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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think 17 degrees C is too low a thermostat setting.

146 replies

WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid · 19/10/2011 17:55

Dh wants to save m

OP posts:
StopRainingPlease · 19/10/2011 21:41

Hmm. My thermostat is set to 25C at the moment, but that's just optimism as the heating has been on most of the day and it's actually only around 17C. Old house, draughts, high ceilings, sigh!

DeWe · 19/10/2011 21:44

Df sets his on 13deg. It's freezing but he thinks they'll save the planet( (and his wallet). I move it up as soon as I arrive. Grin

fourkids · 19/10/2011 21:45

mustdash, 15 !!!!!????????!!!!!! WTF????????

OP, 17 IU...21 is just about reasonable, but if your a bit nesh like me then 22 is minimum.

Wearing six woolly jumpers and ten pairs of thermal pants is fine but it is very difficult to darn the holes in the crotch and knees of DDs' warm woollen tights with ski gloves on.

thecatatemygymsuit · 19/10/2011 21:46

20 minimum for me. I grew up in a big draughty Victorian house, bloody freezing; I spent half my childhood with my back to a storage heater. Nein danke!

gilmoregirl · 19/10/2011 21:51

I thought that "room temperature" was 21? I have NEVER got my flat that warm so can only imagine....

My flat is currently 13 and it seems cold to me. I am sitting her in: vest, long sleeve top, hoodie, fleece dressing gown, long socks, pj bottoms plus fleece pj bottoms and fleecy boots.....

If I put my "central heating" on the temp goes up to 18. This is what I did last winter. I am still paying the bill off now (approx £200 per month Shock so this year I am going to wrap up instead of using alleged "heating".

17 would seem balmy to me but 15 seems cold so that is pretty hard core.

My DS is six and is also wrapped up but if I had a younger child I would feel I had to use the heating (and would be extremely skint!)

Trodden · 19/10/2011 21:52

I'm a tight northerner, so keep it at about 16. If we're cold, we put on an extra jumper. All of the blankets, sleeping bags etc that DS has, came with a temperature label on the packet saying that if the room is 16 degrees, he needs a vest, babygrow, sleeping bag and thin blanket - seems reasonable to me. People (and babies) lived in houses before central heating - they just put on more clothes.

sarahtigh · 19/10/2011 21:59

if you work in an office type environment the legal minimum temperature is 16C within an hour of work starting, that is actually quite cool when just sitting , the Help the aged Thermometers they give out say 18-21C is ok, 16-18 getting cool below 15 too cold and above 24 too hot, I think with small baby/elderly or when you are sick should aim for 18-21C, 16-17 is ok if you are moving about personally we try and keep house about 19-20 in cold weather it was 5C here at 11am and bedrooms at 16-18 when we go to bed if it falls in night no big deal

I agree with gilmore, if it says heat something to room temperature it does mean 20/21C

Francagoestohollywood · 19/10/2011 21:59

YANBU

pranma · 19/10/2011 22:02

Ours is 20 and that feels comfortable.My ds-i-l has theirs at 18 and I am freezing when I babysit.

tyler80 · 19/10/2011 22:10

I find it amusing that the members of the 'just put another jumper on' brigade that I know live in big old houses with poor insulation and pay twice as much as we do in gas and electric despite setting the thermostat to 12 but like to bang on about how they're saving the planet.

Original poster
WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid · 19/10/2011 22:12

"people coped without central heating decades ago." this is true but people also coped without washing machines, running hot water and indoor toilets.

If the toliet was broken would a bucket outside be a perfectly acceptable solution because people managed without them years ago?

I think not, times change.

OP posts:
Hardgoing · 19/10/2011 22:29

People tried not to go without heat, though, even if they didn't have central heating. Most had coal fires/rayburns/woodburners or did anything they could to keep warm. If you go to really cold countries, like my husband's, everyone lives around the fire, it's very warm in their homes and in Scandanavian countries they have triple glazing. It's just not true everyone froze and didn't mind, lots got pneumonia and many old people died. That even happens today, because older people try to save money and put on an extra blanket and they are not mobile. That doesn't apply to most of us, but being cold to the bone is unpleasant and dominates many of our memories of childhood.

