Page 15 | "We don't have the heating on"

TOADfan · 27/08/2022 20:19

We only put the heating on for about an hour every other day and all the radiators are turned off upstairs.

We have a cat who loves the outdoors but hates the door being closed and we can't get a cat flap fitted, so last winter we didn't bother putting the heating on as the backdoor was constantly open.

Just sat in the sofa with a blanket and a snoodie and was perfectly happy and warm.

We filled our oil tank in April 2020 and just under half remaining so we shouldn't need to buy more oil for a good year yet. £210 for 3 and half years heating. I'm happy with that lol.

Oh and before anyone says. We don't have any damp at all in the house. I find I get more damp with the heating on due to condensation.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 27/08/2022 20:20

those who mention damp, have you tried a plug in humidifyer ?

DancingBudgie · 27/08/2022 20:21

I turn it off at the boiler when I go to bed, and turn it back on again when I get up in the morning.
Thermostat is usually set at around 22degs during the day.

LovinglifeAF · 27/08/2022 20:21

Afterfire · 27/08/2022 20:12

Our thermostat is set for the heating to kick in when it’s 9.5 degrees or lower literally to stop the pipes freezing. If we wanted the heating on we’d manually turn the thermostat up to 23 and then down again to 9.5 when we wanted it off. We could never afford to have it on a timer etc. The most we’d ever have it on would be 2 hours a day.

With the new energy prices etc we can’t afford to have our heating on at all. None whatsoever.

Hopefully help will come. Unheated houses will cause lots of other problems:(

XingMing · 27/08/2022 20:21

Our heating system and the timer that controls it is set to start the boiler (oil) at 5.45 am so we get up to a warming house, and to deliver heat and hot water until 8.30am. Then it goes off, but our house is south facing and has lots of glazing, so there is solar gain until sunset. I wear thermals and woolies in the north-facing office. The heating then clicks back in late afternoon, and I light the woodburner about 5.00pm so the sitting room is warm to sit in and watch TV after dinner. We have dialled the boiler down a notch but can click it up if elderly relatives visit and need more warmth. DH sleeps with the large window wide open all year. We have duvets in every warmth category to indulge his need to sleep in fresh air!

EllieRosesMammy · 27/08/2022 20:21

Ours is completely off and has been for about 3 months now, haven't had a single day where I've felt like it needs to be on, but I am 5 months pregnant and it's August 😅

Frances658 · 27/08/2022 20:24

We

Bestcatmum · 27/08/2022 20:25

I've never ever had the heating on at night. It would make me feel ill. I just pile the bed covers on. This winter I'm turning my gas off completely. I'm saving for my retirement in 7 years so I can't waste money on these massive bills. I'll be using candlelight a lot too. I've just stocked up on candles at IKEA.

Frances658 · 27/08/2022 20:26

We have ours set the same, and it doesn't actually come on at night. I think most decently insulated houses wouldn't drop below 15 degrees, so I'd consider that off.

Sarahconnor1 · 27/08/2022 20:30

IvorCutler · 27/08/2022 18:23

We only ever put ours on at night! (Not all night) ds has asthma and cold nights cause him to have flares. He had an attack once and it was terrifying. Thankfully we live in a very well insulated apartment so it’s only needed in the dead of winter!

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I have asthma and stuffy over heated nights makes mine worse

DepartmentOfMysteries · 27/08/2022 20:30

This is so interesting, and very surprising, reading how different our ideas of what is normal are. I guess it just goes to show how privileged we are that it hasn't been a worthy discussion topic in recent years. Like lots of previous posters I just assumed that everyone (unless they have medical conditions/very elderly) did their heating roughly the same as me. Which is on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening and 100% off overnight! We have our thermostat (for when it's on) set to 17 or 18, but I was well aware there was a lot of variation in this. In our terraced house, the temperature got down to 11 degrees at an absolute minimum, more often 13 was the lowest during the coldest months, and significantly warmer for the majority of the night. So it's not exactly freezing! I'm so surprised to hear that so many people have heating overnight!! And even more so that lots of us are surprised others don't have heating on overnight.
If there is a silver lining to be found from this awful price rise, I guess it might be to encourage us to make energy choices that will be better for the planet

XingMing · 27/08/2022 20:30

Our heating went off in April this year, and is unlikely to go back on before November, but we use oil to heat not electricity. It is still eye wateringly expensive.

PuzzledObserver · 27/08/2022 20:31

Back in the day when a timer with two on-off times per day was the height of sophistication, that was what you did. There was the timer and the thermostat, and that was it. Never did us any harm, as people like to say - bedrooms need to be cooler than “room temperature” to enable you to sleep comfortably.

