To want to restrict how much we have the heating on

[reallyagain]

After a winter working from home last year we were hit with a horrendous heating bill (several thousand on top of already paying quite a high amount per month). So this year with gas prices being so high I’m really conscious of being careful. DH wants it on much more than I do and it’s causing endless rows. He’s turned it on 4 separate times today and is sulking when I comment. We share heating bills - I suggested he pays more to have it on more but he refuses.

How much do you have the heating on if you work from home?

I can't abide people who expect you to dress like the Michelin man while your nose goes blue as you breathe in icy air.

This. I can wear as many layers as I want but it doesn't stop the air being cold. My flat is always cold so the heating will be on all day in winter as I refuse to freeze.

Pink I agree with you but as you can see from my posts that's not the case here. He wants to wear just 1 light layer all winter eg T-shirt or shirt type style

@Hungry675tf

24 degrees! 😱 that is absolutely horrifying! Ours goes up to 19 max, 20 if I'm feeling generous. We have electric radiators in our office during the day to keep it toasty.

Has he no concept of climate change?

Ours is often on 24 in the winter otherwise the air is cold!

I can wear as many layers as I want but it doesn't stop the air being cold

I think people who say just put another jumper on never really feel the cold TBH.

The way you are phrasing things is odd to me.

Why are your finances so separate that you consider that you (singular) are paying for his heating? Dont you see all money as one pot and everyone spends as they choose from that?

It seems that what you really want is him to contribute more financially to the bills. If he isn't paying his fair share then there could be financed abuse which is a much bigger issue than the heating!!

User I don't have it right now, it was in DH name and all online and tbh every time we mention heating now there's a row o I don't have the will again to ask for it. I used it though to research alternative providers at the time about a month ago. I'm going to submit monthly meter readings for a couple of months at least to see how we go. One further issue is that BG were unable to provide us with a bill at the end I summer due to a system upgrade issue and so we still don't know if we ended up on track by then after paying back the excess on monthly basis from last winter. And it could take months to get the final bill from them I'm told. They've been a bloody nightmare

do you have thermometers in the house @reallyagain?
how cold is it in your home.

to sit down to work I need 20 degrees, but I only heat that small room.
for pottering around in the house 18 degrees is fine.
drafts also make a difference. close the window vents and close other drafts.
open the windows a couple of times a day instead.

@reallyagain

Bogey the bills are so high because he wanted it on so much

I'm really not sure that's true! We live in a similar house with a ridiculous mostly glass sun room that bleeds heat and is open to the kitchen diner. I have the heating ok far too often like your dH and we averaged £250 a month last year before price rises.

660 a month plus a few thousand sounds like there's a huge error to be honest

Felula you e made a lot of assumptions there. We have a joint account it comes out of, which we pay into equally. So it's not rocket science to work out why I'd say we pay equally to the energy bill

Purple I'll order some thermometers

Ours is often on 24 in the winter otherwise the air is cold!

How? If your heating is working properly then if you set it to 20 the air would be 20. If it was 20 outside would you think the air was cold? Or would you think it was a nice summer’s day?

Come and join my insulating old houses thread! I’ve decided we should not have to spend thousands on energy because we should be spending it on insulation. I’ve become slightly obsessed with Aerogel insulation products www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4370930-How-to-insulate-an-Edwardian-House-properly

Basically I start from the idea that civilisation should mean that we are safe from danger, warm, with sufficient safe drinking water.
We should be free from manipulation of supply of both water and means to heat our homes.
Currently in UK we have warm and waterproof clothing at affordable prices.
We have been victimised by energy suppliers and government restrictions. If we used oil or gas to produce electricity it would be cheaper by the margins that OP is struggling with.

We have to accept that this is where we are, but can we accept further restrictions so willingly?

"You could take a two or three bedroom house and insulate it with Aerogel and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot" - quoted by Dr. Peter Tsou of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

I don’t work for them btw… wish I did

I dont work from home, but I am home most of the day most days (disabled carer).

From October to March, the heating is set for 1.5 hrs in the morning, getting up time, and 1.5 hrs in the evening, kids going to bed time.

If I'm cold during the day I have an electric throw that costs pennies a day to run. The kids are mostly at home right now (one at college which is mostly online, the other school refusing)

The kids know to layer if they are cold, or if they are still cold (or layers not suitable for what they are working on for example) then I'll pop the heating on for a short period.

I personally don't find it too cold and I'm a snowflake with cold tbh. I do however wear slippers and a light thermal top under clothes in winter. DH will come out of his cold shower and so undoubtedly feels cold in his light shirt. Oddly though like I've said he has the windows down in the car in winter which I find freezing and have to put the car heater up when he does it

My son doesn't find it cold at all despite walking around in bare feet etc

Thanks Rose I'll have a look at your thread!

Really I know where you are coming from, our bills are horrendous too. DH will whack up the thermostat rather than add a layer, whereas I will put on a layer, put a blanket on me on the sofa etc, I have found the best way to stop him is to remind him that every time he turns it up, the bedrooms get too hot to sleep in.

DH also won’t wear anything in bed. We use heat pads as hot water bottles in bed, really didn’t get on with electric blankets.

As a smoker, DH spends a lot of time in his shed, so last year I had the shed fully insulated and wood panelling installed over the insulation, but he still puts on a bloody fan heater and has the door open at the same time! I tell him to use the oil filled radiator, but he wants instant heat. I swear I will cut the plug off the fan heater before long

Even for an uninsulated 3-bed Victorian terrace, heated to 24C, £660 a month is astonishingly high - does that include payments towards the "thousands"?

Get a smart meter and monitor it to find out what's using the power.

As previously asked - do you have an immersion heater?

@politics4me if we go on with using oil and gas to make electricity so we can just whack the heating on and wander round in a tshirt all winter we are, quite literally, going to starve and fry. So no, we are going to have to accept change. And within that, we can - as a rich country - ensure that no one is left to freeze.

We pay our bills together, we put each other first, we care about each other’s comfort. I actually feel quite sorry for your dh, it sounds so miserable!

And yet he doesn't care about the financial strain his heating use is putting on his family, not does he care that the heating temp is making his DW uncomfortable
.

No immersion heater

I will ask for a smart meter