"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?

Yeh, but they always had fires.

Mostly, yes. But they didn't need them 24/7 in every room - and I can cook efficiently without a fire. I don't think people have usually had fires going during cold nights or used them for heating during a warm day. I'm not arguing that no-one should ever have heating on - just that it's possible to adapt happily to different temperatures, and worth trying.

You're right, @Mangledrake - it's very true that people have adapted and continue to adapt to extremes of temperature, and live successfully.
Living without heat in a UK winter wouldn't be the choice for many, and would certainly cause problems, so I really hope that it doesn't come to that for many this winter.

Definitely too cold and miserable.

@MassiveSalad22

thermostats. Think of your house heating as being like your oven. If you want it to reach a temperature you put it onto that (say 200) it takes around (say) 15 minutes to heat up, so you turn it on while you're doing prep, then it's ready when you need it.

if it's too hot or too cold for what you want to cook you adjust the temperature & your oven adjusts to get to that temperature, once it's there it stays at that temperature until you turn if off, unless you set a timer or turn it down.

yhermistat for heating is the same. If you want the house to be warm when you get out of bed, you set the timer for half an hour/an hour before you get up, to a temperature you'd like it to be when you get up & the CH will do it's magic & you'll get up to a warm house. But if no one is going to be home you don't really want it heating an empty house so you set the timer to tell the thermostat what time to cool down (I set it for half an hour before I go out as then it's not wasting heat but not does it get too cold again) You can set it for 'off' or a temperature you'd like it to stay at (or FROST*).

then the same routine for the evening, night.

the timer determines how long the boiler/CH spends getting to & remaining at gets to & remains at the temperature you've set the thermostat at.

the reason people set them at different temperature is two fold. One part is that people have different comfort level/draughts/windows etc and different finances! The second part is that people have them in different places in their houses and with different environmental factors (draughts/fireplaces etc).

so 18° in my house won't be the same as 18° in your house. 18° won't be the same if your thermostat is right near your radiator as when it's right near your door.

I've probably just confused you more, it's much easier to explain face to face! 😂😂

I agree. I don't live a half life. I might prefer the heating at 18 rather than 16 but I personally find the ability to adapt to be empowering. Feeling like you can't do anything about your situation is horrible. It may get to that eventually of course.

Fair enough. I think there's a happy medium where living with less artificial heat, not none, could help lots of people.

I would like our government to act like others and look at measures that will encourage people to use less sensibly, as well as making sure those in need don't fall through the cracks. But they've declared a policy of no intervention re usage. So I hope people pick up something useful from these threads, but I do think health and metabolism are important too.

You obviously need to get each family member a matching merino jumper. Sorted. No need for any GCH now this winter 🙌

I would help then if people chose not to be patronised or take offence on others behalf

The facts are that its easier to heat a person than their environment

Its also the case that the country (world) is not divided into wealthy vs poor, there are all levels inbetween and while one family might not have a single penny to do anything different (like buy jumpers, hot water bottles, blankets etc) another family who are also struggle may be able to afford those things as a preventative long term measure and utilise that advice and benefit hugely from it

All the while you get the perpetually offended taking umbrage at good advice, you will get people who need that advice dismissing it because they cut their nose off to spite their face.

Me personally, Im going to cut my usage of fuel as much as I can by looking at how we are cooking and heating, Im going to invest in the heated throws Ive been reading about and continue to wear my usual layers that I do each winter. That is good advice Ive read that Im goinng to take advantage of

I couldn't afford to heat my home the same as last winter if I was on the variable rate. Still can't on my fix, I will have to cut back. People can take the piss but I was just sharing what I actually do so I can turn the heating down and stay warm.

We turn our heating off and on as we need it. Usually an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the late afternoon/early evening. Never have it on overnight. I always have a blanket over me in the evening.

Set it for 12 on a night, that is the temp your house should not go below. Sarah beanie said its bad for it so I'm sticking to it

I can’t sleep with the heating on, it makes my thrust and mouth all dry and guarantees weird nightmares caused by overheating. I really hate it if I stay overnight somewhere where they keep the heating on. Even when it comes on from the timer in the morning when I’m still in bed it makes me feel all hot and sweaty!

