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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to switch the heating off overnight?

99 replies

ingeniousidiot · 01/12/2015 16:26

Is this not the done thing anymore? The last couple of times heating has come up in conversation people have been surprised that our heating goes off at 10pm, then back on at 6am - it's off in the day too. I sometimes work from home, so stick it on in the day if cold.

They told me it was expensive and inefficient, but I thought that most people didn't have it on 24hrs/day - maybe I'm wrong, what do you do?

OP posts:

bigbuttons · 01/12/2015 18:07

Mine goes off at 10. I hate hot rooms at night; I can't sleep

PigletJohn · 01/12/2015 18:07

Fanny

"1950 council built" will have cavity walls unless it is novel build (e.g. concrete). If it has CWI there will be holes drilled in the brickwork, about a yard apart, the size of 2p coins, filled in with mortar. They should have been drilled in joints where they are not eye-catching. Go to the BG website, they usually offer free insulation even if you are not their customer. They will look for wall defects and refuse to insulate unless/until fixed.

Damp patches might be condensation or rain penetration, especially under a window. Tape a piece of clear plastic tightly to the wall and see if moisture shows on the room side (condensation) or the wall side (wet wall).

RatherBeRiding · 01/12/2015 18:09

Depends how mild it is. If the temperature doesn't drop low enough to trigger it, it doesn't come on. Otherwise I turn the thermostat quite low when I go to bed and it has to be pretty cold for it to come on but because the thermostat is right down it will only be background warmth, just enough to keep the radiators ticking over. It's not properly on during the day either but in the days when I used to have it properly off, I found that the house took absolutely ages to heat up and we were never warm.

Whatevva · 01/12/2015 18:15

My thermostat does what PigletJohn's does, only without the technology.

It is nice when it has snowed and it is freezing, but you wake to a nice toasty house In fact it is the only time the central heating seems to work really well

I did interior icicles in my childhood and have no wish to repeat the experience.

FannyTheChampionOfTheWorld · 01/12/2015 18:16

We are brick not concrete so I think we do have CWI. Yes I think the damp patches might be condensation.

KondosSecretJunkRoom · 01/12/2015 18:21

Between 10pm and 6am thermostat is set to come on if it drops to 15c, which it rarely does, a handful of times a year at most.

Sallystyle · 01/12/2015 18:22

I just turn my thermostat to about 18 and leave it there all year round and it comes on when it is needed.

Sallystyle · 01/12/2015 18:22

Sorry, in the warmer weather it goes down to 15 and stays there until winter.

MrsKoala · 01/12/2015 18:28

I hate staying at houses where it goes off at 10 and back on at 5 when its really cold. All the rads are set to max so i go to bed in thermals and wale about 6 gasping and hot, usually having had a really bizarre nightmare. Its much better to have it on all night on low and then dress accordingly and not wake freezing with an icicle nose at 4 then again like you've just eaten hot sand at 6. We have it on all night because the babies refuse covers too. Our rads are never above 1 or 2 and we adjust each room accordingly. The rads are off in the bedroom all day then just get turned to 1 when we go to bed. As i go downstairs i turn those rads up to 1-2 in the morning then tend to turn the heat off in the day as we are moving about lots and wear thicker jumpers. To me it makes more sense to have it on at night than in the day. (my phone has rejected paragraphs today, what can i say, its a loose cannon with only 2 day's left on the force )

TattyDevine · 01/12/2015 18:30

We have ours set to 20 and it is on from 5 in the morning (DH gets up at 5:45), goes off at 9am, comes on at 5pm, then goes off at 10pm all on a timer.

If I am really cold during the day I'll advance it so it will go up to 20.

If its silly cold outside and I'm just having a cold day (sometimes I don't eat as much or have been outside for ages or whatever) then I sneak it up to 23 for a while to give the place an extra boost of heat then sneak it back down again because I get grief from his royal hotness/tightness

TheLambShankRedemption · 01/12/2015 18:34

I have Hive. The heating goes off at 8pm but it has a minimum 7 degree anti frost setting.

If the temperature drops, the heating will always keep it at 7 degrees (hardly happens though) to protect the water pipes from freezing and bursting.

