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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

No heating unless it gets to 16

134 replies

eedon · 03/10/2015 18:43

Its been pretty sunny today, so hallway is 19. That's warm enough right? I've got my slippers and jumper on and if anything I'm a bit too hot.

OP posts:

DurhamDurham · 04/10/2015 08:39

That's quite selfish of your husband to insist on having the heating on during the night knowing that everyone else in the house is sweating buckets. He should invest in some fleecy pj's and man up

Original poster

eedon · 04/10/2015 08:40

If your cold at night, get a wool blanket and an expensive memory foam mattress, its super warm.

OP posts:

goblinhat · 04/10/2015 08:41

eedon- yes plenty mould and damp problems- it was part of life though.

I had bronchitis every year for months at a time when I was a child.

RaskolnikovsGarret · 04/10/2015 08:44

Our house is between 20 and 22. Heating has been on loads this year, live in London. I cannot understand being cold if you can afford it, and feel bad for those who can't. My brain freezes if I'm cold, and I get grumpy, which I don't if I am hungry or tired. I hate going to people's houses with no heating.

ilovesooty · 04/10/2015 08:48

Andy damp problems

scrivette · 04/10/2015 08:48

It was 16 in the hallway yesterday as per DH and I hadn't noticed it was cool, I still had a tea shirt on, although I noticed it was warmer outside than in.

We don't have central heating so am loath to turn on the electric heaters until it's too cold in jumpers and socks.

FlysInDreams · 04/10/2015 08:48

Ours is set to 18 degrees, and I don't think it's been on yet, except for the couple of times I've felt a bit cold and have flicked it on briefly.

It's never on overnight; last night it felt a bit cold when I first got in, but I soon warmed up, and I was in summer pyjamas and duvet.

jellyjiggles · 04/10/2015 08:49

We grew up with no heating on. We had it but it was classed as a luxury. We had a fire, hot water bottles and proper wool jumpers (itchy!).

At uni I used to shower with ice on the bathroom window. We'd do homework wrapped in a duvet and fall asleep more than we should have. We had no hearing. It was grim.

I've put our heating on maybe 4 times for the odd hour since September. The nights and mornings are cold now.

Our thermostats is at 16 but in the hall. I hate a hot house but i get grumpy when I'm cold.

Cold kids are loud and twisty as well

WillSomebodyThinkOfStefan · 04/10/2015 08:51

I'd be miserable at 19, 21 as a minimum here and I quite often have it as high as 23 or 24 during the day.

OurBlanche · 04/10/2015 09:12

Spectre if the temperature doesn't drop below 16 then the heating doesn't come on, so it costs nothing to leave it on all year round - and saves us from frozen pipes if there is a sudden snap (as there was round here a couple of years ago).

We have a heating engineer in the family. We follow his example and think that this is why our bills are markedly lower than the apparent norm.

So when we had an emersion it stayed on: rather than working its socks of to heat up a full tank of water every night, we lagged it well and it heated up a full tank once and then kept it to heat for the rest of the time. This, apparently, costs less. Now we have a combi boiler, one shower, 2 people. We make huge savings over the old system, which was in its last throes when we bought the house.

Same with room temps, keep it fairly constant, don't keep upping and downing it. Let it do the work with least effort.

As far as I can tell from all the available bumpf, we pay about 20% less than the 'average'.

Jeffreythegiraffe · 04/10/2015 09:17

Can I ask why would you have the heating on at night? I'm in bed and warm.

BathshebaDarkstone · 04/10/2015 09:23

We don't look at the temperature, if we're cold we turn it on. Also we need it on every morning to dry uniforms for the next day. No tumble dryer here, and no washing line at the moment either as DH is putting up a fence.

Angelika321 · 04/10/2015 09:24

Gosh wasn't intending to be snidey at all. I just meant why suffer in the cold if you don't need to?

I have a reative who refuses to turn on the heating. I can see my breath when I go round there. But when she comes to mine she won't remove her coat and sits huddled with it on the whole time. Despite the fact it's at least 21 degrees!

Bakeoffcake · 04/10/2015 09:24

I heard recently that it doesn't cost less to have the heating in constantly. Especially with newer more efficient boilers.

And leaving the heating on all night is ludicrous, (unless there are medical needs or you're having to get up on the night a lot). It's such a waste of money and energy.

Lunastarfish · 04/10/2015 09:29

This thread is an eye opener.

We were very poor growing up so the heating rarely went on. I can afford to have the heating on now but I don't think it is necessary unless I have a jumper and blanket on and am still cold (blankets haven't come out yet).

