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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To turn my heating up to 21 degrees?

208 replies

KindergartenKop · 16/01/2019 11:22

How warm is your house? DH insists on it being 21 but I've set the heating to switch on at 18 and off at 19 degrees. Aibu?

OP posts:
ResistanceIsNecessary · 16/01/2019 12:15
  1. Any warmer than that and I'm stripping off! Heating is off overnight and will only kick in on the frost protection setting if needed.

I don't usually have it on during the day. I work from home and by the time it's been on from 6am-9am, that's usually enough to see me through until 3-4pm. I'm in my office at the moment, the heating's off and it's 16 degrees. I have a cardi and slippers on and am quite comfortable. I live in the NW so nowhere tropical!

ThanksForAllTheFish · 16/01/2019 12:16

Our boiler is old and we don’t have a separate thermostat (we set the temperature from the dial on the boiler). It also shows the temperature in Fahrenheit for some reason Confused. Ours is set at about 72f which I think is around the 21/22c mark. I don’t think our rooms ever really get that warm though as the boiler and radiator system is old. (The joys of renting)! Our flat is generally not too cold when the guy that lives downstairs is home (he’s away a lot) as we he puts his heating on it warms our place up as well. You can really feel the difference in winter when he’s away.

If it was as a proper air temperature then 19/20 degrees is plenty warm to feel comfortable but not too hot.

user1474894224 · 16/01/2019 12:16

16 during the day. turn it up to 18 in the evening. (if oh knocks it to 20 it is too warm) and 9 over night. - We are currently in discussion because OH thinks 16 is too cold - and I agree sometimes it is - but would rather he puts an extra jumper on and occasionally over rides the heating than changes it for every day. - Today it is not cold at all.

RamblingFar · 16/01/2019 12:16

Ours is set at 20C as I have problems with my asthma below that and it's what was suggested as the minimum.

However it only gets to that after several hours on. It can drop to 13C inside in winter where the thermostat is in the lounge, if it's been off whilst we've been at work. Currently it feels like it's 16-17. I could knock it on, but DP's currently at work and he pays the heating bill (I'll knock it on if I get too cold anyway!)

MereDintofPandiculation · 16/01/2019 12:19

I pay the bloody bill so will have it as warm as I like, lol. But you don't pay the bill. You pay your own fuel bill, but you don't pay all the costs associated with climate change. the increased frequency of storms and floods, the people whose lands are becoming less inhabitable, and so on.

Aridane · 16/01/2019 12:19

For those saying 35c (ie 95F) - seriously?!? - does that mean you have it on all summer?

thisismeusernameything · 16/01/2019 12:20

I used to live in a house where I kept it at 28 all winter. I still froze. I now live in a house where it starts to get tropical at 21. It all depends on carpets, windows and drafty doors.

NC0301191141 · 16/01/2019 12:20

I prefer it cooler. In fact, I'm sat in my office now with the window open, though it is a freakily "warm" 10 degrees outside today.

Ours is set to 17 or 18, though when DP spots it, he ramps it up to 21. He consistently fails to understand that to get to 21 in the colder hallway means the rest of the house is at 25/26 degrees. If it's too warm it makes me feel sick, so I'm much happier for it to be at the lower temperature and stick a jumper and slippers on if I'm chilly.

It's easier to warm up when you're cold than cool down when you're hot!

I hate a warm bedroom so have thermostatic valves on the bedroom radiators to keep it cooler upstairs than downstairs (probably also what confuses the thermostat in the hallway).

The worst is when DP is cold and he closes the living room off and puts the gas fire on... it was like opening the oven door when I got home from work the other day!

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 16/01/2019 12:22

Mine's off in the morning and the day, 15 in the evenings, but I run hot. If DH is particularly cold, he'll turn it up to 18, but then I have to have the fan on.

Some of these temperatures are insane.

Narya · 16/01/2019 12:22

19 - it quite a new house and very well insulated.

piscis · 16/01/2019 12:22

It depends if you are moving around a bit or just in the sofa watching TV all day, it also depends on if you are wearing a t-shirt or you wear jumpers.

We put ours at 20 degrees, sometimes 19, more than 20 is too hot, but we wear jumpers or long-sleeved tops.

