Do you keep your heating on at night?

[EatTrout]

We were poor growing up and didn't have heating till I was quite old. I suspect that has rubbed off on me a bit and even though I've got a good job and am doing ok, I always turn the heating off at night. My dc never complained. They are now adults themselves and also don't leave the heating on overnight.

Dp, however, thinks we are all total heathens. He claims to be freezing at night, his kids can't believe we turn it off. DD's boyfriend is also horrified by this. They argue that we are unusual in this respect.

Do people leave their heating on all night? Surely it's quite expensive to do so? I can understand if you're in a very cold house and you have a baby who you need to keep warm but barring that, are we the odd ones out here? If you are all leaving your heating on I may contemplate turning ours on at night when we have visitors

To me that would be much too warm overnight when I'm in bed, I have to be warm when I'm up and about tho

What are your heating bills like?

We don’t have heating on overnight. We could afford to but don’t because I don’t think it’s necessary, it’s not environmentally friendly and I’d rather put the money into savings or enjoying ourselves.
We have it on at between 17-18 degrees from approx 6am (an hour before we get up) until 8am. And then again from 4.30-10pm ish. Sometimes put it on during the day as weekends if it’s freezing weather. We use heavy tog duvets in winter and have blankets on the sofas for watching tv.

Only if the temperature is several degrees below freezing for a couple of nights. Blankets, duvets and hot water bottles do the job - environmentally sound and much cheaper!

Ours goes off at 8pm, I love getting into a freezing cold bed and snuggling into a warm duvet. It helps me to get to sleep.

I have to turn it off because there's something wrong with the boiler, but in the past I've only set it to come on for an odd hour here and there when it's been very cold.

I like to sleep in a very cold room with lots of blankets and the window wide open. I have nightmares if I get too hot.

Nope, ours is off as soon as we go to bed until we get up the next day. Warm pjs, fluffy socks and nice thick bedding keeps us warm enough. I find if I ever forget and leave the heating on, I feel all stuffy in the morning.

Only if there’s a real risk of pipes freezing. I never heat bedrooms and don’t like the central heating higher than 15, I’ll put a fleece on, light the fire and/or use my electric heated throw if I’m still cold.

The thermostat on ours is lower at night, so the heating doesn't come on unless the indoor temperature drops below about 17.

DH and I both grew up in houses with a coal fire downstairs and no central heating, and we prefer a bedroom to be cooler rather than warmer. I wouldn't want to go back to scraping the ice off the inside of the windows though. I'm not crazy.😂

Ours comes on if the house drops below a set nighttime temperature. I think that's much more sensible than letting the house get too cold over night as it will take much longer to get the house back up to a sensible temperature in the mornings!

I couldn’t sleep with the heating on at night. Have never needed it on. Its warm upstairs especially with winter duvet.

No heating on at night here.
I can’t see the point of heating a whole house for hours during the night, when everyone is in their bedroom lying down under covers. It’s wasteful, both of money and environmental resources. Also, I did a learning module on sleep recently, and physiologically it’s better to sleep in a cooler ambient temperature than you would have during the day.
But I make sure the heating comes on about half an hour before we get up, so the house is warm when the alarm goes off.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to warm my house up. Hardly worth heating the whole house all night for!

Same here. We have ours on low and the bedroom radiator turned down low when it’s minus several figures outside - that way the house is kept at a comfortable (not hot) temperature. Been there, done the freezing house with ice on the inside as a child - never again.

Mine comes on at 16 degrees which is what I have the house set to the majority of the time. I don’t have my heating on much during the day and click it onto 18/19 when I’m cold for maybe an hour or two.

i work in facilities and 16 is the best min temp to have to keep the house from being damp and also for frost protection on pipes etc, so I have to that to maintain building fabric (turn it right off in the summer)

No definitely not. I wake up with a specific 'I was too hot in bed ' headache if the heating gets left on by mistake

Ours is on a thermostat 18 during the day and 16 at night. It rarely comes on overnight.

I grew up rich (if its relevant!) and we never had it on at night. It's a massive waste as surely you're under a duvet asleep? It goes off at about 9 and comes on at 6am. It it drops below 14 in the night it will come on.

Our heating goes off at 8 p.m and comes on a 7 a.m until 9 a.m. I'm sleeping in a summer duvet. I couldn't stand having the heating on all night.

No. Sleep with windows wide open but under a pile of duvets and electric blanket!

Too stuffy otherwise.

Nope. Feather bed mattress cover and thick duvet. Heat comes on at 5:45 so the loo is warmish for showers. We turn the heat off at 6 pm and light the woodstove and stay in the lounge.

The cost of heating the house from 10° to 19° or higher is much higher than to keep it at 16° all the time. It also takes longer, so you may want your home to be toasty at 7am, but it will take an hour or so at full power to get to the temperature. Having it on but at a lower temperature means it takes 30 minutes, if that to heat up by a smaller degree.

I learned this when I lived in Sweden. I'm very much a fan of putting the heating on when it's cold and not waiting for the temperature to fall to a certain level or for it to be the right month.

The point is we're not heating the house 'all night'; we're keeping it a above a set night temperature.

Off at night but comes on in the morning in time to make getting up bearable. I like a cool bedroom and a warm bed.The only downside is that 3.00 am dashes to the loo are a bit chilly!

We have a very large Victorian house and to keep it at - say - 18 all year round is prohibitive. So we do not have the thermostat set at all. So we turn it on when it gets below 15 for an hour or so. This morning the house was 12.5 and we have had the heating on for most of the day to get it to 16. But we all have electric blankets and we keep the curtains closed (original sash windows) and we have a little fan heater for the main sitting room.

It angers me tbh that we have to keep things so low. We are solvent and don't have a mortgage and we are simply unable to keep it at a decent temp. Last week we shut down the dining room, breakfast room, husband's study and jammed towels against the bottom of the doors to prevent drafts. In the winter we retreat to 4 rooms- kitchen, 2 bedrooms and the upstairs sitting room. I cannot even imagine just setting a temp to come on at a certain time of day. That seems like pure extravagance.

We set ours to only come on if the temperature is quite low. Think usually 14.5 or 15 degrees. I don't sleep well with it on.