We always have the heating off at night.

Last winter we didn’t have heating in in bedrooms at all. Daughter had a hot water bottle and blanket (usually she over heated!). As long as my feet aren’t cold I sleep better. I have a half baked theory that it’s healthier to keep temp closer to the outside. We reduced temp for climate reasons but this year fuel costs will also figure big time. Last year was also pretty mild. .The cats and dog congregate in one of the bathrooms which has a warm pipe running underneath. I’m very very worried for my sis who has copd and is on pitiful benefits. A SIL
gad heart problems and needs things on an even keel and a little relative has complex needs and his family are very anxious about costs. This winter we’ll all have to look after each other.

We have the heating on from 5am to 6:30am so it is warm when children get up to shower and us for work etc. thermostat on 18 degrees.
Only ever on from 1st November to February 20th… it’s a tradition 🤣
Switched off all other times - we use slippers, dressing gowns, blankets on sofa and hot water bottles..

I’ve always put my thermostat during the day to no go lower than 16 when we are out of the house and when we return from work/school goes up to 19. To avoid mould in the walls due to condensation at night time we set the thermostat to 14. It seemed to work and the bills were not high. Fingers crossed for this winter.

Surely it’s freezing when you get out of bed in the morning though? Or if you need to get up during the night?

We have it completely off at night. It goes off automatically at 10.30 then comes back on around 7am just before we get up.

We're never cold at night, the house is decently insulated so does stay warm for a good few hours and we're in bed under covers anyway.

During the day we usually have it on about 18. 20 is high for us but we live in the south east so nor the coldest part of the country.

It is cold if you get up in the night, but thats only for a few seconds to nip to the loo

Mornings the heating is on for a short period (although Im going to experiment this year and try without), so its not quite as cold but again, how long do you spend in the bathroom,, jump in a hot shower (and it does need to be hot if its very cold out), get out, get dry, get dressed

Off at night- with windows open in summer, spring and autumn. I like my sleeping area cold with a warm duvet, sleeping in a stuffy room is impossible, I like fresh cool air to breathe.

Mine is on a timer. Comes on about 5:30 in the autumn onwards for getting it warm for getting up for work and school. Set to go off at 8am when we have all left the house and back on about 4pm for coming home and off again about 10pm. It’s still on timer now but the thermostat is down to about 5 degrees so it won’t come on. But on colder months the thermostat stays around 20 and goes on and off with the timer. Never left it on low overnight. My bedroom radiator is always off as I can’t sleep with it on at all.

Id hear about keeping it on low being cheaper but then another plumber said that was a myth. I’ve family worried pipes would freeze overnight of it went off properly but I don’t think it would if it’s been on during the day regularly. When we went on a winter holiday and it was snowing here in the uk we left it timed for an hour twice a day to keep the pipes warmed. But we were away a month so off would possibly have caused frozen pipes.

Whilst I understand why some people may need the heating on at night, ours goes off at 9 and comes back on at 6.30, we live on a very old draughty house so yes it’s cold by the time we go to bed but we have hot water bottles, PJs and extra blankets if needed.
Unless they’re a very good reason for heating at night I just think it’s a complete waste of money.

In our old house, & before we got a dehumidifier, the clothes horse was in the unheated bathroom. Clothes took days to dry, socks in particular could take a week.

(We had to keep the window open to let the damp out or we had horrendous condensation problems, and I was not going to have the heating on in there with the window open. The dehumidifier changed my life.)

We always have the heating off at night, me and my husband have our bedroom windows ajar even in winter, because we hate being hot at night. In the winter we will set it to come on around 6:30am for us getting up at 7 but it will go off at around 8ish when we leave for work, then it will be set to come on in time for us getting home but will go off around 8:30pm once my daughter is settled in bed. We have a hive so it's really easy to set all the the timings, but also really easy to manually override on days where we are in all day and will want the heating on a bit more through the day.