When the baby woke last night at 5.30 am it was 16 degrees. I only had a pyjama top on and the summer duvet (we have a 13.5 tog for winter) and I was boiling. Ordinarily It has to be well below zero beforeI have the heating on over night (I appreciate this might change this year now I will have to get up with a baby at night)

Abzs · 04/10/2015 09:35

We had a green energy assessment done on our old house. The assessor looked at his calculations and our bills, then declared us "jumper people".

We've moved house now. I put the heating on this morning, but it was 2° outside and had dropped to 13° in the bedroom. Sun's out so it'll warm up and when it clouds over and rains tomorrow, it'll get warmer again.

Me624 · 04/10/2015 09:37

People say that it's better to keep the house at a constant low temperature rather than have it off and then have to heat it up but I'm not sure that's true in a modern well insulated house as it doesn't ever drop that low. We live in a new build and installed a smart Nest thermostat last year and our bills have come down a fair bit.

It never lets the temperature drop below 15 (but we get notifications to our phones if it needs to click on because it's dropped that low and it never does) and then it is timed to heat to 18 for an hour in the morning and from about 6 until 9 in the evenings. However it recognises via a sensor which monitors movement whether you are in or not, so if we are out for an evening it doesn't come on at all. Very clever.

BlackeyedSusan · 04/10/2015 09:42

I encourage my mum to keep the heating on all night, but she is elderly and is in danger from low temperatures.

now the children are older than small babies/toddlers that may need a nappy change and freeze half to death the heating does not go on until it is really cold. they get it on for their baths after school but if it has been sunny the flat warms up really well.

we wear lots of layers, though ds runs quite hot compared to dd and I. I wear base layers from october to april. I only put the heating on in the day when I am here alone if I am cold with three layers on legs and wooly jumers hat and scarf and blanket. there is usually ice on the ground all day. I figure it will take a while to warm up for the children's bath after school then anyway.

OurBlanche · 04/10/2015 09:51

Me624 so you do actually have your heating on all the time, it is set to come on at 15, mine is set to come on at 16. The only difference is that you have a clever sensor that keeps it like that of no one is in!

As for it being on overnight, yes, set at 16. So it rarely kicks in.

I suspect there may be a misunderstanding somewhere, heating on vs thermostat ready and willing!

Spectre8 · 04/10/2015 09:51

Ok so what about the times the temp drops below 16 by a few degrees e.g. say it goes down to 12 degrees and your out all day shopping say from 10am until 6pm or what not and not getting back in until late, so it kicks in to heat up an empty house during that time when it doesn't need to because noone is at home.

What about when you go on holiday for a week and it does that all week?
Each to their own I suppose, I find an hour in the morning just before I wake up and starting the heating an hour before I get home works for me but then again I think for me it has to be 12 degrees before I consider it.

I don't heat my water all day long either..on an old style water cylinder system and I find I only need to heat it 30 mins in the morning and evening, and this gives me hot water all day.

I agree with others though you notice the cold more when your sitting down.

BathshebaDarkstone · 04/10/2015 10:04

My DGPs were known as the Yetis as they didn't have central heating. They were ex-librarians and "it damages the books". Another librarian friend of mine says "fuck the books, keep warm!"

KitKat1985 · 04/10/2015 10:17

16 sounds reasonable to me. I think that anything above that is manageable by putting a jumper etc on, and I say that as someone who is always cold.

My Dad used to be awfully tight and stingy with the heating in winter. I remember once I asked if we could out the heating on as I was freezing and he said it wasn't cold enough yet. I pointed out that it was snowing outside and below freezing. But no, apparently not cold enough yet.

Me624 · 04/10/2015 10:20

OurBlanche yes you're right in that it is "on" all the time but the point I was making is that it never clicks on because the house never gets to below 15. So for all intents and purposes I may as well have it off. If we did not have the smart thermostat then I would have it off at those times.

Jeffreythegiraffe · 04/10/2015 10:29

I remember going round to a friends house and sitting shivering in my coat. DH doesn't feel the cold as much as me but even he didn't take his coat off.

LBOCS2 · 04/10/2015 10:46

Our thermostat is set at 15 and it's 'on' all day - 7am to 11pm. It only clicks in and turns the radiators on if it drops below 15 degrees however. I don't think it has yet.

FWIW, DH and I are both jumper people, our DD is a whirling dervish and doesn't get cold - and we both grew up in homes with no (or extremely inefficient) heating. When the thermostat clicks the heating on, I always get too warm very quickly.

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