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

Heating off and I can’t sleep if heating is on

Ours goes off at night and did growing up too. I don't like to feel hot and stuffy. Cold room, warm bed is the ideal!

We don't have central heating we have storage heaters, and only downstairs. So we don't have heating upstairs anyway, but the storage heaters keep downstairs warm at night even though they're not turned up, and that stops upstairs from being too cold, at least in the rooms above the living room.

When it's really cold I would very much like to have some background heating upstairs, but it's not possible, so warm pyjamas and hot water bottles have to do the job.

Never had the heating on overnights and always have the windows open on the latch. Love a cold room, with a big duvet. Don't wear pyjamas either.

Heating on 7.30am, off at 9.30pm. Set at 20 for the daytime, with rad thermostats too.

I live in an apartment in what was once a big single-family home, a draughty, old, wood frame, Victorian era farmhouse in the upper midwest US. There isn't an ounce of insulation in the walls, and the windows are old sash style wood frame windows with old storm windows as "double glazing".

I would pay twice what I pay now to heat my home if I were to turn the heat off overnight, because of the lengthy active heating period that would be required in the morning. I've tried it and never again. Keeping the indoor temp to a set level with a thermostat saves money and natural gas.

I don't doubt your individual circumstances, but this is strange.

You pay for the heat lost. The rate of heat loss is proportionate to the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. Because of this, if the place is at say a constant 20°, you will lose more heat than it if it is allowed to drop to 12° overnight for a few hours and then needs to be heated back to 20° at dawn.

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How did you know?!

I used to when we had the old boiler as otherwise the house would be like summer all year round as the old system was either on or off with just one temperature. We now have a Hive and leave it on year round but have different temperatures for different times of day. So overnight it will kick in if it gets below 13 and if we are out during the day I have it set to 14 otherwise it takes ages to get the house warmed back up again. In reality the heating only comes in overnight if the temperature outside drops below freezing.

I grew up in a drafty farmhouse with no central heating - now that was cold in winter!

heating on timer, off at night and daytime when house not occupied, save money and the environment

Our heating costs about £2 an hour , gas boiler, with 19 radiators. On 2 hrs in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, gives us a gas bill of 300 a month. Also have a wood burner wgich is necessary during the day otherwise it would be chilly. Have tried having it on all day at about 19c , the bill over doubled. Every house is different, if you have a small 3 bed new house, then you can leave it on. If you have a older 5 bed , less thermally efficient, then on all day costs a fortune.

I live in a subtropical climate, so I don't use heat often, but I'm far more likely to use it at night rather than in the daytime. Night is when I feel cold and when I'm cold I can't sleep.

I'm in Australia and I wish our thermostats went lower than 17 degrees celsius! I would absolutely love that in summer because I like a freezing bedroom and comfy duvet. I live in an area that does drop below freezing in winter, but I never have my heating on at night. I'm covered in cats during the night, so I'll never freeze!

No. It's set to something like 12 so would come on if it got really cold, but rarely drops below 15.

People also sleep better in cooler temperatures.

I too was brought up in a home where heating at night was unheard of.

I also have had "to be careful" with money, in my younger years when starting out in life as an independent adult.

I don't particularly like getting up a few times at night to visit the bathroom, and then shivering on the throne, and then not being able to relax back into sleep coz I have got too cold...

As much as I suspect I could afford (these days) to have intermittent heat at night, the two reasons I don't, is that I've likely got too used to being stringent for so many years....
.............and, I'm a poor sleeper, and the thought of the boiler clunking on when the temps drop below a certain level, would absolutely drive me insane.
I know this as a fact, coz when I've stayed over at friends or relatives homes, where the heating kicks in, i get little to no sleep.

I think it's a good idea to get your other half an electric blanket or some other means of staying warm without it making you too hot or too uncomfortable about potential (ever rising) utility bills.

If you have guests over, offer them electric blankets or hot water bottles or whatever.
You shouldn't be made to feel bad about how you heat (or don't heat) your home.
Others may say that it's your obligation to make your guests feel comfortable.

Heating is never on overnight in our house we would all suffocate! We all sleep with bedroom windows open a crack all year round, with hot water bottles and heated blankets when it’s cold. When I stay somewhere that is heated overnight I always wake up with a headache. Plus it costs a a fortune!

Our general heating is set at 18 from 4pm to 10pm each day and from 8am on weekends. Sometimes I go higher in an eve if it's particularly cold.

Our night heating is set to 14 from 10pm at night to 4pm the next day Mon-Fri. None of us like being too warm in bed and are rushing around on a morning & get too hot if the heating is on whilst getting ready for school/work.
It has come on recently though as it's been really cold.

I have teens though now. It was on more and higher when they were very little but as they got older and were able to express themselves better, we know they are simular to us, and prefer a cooler room under lots of snuggly bedding.
We don't really have it on in the day as we are all out and if DH works from home & gets chilly, he will turn it up for an hour.
We have it on more when everyone is home, so notice the extra costs in school holidays/over Xmas.

Ours is set to a max minimum which is approx 16 Deg. Has been coming on in the middle of the night but not overbearing. Has been cold here but I can lower the temp if necessary. Means the house isn't stupidly cold when we get up at 6am

We set our heating to 18 overnight so it clicks on and off.

The heating in my house is on 24/7 during the winter and room temperature varies between 20/21 degrees. It's a 2 bed stone house, built in the 1880s, with an unfinished, unheated cellar. It's not possible to have cavity wall insulation as it would cause damp. The walls retain heat well but it takes hours on a high setting for them to get warmed up. I've tried putting the heating on the timer but it just doesn't work for me other than in the milder weather in October and March. In the winter months, I also have 3 dehumidifiers running: one in the cellar cycling on/off 24/7; one which dries wet washing and is also on upstairs for a couple of hours a day; one downstairs for a couple of hours a day. My monthly direct debit (Octopus fixed rate) is £124 and my account is always in credit. My house is comfortably warm and I have no damp.