Katarzyna79 · 01/12/2015 18:36

Central heating 2 hours in morning 2 hrs in evening. Convector heaters if needed in between for blast of heat then off.

Gas fire on in one living room for elders they always say its cold?

two winters ago we left convector heater in bedrooms on low setting all night it was -25 outside and snowstorms. central heating all night gets too stuffy and i get migraines or blocked nose.

Katarzyna79 · 01/12/2015 18:41

tatty lol oh i understand i like rooms toasty he likes them cool or cold.often he will go sit in another room if i put a heater on. Ive found if i want to be alone its a good strategy. I cant go sleep without hot water bottle either he wants me to throw it out the bed in the middle of the night.

jevoudrais · 01/12/2015 18:46

Mine stays on. Our house is prone to damp and supposedly keeping the house at a more consistent temperature is less likely to cause additional moisture to build up.

That alone means I'm happy to keep it on. Plus, I also have dogs and think its nicer for them to have a relatively consistent heat source as opposed to it coming on and off. One of them has skin problems and the specialist said heating coming on and off a lot can cause dogs to become quite itchy.

I think there are different views on which way is more efficient, but I am happy with our way.

crappyday · 01/12/2015 18:58

Piglet john what make of programmable thermostat can replace a normal wire one? I would love to be able to set different times for different days, but our programmable thingy (technical term) for controlling the boiler and hot water doesn't do different days or temperatures.
We have a little circular thermostat on the wall in the hall.

BabyGanoush · 01/12/2015 19:01

Mine goes off at 7pm, so the house cools down nicely for sleeping.

I hate radiotors on at night, hate a stuffy hot house

Cool rooms and big duvets much nicer IMO

Right now it's still 12/13 degrees (even at night! This coldest-winter-ever has not happened so far) and only have heating on 30 mins in the afternoon and that's it.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 01/12/2015 19:06

what make of programmable thermostat can replace a normal wire one.

We have a Tado (which is a bit gadgety). There are many many cheaper alternatives

www.tado.com/gb/

DP fitted ours, it was pretty easy. Tado support is excellent.

PigletJohn · 01/12/2015 19:07

Honeywell CM907 is I think the best. It connects to the wires of the old circular thermostat. You can get wireless stats but they go wrong more.

Once you have a programmable stat, you can remove the boiler timer, or just set it to CH "on" 24 hours and let the stat control the timings.

MrsKoala · 01/12/2015 19:08

But don't your faces get cold no matter how big your duvet is? I have woken in peoples house with a hot body and freezing eyeballs. Its horrible. I do like a cool room, but not that cold. And the extremes of hot or cold makes me feel sick. Its why i don't go shopping in the winter - shops are so hot and the staff are in short sleeves and i am in a big coat. I get really tetchy if I'm too hot.

ouryve · 01/12/2015 19:11

We don't switch ours off, as such, but the thermostat is set several degrees lower, so it only comes on when it's bitterly cold and blowing a gale (our house only gets a chill when it's really windy - it's a terrace so holds heat pretty well)

SoundFury · 01/12/2015 19:27

Ours isn't on yet!

crappyday · 01/12/2015 19:31

Ooh thank you! Now just have to convince DH it's worth getting one- esp as current stat is onlY 1 year old.

Just to check- this will work to replace a Drayton electronic 'with a relay output' which controls an LPG boiler?

And what's the likelihood of me being able to fit it myself? I'm not great at electrics, but can cope with DIY.

PigletJohn · 01/12/2015 20:04

a thermostat is just a switch, it usually just connects to Live and Switched Live. Some may also have a Neutral or an Earth, which is no longer needed and can be parked. Have a look at the installation instructions and see if you can do it. Remember you must turn off power at the consumer unit and test for dead, since a wired thermostat switches mains voltage.

If you already have a wired wall thermostat, a heating engineer, an electrician, or a competent DIYer can change it. If not, you would best use a heating engineer who will know how to make the connections at the boiler.

EnlightenedOwl · 01/12/2015 20:45

thermostat is set to 16 at night and when we are out so heating off unless it drops to that temperature rest of time set to 19 degrees

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