Advice on how to handle- dds housemates at uni want to out heating on overnight

[Thethingswedoforlove]

How can we convince them that it really isn’t cheaper to keep the house at a constant temperature?! They want to have it on at a ‘low’ temp of 17 degrees! It’s a huge house with 6 people and most students don’t even have it on during the day let alone at night. I’m at my wits end. How can we afford that bill? I told her that she should say that those that want it on overnight need to pay and she won’t pay a share of that but clearly that is a bit confrontational and doesn’t lend itself to harmonious living. How can we convince them?! It is utterly nuts. Some are saying things like my dad knows about heating bills and it is def cheaper etc.’

I doubt they’re awake until 2/3am every day. If they are they can get under a blanket! I’d have it set to go off at say 11.

I’ve long suspected people say the heating is off when they mean the thermostat is set on low (like 14oC)

Well at least I hope so. Much more efficient and you avoid leaving the heating on by mistake!!

As a house they tend to go to bed early actually

In my house the heating is timed to go off at 10.30pm and back on at 5.30am. So it is off overnight.

There's no need to have the heating on overnight unless you live somewhere where it's going to be minus 20 (and even then a heated or electric blanket is probably a better idea and wear socks in bed).

I don't understand people who say they will freeze. You're in bed. You have warm bedclothes. How are you going to freeze?

In the OP's DD's case the timer should kick in 30-60 minutes before the first person wants to get up so they get up into a warm house.

we have different options for different times of day, and can set what those parameters are (eg up to 19 degrees 6.30-9am, comes on late afternoon till bedtime). I can also override it when I'm chilly ;-)

But there is also an option, which we've never used, to be 'always on'. I wonder how many people use that?

In my house the heat goes off at 9pm and comes on at 7am. We do have an electric radiator on the landing though which stays on until we go to bed and if one of us gets up earlier than 7, we use it too. It heats our entire upper floor and is amazing and saves heating the whole house if we don't need to.

And when I mean off, it's off. Not at 14 degrees or whatever.

Bloody hell, no wonder everyone's heating bills are so high. It's bonkers to have the heating on overnight, there really is no need. I feel the cold but am well snuggled up under my duvet. As for getting up for a week, it's about 40 seconds I'm out of bed. Jeez, people.

I imagine the pp can remove the hat for any meetings, and then put it back on afterwards...

though it might spoil her hairstyle...

So funny how people differ! We use timers too and heating goes off about 10pm and on about 6 am switching off about 9am. I have never dreamed of having heating on overnight even in depths of winter except when expecting to be up changing newborn babies overnight. After they were a bit older we just used panel plug in heater in baby room to keep a constant temperature.

Mind you we always also sleep with an open window for fresh air, even if the wind is such that the curtains blow out horizontally! I love a warm bed in a colder room!

With shared accommodation at uni the likelihood is that some students come from warmer climes and will be appalled at the depths of the British winter. The Scandis and the Brits tend to be a little more hardy.

During the day and over night it's at 17c and in the evening it's 20c. I don't know how you can get a comfortable sleep if the home is cold.

But if you have a thermostat, the heating is only on when the temperature in the house is below the set temperature. So set at 14 degrees is the same as the heating being off if the room where the thermostat is located is above 14 degrees. The temperature doesn't instantly fall to the same as outside when the heating isn't on.

Plus using an electric radiator to just heat upstairs could well cost the same or more to just using the central heating to heat the whole house, given that a unit of electricity costs about 4 x as much as a unit of gas.

Not all heating is on a thermostat. Mine isn't.

When my heating is off it's off, I choose to set it to come at at certain times of day as my house isn't a new build well insulated energy efficient one. Obviously I can turn the thermostat up or down but it's by no means an exact science if you live in a drafty house.

Leaving the heating on by mistake isn't something that would happen so nothing I worry about

😁😁

Also depends how many meetings you have.
DH spends his days in meeting. He wouldn’t get many opportunity to put it on!

They might be working so being under a blanket wouldn't work.

Works just from being. I've been doing it all day!!

I switch mine off if I am out. I doubt it goes below 14 though.

Maybe there's no need for you, but other people have health conditions and sleep alone.

My job doesn't require meetings and my hat so boibble-less so worry not 😂

I had a plumber round yesterday to sort my boiler and he actually gave me a big lecture about how it's cheaper and more economical to keep a constant temperature of around 16 and higher if I want it when I'm at home (I'd been turning my heating off whenever I left the house which apparently is bad).

@Thethingswedoforlove

thats fine then surely?

I do think student accommodation is a lot better now than in mine, although they pay through the nose for it. A friends’s semi basement rooms were so cold and damp they were dubbed Wuthering Depths.

My daughter's house didn't have central heating. They had one electric fire in the whole house. I sent her back with a convector heater for her bedroom.The rest of the time they all sat in their sleeping bags to watch the tv etc. How none of them were ill is a miracle.

At 2am? They need better time management if they’re doing that everyday.