Now that we have sophisticated controllers with multiple schedules, each with their own temperature setting, you can indeed to turn it down to (say) 15 overnight, rather than off. But if your house is reasonably well insulated, the difference is minimal. We had ours going down to Frost Protect overnight, which I think defaults to 12 degrees on our system. Hive also tracks the actual temperature, and I don’t think it ever got below 14. Mostly higher.

ejsmith99 · 27/08/2022 20:31

Depends how well insulated your home is. I only heat my living room and the bedroom windows are open whatever the weather. Last winter was so mild that the heating in the living room was only on for 10 hours in total. Hoping it is even milder this year because I won't be able to afford that this year. Thermal undies, blankets and dogs at strategic places will be it

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 27/08/2022 20:31

Ours is timed to come on at 6.30 - 7.30, then 5 - 11. We can bump it on in the middle if at home during the day. It’s off completely overnight, and the temperature of each room is controlled by the radiator in that room.

SunnyD44 · 27/08/2022 20:31

Obviously people wouldn’t have it on now as it’s still summer but many people have it on in the winter.

Ive not had heating on for 5+ years as I didn’t have any heating apart from plug in ones which are expensive.
When we were younger we couldn’t afford hearing either.

The more you have heating on, the more you get used to it and don’t feel it.
The only issue is damp if your home is prone to it.

If you have a jumper, dressing gown and socks on you won’t be cold.

At nighttime put a hot water bottle in your bed and sleep with your socks and dressing gown on and you’ll be fine.

If I’m really cold one evening then I’ll go out for a walk.

I’m always shocked by how many people have heating on regularly.

MrsWombat · 27/08/2022 20:32

We always have the heating "on" but the thermostat is set at 16 degrees overnight so it rarely come on. (This will probably be set much lower this winter)

Lovegossip · 27/08/2022 20:33

I never turn the heating on, I personally don't think it gets cold enough in this country to need it

MoodyTwo · 27/08/2022 20:33

Mine is off now, but in winter it is set to 7 degrees over night and clicks on at 5:30 to 19 so it's warm when we get up...
We just have thick duvets on and fluffy PJs

Nanny0gg · 27/08/2022 20:36

Christonabike37 · 27/08/2022 16:04

Just reading another thread and seen this "we never have the heating on at night" and I've never really understood what it means, but now with energy prices I need to know if its really what people do.

Our thermostat is set at 15 always, in the evenings we up it to 20 for a few hours. I consider 15 off, and 20 on. Is this the same? Or do people just not have the heating on at all, like your house could be 0 degrees? How cold does it get at night? Surely it gets down to single figures most of the time?

Heating goes off an hour before we go to bed. It comes on an hour before we get up.

I couldn't possibly sleep with the heating on. That's what duvets are for!

Afterfire · 27/08/2022 20:37

LovinglifeAF · 27/08/2022 20:21

Hopefully help will come. Unheated houses will cause lots of other problems:(

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Oh we know… we were in a similar situation a few
years ago when dh got made redundant and we couldn’t have it on then. The damp / condensation got so bad we had water dripping down from our upstairs lights and couldn’t afford to fix it (we own our home) so we literally turned off the upstairs electrics at the fuse box and managed with torches - for a whole year! And then dh got a new job and we got disability benefits for me and Ds aged 10 and felt things were finally getting better. Had a couple of years
of being able to get air bricks put it and fixed the damp and had heating on a bit etc. And now because of the stupid energy stuff we are back to square one again- even with the governments help we are a low income family and the new increases mean the payments won’t cover any heating.

Nanny0gg · 27/08/2022 20:38

Nanny0gg · 27/08/2022 20:36

Heating goes off an hour before we go to bed. It comes on an hour before we get up.

I couldn't possibly sleep with the heating on. That's what duvets are for!

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And centrally heated/insulated houses retain some of the heat.

This is nothing like the 50s and before when it really was bitter cold.

I've never had frost inside the windows since I've lived with central heating

DepartmentOfMysteries · 27/08/2022 20:41

In some ways reading this is quite encouraging, as there are people who clearly manage, and are comfortable, with very low levels of heating. So hopefully it's just a matter of getting used to life being a little chillier for those of us who have the heating on for multiple hours a day (and don't have medical conditions requiring extra warmth). We certainly can't afford to heat our house to the same extent as we did last winter, but this has made me feel a little easier about it knowing that so many people consider it normal to have less heating use.

MissCordeliaPreston · 27/08/2022 20:42

In cold weather my husband likes to keep the house at around 22 degrees night and day. In warm weather if the house gets to over 20 the fans and aircon come on and he tries to cool it to 16-18 degrees! Basically he wants to live in tee shirts and boxers year round. It pisses me off as I like the house to be cool in winter so duvets etc are useful. But I am OK with a warmer house in summer as it is always cooler than inside so a relief.

AnnaKorine · 27/08/2022 20:44

Blimey this is really making me rethink our heating strategy. We always worked on the assumption that it cost more to constantly turn on and off the heating so it’s generally set around 19/20 degrees when we are at home during waking hours and drops a few degrees at night to maybe 15 or so when we are out. Reading all these responses makes me wonder if that’s excessive. I think I will recalibrate for winter- now it’s not an issue as the temperature doesn’t drop.