CatWhisker · 16/01/2019 12:25

19 or 20.

NigelGresley · 16/01/2019 12:30

I think people have become more soft. What many people consider to be a comfortable indoor temperature is way higher than it used to be. 19 degrees is just fine, any higher is wasteful and unnecessary.

Has anyone thought about where the energy comes from for this all this excessive heating?
How many more decades do you think we’ve got? How much longer can people continue to use so much more energy than is required? Is it wise to plough through finite resources so carelessly?
How will we justify this to our children and grandchildren?

These are the questions people should honestly ask themselves.

NigelGresley · 16/01/2019 12:33

I pay the bloody bill so will have it as warm as I like, lol.

I’m sure all the millionaires could go out and empty the supermarkets if they were so minded, but they don’t. By your logic that would be ok though.

HollyBollyBooBoo · 16/01/2019 12:34

16 - I hate a hot house, much prefer to be cool. Even at that DD is in T-shirts.

Ollivander84 · 16/01/2019 12:39

No heating overnight, 18-20 for a couple of hours depending how chilly I am
With no heating the place hovers around 14-16c

purplelass · 16/01/2019 12:40

16-18 in the day when I'm home, 12 when I'm not and at night and I turn it up to 20 if I'm sat on the sofa in the evenings rather than moving around generating my own warmth.

28 & 35 are taking the piss - put a jumper on or do a few star jumps rather than destroying the planet FFS!

Felicia3 · 16/01/2019 12:41

Ours is 23. I'm not from this country so that suits me just fine.

EwItsAHooman · 16/01/2019 12:41

28??!!!! sweet fuckin Jesus, I'd boil. Do you not own a jumper?

I own lots of jumpers.

I have EDS and struggle to regulate my body temperature, particularly if I'm tired or run down like I am at the moment. Reynauds too so even more important to stay warm.

22-24 is comfortable when I'm chilly then blast it up to 28 (sometimes even 30) if I'm coming in from the cold or I'm having a flare up or it's been off for a while and I need to get the chill out of the air as quickly as possible. Other times I'm comfortable at around 20-22 and in the summer I rarely need it as we're south facing, sometimes I might have it on low for an hour or so in the evening if it turns cold or I'm shivery.

It gets switched off completely overnight because the heating pipes run underneath the floor upstairs, I can have all the bedroom radiators turned off and it still heats up the rooms via the floor (and is lovely to walk on, like having underfloor heating).

EwItsAHooman · 16/01/2019 12:44

28 & 35 are taking the piss - put a jumper on or do a few star jumps rather than destroying the planet FFS!

I recycle, I walk as many journeys as I can including the school run, I avoid single use plastics wherever possible, my garden is planted with bee and wildlife friendly plants, I shop local and buy in-season produce.

I'll put the heating in whatever setting I want.

Firesuit · 16/01/2019 12:48

My central heating thermostat just down the hall is set to about 18 degrees. The digital thermometer on my desk is reading 21 degrees. There is definitely no actual difference in temperature between the two locations.

I don't think you can tell much about the temperatures of anyone's homes from the numbers they give here, so these temperature threads are pointless.

An actual temperate of 21 to 22 degrees is the ideal setting, it's what office air-conditioning systems aim to deliver.

I wouldn't assume you know what your temperature is, unless you have a thermometer that confirms it.

DonCorleoneTheThird · 16/01/2019 12:50

I think people have become more soft. What many people consider to be a comfortable indoor temperature is way higher than it used to be.

true
but people are also a lot less active than they used to. Sitting down all day doing pretty much nothing is a fairly modern activity!
People also used to have colder houses and be miserable in them to be fair.

EwItsAHooman · 16/01/2019 12:50

I have a digital thermometer in the kitchen that says it's 24.5C but it's right next to the back door and extractor fan so probably reading a bit cooler than it actually is in the rest of the house.

Lovingit81 · 16/01/2019 12:51

23 when I'm really cold! I like a warm house. Grin

Novacancy3 · 16/01/2019 12:51

18 in the afternoon. 19 in the evening. Off the rest of the time.

I used to work for a house builder. Our show homes thermostats were always set at 20 during opening hours as that's apparently the most homely temperature.