"We don't have the heating on"

[Christonabike37]

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?

Same. None of us are proud of having the heating burning away at all hours but ultimately there's no point being a martyr and if you have health issues it's hardly sensible to be making your life more difficult.

I have my boiler set to come on twice a day (6-9am) and (4-9pm) and thermostat set to 19'. So it only comes on when temperature is lower than that.

If it's extremely cold I'll set it to be on Al day- that's only about 4-6 weeks of the year mind.

I WFH

Our gas bill has always been lower than average for our house size and I'm usually in credit.

My plans are

I'm thinking of reducing it to 18' with less time being on, but I know setting it 17' or lower is painful in winter. I might do that before we get to winter .. 🥶

Timer in bathroom to remind DCs to have short showers - so no long 30 mins steamy hot showers for DCs 😱 (combi boiler that heats water as we go)

Buy cheap versions of Oodies

Smart plugs (£20 for 2) to turn off all electrical alliances that tend to get left on by DCs even on standby, after I've gone to bed (including PCs).

It's worrying times

I have my bedroom off always because I like to sleep in a cold room and often will have the window open too. But the kids have their radiators on. I have a thermostat and at night it is set to 16. In the day it is 19.

I've never had the heating on overnight. That seems strange, as it's nice to have a bit of cold air on your face from under the duvet and I'd heating was on earlier your house hopefully should retain that heat , only slowly cooling. South England doesn't tend to get as extreme temperatures though than either north or Scotland

Turkish towels are absolutely brilliant and dry body very well.
Our other towels are thin from h.snd m and very pretty as a bonus!

No more huge towels!

Don’t get all these folk that are proud to live in igloo.

I don't at all. I have my thermostat set at 18 and the heating never on at night. I might very occasionally turn the thermostat up to 20. We don't wear extra layers etc in the house because our heating levels are perfectly comfortable. If they weren't, we'd turn the heating up - we're not masochists and can afford to!

@Afterfire

if your kWh rate has gone up 100% since last winter (say 20p to 40p) it'll cost you the same as last year to have your heating on half as much.

you may have less disposable income this year due to other factors (change in income, other higher expenses) but the change in energy prices won't mean going from 2 hours a day to no hours a day to keep the cost of what you use the same.

I am genuinely surprised that people have the heating on in summer.
I have never had it on beyond April/May.
I thought it was completely normal to switch it off entirely.
I have not been cold at all since I switched it off and I live in a 1930s house which is not easy to heat.

I did grow up in a house where the heating was rarely used. Even in winter. We were poor and my Mum would only put the heating on if there was ice on the inside of the bathroom window.

I'm not a martyr. But I'm really not cold.

We have thermostatic valves on a the radiators as the house size/shape doesn't really work for a single thermostat on the wall. The benefit of that unused rooms can be turned v low or off. At night the heating is always off unless it's a very wintry/icy night in which case we might have them on very low. But we find it useful to have an extra blanket in each bedroom.
In the winter the kids like their fleecy PJs or onesies!

(During the day we keep it at about 18 degrees all day as we're home all the time).

Me too. I just turn the switches off.

And me - I feel I am singularly responsible for global warming😂

Menopausal women will inherit the heating less earth ;

@Bestcatmum

Does your gas not heat your water?

LED lightbulbs are incredibly cheap to run.

house fires are incredibly easy to start, incredibly distressing & incredibly expensive to recover from, if you're lucky enough not to die.

This thread makes me think that the govt should do some 70s style public information films on the most efficient way to heat your house

Thoseposters discussing how to dry clothes inside - I recommend a ceiling dryer - a sheila. We've had one for years and they are really good at utilizing the 'warm air rises' principle. They dry clothes very effectively.

Ours is on a timer and a thermostat. It’s “off” overnight but “off” is set at 7deg to prevent frozen pipes if we were away on holiday or something.
It has never ever dropped anywhere near that overnight. Between 10pm and 7am without heating It drops to about 15 ish, sometimes 14 or 13. And that’s with bedroom windows often open a crack for air.

Are you very new to MN? These discussions start late August every year. People outdoing each other in how little they have their heating in & when they put it on.

this year there are, obviously, more people very worried about the cost, but that's not totally unusual either.

if you read it again carefully, there really aren't many people at all who have theirs set to actually heat at night. They might have the thermostat at say 15, but the heating isn't actually kicking in.

ivthink baring disability, illness etc not many people can sleep well with heating on & the occasional person who can may live in an incredibly cold house.

but I think it's rare to actually have the heating, heating at night.

like anything, it is interesting reading about everyone's 'normal'

what people do as 'normal' re laundry, what they put in dishwashers, whether the answer their phone/doorbell will blow your mind. Not to mention the variance of 'normal' in friendships/relationships.

MN is a weird, but interesting place!!

We rarely have our heating on at all unless it's very, very cold. We haven't been able to afford it- we were finally in a position to afford it this year but then the energy prices went up 😡 the trick for staying warm at night in my opinion is layer on the bed. A duvet with two layers of blankets on top keeps you really warm, even without an electric blanket etc. Also another blanket under the sheet. I have no idea if that is scientifically the right thing to do but it seems to work. I do like a cold house though, my parents have their heating on a lot and it feels like a furnace in there.

Be very careful not paying a higher DD if needed as come Jan you’ll have a big 3 monthly bill and then like a lot of people you’ll have debt recovery and bailiffs and CCJs. It’s so so shit for lots of people, properly shit but you wouldn’t be able to go to Tesco and just offer them half the price for what they ring up at the till or take a full tank of petrol and only offer to pay for half. People advising this are dangerous and it needs sorting out at a base level for how much it is costing

you may have less disposable income this year due to other factors (change in income, other higher expenses) but the change in energy prices won't mean going from 2 hours a day to no hours a day to keep the cost of what you use the same.

It might if the increased cost of electricity that they use matches or exceeds the the cost of the gas heating on for half the time.

@ejsmith99

Do you mean 10 hours a day, week, month, winter? Surely you don't mean 10 hours all winter?

if you do (as that's how it reads) it'll cost probably around £3 more. Unless you've gone from a very low fixed to a high variable, but still less than a tenner all winter.,

@Afterfire I'm sorry you're in this position, especially after thinking things were getting better, it's crap to feel like you're back to square 1. Though you aren't entirely as you do have the ventilation & better electrics, so hopefully no more torches are needed upstairs!!

are you sure you're claiming everything you can and getting ALL of the £1600 grants available to the most in need?

I hope my other post to you made sense too.

the 'oooh I have mine at 16°, anything else is too hot/a waste/other sanctimonious claptrap' is meaningless. They might have their thermostat in a draft, near a window, in the coldest part of the house.

Our thermostat is on the upstairs landing, the middle of the house (we are three storey) and always the warmest part. Our bedroom on the top floor always has a window a little bit open so is always cooler.

I would find 22 degrees in winter clothes very uncomfortable to be honest. When we go to holiday rentals we nearly always have to ask the owners how to lower the temp on the thermostat - this usually makes them happy.

Our heating is on a timer, on twice a day M-F it’s set as 6am on, 8am off, 4pm on, 9pm off. Similar time at the weekend. The heating isn’t on from March til October. The hot water is on at the same time. The hot water is on in the summer months, but never the heating.
We have 3 fridges, well an American fridge freezer, wine fridge and small freezer in the garage. The wine fridge needs to be unplugged, dh scoffed. I’m working on him 😏