in the mornings and 4-5 hours in the evenings. That's the same as last year. DH doesn't like the house hot but 18 is the minimum I find tolerable.

Yes, two young children and ds is only a baby so we spend a lot of time at home. Downstairs the thermostat is set to about 20 c all day and we also have a Dyson air purifier fan. Upstairs timer puts heating on at 6 and sometimes we keep heating on until midnight, on colder nights heating stays on all night on a low setting.

Mainly comes on first thing if its below 17 and evening else the bathroom is too cold and towels dont dry. Have got a wood burner for the weekends but am on maternity and once I start lighting it on weekdays I won't want to stop.
Thermostat was knocked down last year and has been again this year.

No thermostat so difficult to say but it feels cold without the heating on.
At the moment having it on for about 2 hours in the morning and 3 at night.
I wfh (and my heated blanket has broken!) so if I'm really cold I will put electric heater on for an hour or so.

21-22C is when we leave it always on when we are in. All is off when leaving for work/walks, but it doesn't drop to less than 19 in here. But if we are cooking etc temperature rises to 22C anyways, so in practice heating is not always on, even if thermostat is set for 21-22

18 is plenty warm enough for me, DH and DD, so I generally put it up to that for a couple of hours when DD gets in from school and turn it off once she’s in bed, then it’s not too warm when we’re go to bed.

We don’t bother in the morning as we’re rushing about to get ready anyway. I try not to switch it on when I’m wfh as it feels like a waste for just me, but it does kick in automatically if the house temperature drops below 14 which it has done once this week.

This is the first time in my life I’ve been particularly mindful of heating and energy costs. We moved to a bigger property this summer so still very much getting a feel for how the house runs etc. I have always kept my homes really warm with thermostat set at 22. Currently in new house thermostat is at 21 in the evening coming on at 5:00 going off at 10. Though once house up to temperature it seems to hold the heat. Upstairs radiators are turned down lower and rooms we don’t use such as spare bedroom the valve is on 1. I’m home early today so have just put the heating on earlier as I’m freezing. It is miserable sitting in a cold house. My last home had an open fire and we had plenty of access to free wood, if still there I would use that more and use central heating less. I feel you need at least one room you spend most of the time in to be cosy.

Since I retired, I have had the heating set to come on from 7 am to 10 pm although I lower the thermostat if I go out for a long time. I have never had heating on through the night even when my children were young.

Initially I set it at 20° during the day and 10° over night, then last year I lowered it to 19° and boosted it to 21° if I felt cold sitting watching tv in the evening - maybe three times a week. This year I lowered it again to 18° to save money but I often felt cold during the day and was getting condensation on my bedroom windows some nights. So it’s gone back to 19° but am trying not to boost it as often, using a heated poncho instead.

I can afford the new monthly dd but I don’t want to build up a large deficit over the winter as I think the rates will go up again next April!

Thermostat is set at 20c. We have it coming on at 6.45am going off at 8am.

Coming on at 4.45pm and going off at 9.45pm. Shaved 15 mins off each night from 10pm. I don't want to cut it down much more.

I am currently sitting in a jumper with a scarf on and blanket. We have a smart meter installed and it's reaching £10 a day easily for gas & Electric.

It's so depressing 😞 😪

Well insulated house here and fixed rate at lower than the current cap. We have the heating set to 20 or 21 when we are home. Sometimes it clicks in, sometimes it doesn't, thankfully the house holds its heat well.

We haven't a shedload of money, but fell lucky in our house warmth and cautious going from fix to fix .

I've got my heating on eco setting, so it comes in when the room drops to about 19 degrees. Stays on until house is back up to mid 20s. My bill came through yesterday & I've paid a lot less for gas than I expected but electricity costs are exorbitant!! I'm issuing everyone in my household with a torch!! 🤦🏼

We've had ours on. We live in a pretty cold house. Even though the outside temp isn't yet that cold, it's been 13/14 without the heating and we've been edging it up to 15/16/17. I don't want to keep the heating off and then have trouble with damp and mould. Plus we both work from home and 13 feels very cold when you're sitting in front of the computer for 8 hours.

Our central heating went on today. It’s probably going to take days to warm the house through. The thermostat is set at 18. The same as previous years.

Its currently 6C. Tonight it will drop to 1C.

So yes I have had the heat on as normal and for at least a month now.