FredFredGeorge · 19/10/2011 22:38

Times may have changed, but little has changed in people since central heating became common place other than they've got a lot fatter. Now there may not be a correlation, but you'd've thought with all the extra insulation the fat people have average room temperatures would be going down.

17 C is certainly quite a bit colder than the average for UK homes according to onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2010.00851.x/abstract which suggests back in 1996 the winter room temps were over 21 and over 18 even when sleeping. Seems amazingly hot to me and my rooms aren't that temp.

If you want to spend the money on heating or jumpers, it doesn't really matter much though does it - but jumpers do tend to be a bit cheaper, you can even keep your hands warming knitting them to save more money if you want.

Blondeshavemorefun · 19/10/2011 22:40

it depends on the size of the house, what it is made out of and how much you feel the cold

my house is set at 17, its concrete walls and warm in winter and cool in summer, and i HATE being cold - yet my house is warm and im not cold in it :)

go to my bf house, 18 there is freezing and her house is always cold

work needs to be at 24 to be warm

LivingDead · 19/10/2011 22:58

We don't leave the heating on, just turn it up when feeling extra chilly. I don't trust our thermostat though, atm it clicks on at around 14, however even in the depths of -10 winter, it clicks on at 12. I'm quite comfy and every one else is in bed, we did have the heating on for an hour this morning and evening though.

Could do with buying a proper thermometer really, can't afford to just leave the heating on all winter, even at 18 I reckon it would rarely click off = £1000 bills, no ta.

2rebecca · 19/10/2011 22:59

Our is set at 17 but it's 15.5 in this room as we haven't turned the expensive underfloor heating on yet so if in here a while I just wrap up warm.
We have gas fires in the 2 main downstairs rooms as you get cloder if just sitting eg watching TV or on computer and putting on 1 fire is cheaper than making the whole house hot.

2rebecca · 19/10/2011 23:01

Our heating goes off at night and when at work. I only ever heated abderoom at night when the kids were babies, they had an electric radiator in their room for the first winter.

A1980 · 20/10/2011 00:22

I haven't put my heating on yet.

ionysis · 20/10/2011 06:28

I assume you are home during the day in the house while your husband works. If its too cold then turn it up. What's he going to do? Divorce you for adding a degree to thermostat because the baby is cold?! Why is this even an issue?

whatsallthehullaballoo · 20/10/2011 06:54

YANBU - I think 17 is way too low. Mine is always on for 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon and 1 hour in the evening (atleast) and it will always be on between 20-22 degrees.

I hate just having to put on an extra jumper. The air around me still feels cold on my face/ hands etc I would rather cut back elsewhere. Like only having hot water on for hour in the morn and hour in the eve.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 20/10/2011 07:24

How about setting the general thermostat to 17 but heating the room where you sit in the evening to a higher temperature? During the day you'll be moving around a lot and spending time outside the home so it's a waste to fully heat the whole house, but in the evening when most people sit watching TV etc., it's nice to have one room that's warm.

GalloweesG · 20/10/2011 07:33

Very good point "Hardgoing".

Wallace · 20/10/2011 07:37

upahill - don't know if you will be able to see this photo but it was taken up Cairngorm yesterday!

Sleepglorioussleep · 20/10/2011 07:41

Our thermostat bears no relation to the actual temperature! All I know is it's dh's job to turn it up and mine to turn it down and hand out jumpers! Grin

TheHumancatapult · 20/10/2011 07:48

11.c this morning indoors bloody boilers gone again waiting for LL to get back fro
His holiday in 3 weeks before IRS looked at . My push tons on wheelchair so cold I'm wearing gloves indoors