"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?

A week for socks to dry! I imagine towels were worse, and jeans must have taken an age.

I thought everyone just put their heating on a timer? I put mine on for about an hour in the morning, about half an hour before we all get up and have showers, so radiators and bathrooms are warm. I always lay my clothes out on the radiator the night before, get the younger kids to do the same. In the evening it goes on again for about 2 hours in full winter, around 6ish. We then have a fire for the lounge we can heat that room with and sit in. We also have a separate system for upstairs and downstairs so I often have downstairs on less in the morning as everyone is warm from upstairs.
I’ve never understood why keep the temperature on at night and I don’t like being cold! If it’s absolutely freezing, ie snowing!, I can put the heating on at any time by ‘an extra hour’ button so I will do that just a few times over winter. We have good, thick duvets which keep us all warm. If I have to get up for a wee it may be cold but it’s about a minute!
Similarly, I don’t keep it at a constant temperature in the day, if no one is in the house why would I want it heated? So it’s never on in the day but we can push a button for underfloor heating in the kitchen if I want to take the edge off and I’m home.

We have hive so currently the heating is off completely.
The plan this winter is to only have it on for two hours a day in the evening (we set it to 18) and rest of the time it sits at 14 to avoid frozen pipes

@Maireas to be fair, I have washing out on the line most of the year, as long as it isn't raining it will dry, and then I will either put in on a clothes horse around the radiator when the heating is on, or give it a 15min blast in the tumble dryer to just finish it off.

last year I had my heating set to 12 degrees so that if it really does get really really cold inside it will kick in. However I’m now in a colder house, in April it got down to 6 degrees in all the north facing rooms I didn’t put the heating on at all as it was April and only that cold for a few days but it wasn’t very nice and does make me worry for winter. This year I just won’t be able to afford to use it if my electric bill is about to double for the same usage as always (and I’m pretty frugal with my usage we don’t have a dishwasher or tumble dryer etc). My plan is to sleep in sleeping bags if necessary on really cold nights.

@Doggate1 did you abide by the dates even in 2018 during Beast from the East?

If I get up in the night, it's only to nip to the toilet so it would be pretty wasteful to put the heating on for that.

I'm not at home for long enough in the mornings to need the heating on then either.

At the minute mine is off all day and night, in the winter I put it on only when my son is in the house, so it's warm when he gets in from school, ( i never have it on when its just me in the house) and it goes off at night and set to come on for a bit when we get up.
Now the price has gone up I don't know what I'm going to do as I can just about afford this. I only work p/t at the minute so it's a struggle

Ours is 16 in the day 20 in the evening off all night We have great insulation and are always cosy

Our default is 12 at night and 19 during the day. It used to be default 15 like you when we had more money.

OFF and will continue to be until it is unbearable , I will have it on when DGS is here (age 3) but off at night , and will probably be cheaper to take him somewhere (library? ) than stay home, otherwise it's me planning to use less energy as much as poss. Already down graded ancient electric cooker and oven to be storage space - got an induction hob(£33 on Amazon) and pans ( deal till 31st @ ikea - was £12 but £9 with familycard) It does look bleak but there has also been power shortages nearby so I got a camping stove and fuel , experienced this before twice and was very cold and hungry. Now I can at least cook and make hot drinks, fill hot water bottles/flasks and I hope I do not have to use any of it 🙏

Yes probably. I put them into lanterns when my cats singed their whiskers off one time 😮

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

Fair enough. I have sensory issues and can't bear being cold. Even if it's only for a short time and I stand under a scalding shower afterwards it takes me hours to warm up. I realise not everybody is like that, though.

This thread makes me so sad. It will be such a miserable winter for so many people. 😔

Ours is off between 10.30 pm and 5.45am - warms up well in the morning.

also, turn down the temperature on your boiler, it is usually set higher than you need (think about it, it is why we have to add cold water) lowering boiler settings and radiator ones will save you money . I did it and my bills are lower

I do this. Heating comes on at 6.45 to heat the rooms and off at 8am when we leave the house. Hubbies works from home so if incredibly cold, he will use oil filled radiator to warm our bedroom where he works. Heating comes on again at 4pm and off at 10pm.
We have discussed turning it off at 8.30pm and we all have snuggies which are great. We did have electric blanket in out old house but to be fair, between me, hubbie and the dog, we are always boiling.

I need to find out a bit more about this

Firstly OH says that the water has to be set to at least 70 degrees to kill off bacteria, is this true ( he has some funny notions at times which I always need to check out)

Secondly I wondered about this because I thought that if the water is not as hot, doesnt that mean that the rads dont get as hot and therefore they and the rooms take longer to reach the set temperature? Therefore if its on for longer wont that cost me more?

(you can tell I know nothing about heating systems!)

We do use heating for a few hours a day, but I also do less washing in the winter. Tops do for two or three days, my wool blend socks the same, wool jumpers and jeans are only washed occasionally. Our bath towels are small and lightweight so dry quickly in a smaller space. I time bedding for a clear windy day where possible then it goes on the bannister to finish drying.

The heating for us is switched off Untill about October, then we start by setting to an hour boost just before we wake up
and again at DC bedtime.

brick houses catch the heat during the day and radiate it back at night. That’s partly why the heatwave was unbearable as the inside of the house was warmer than outside even when trying to cool it by opening windows overnight and closing once the heat started rising.

when it gets really cold we may set it to a few more time but we never leave the thermostat on, and overnight you can add blankets. In winter we can have a sheet, winter duvet and blankets on top of the bed and warm pajamas on.

spend some money on a decent winter duvet will save loads on energy.

In the north east of Scotland, heating is off at night , historically its gone off at 10pm , then back on at 6.30am then off again at 9am then back on at 3pm set at 20 degrees. This winter it’s going down to 18 degrees, then off at 8pm and stay ing off till 2pm , if it really a hard cold and snowy winter then will have to have it on for a few hours in morning. TV in bedroom , 15 tog duvet, electric under blanket , brushed cotton pjs , teddy bear fleece bedding, warm slipper boots, thermal underwear , fleece’s around the house , throws on sofas. Hopefully we get some good cold sunny days as the back of my house warms up great even in cold weather if the sun come in. But we are dark by 3.30pm in afternoon. Worst for me is a long damp gray cold winter, give me cold and sunny not cold and damp.

I keep a warm dressing gown within reach of my bed and pull it back on straight after the shower - can put it on before getting up in you need to. It's just not cold wearing the right dressing gown. They're cheap and last ages - look at the current Argos selection

www.argos.co.uk/sd/towelling-dressing-gowns/

Yes this is what I've been told too. Consistent low temp takes less energy to maintain than going from off to 18 degrees.

In my old house I used to have heating on all day set at 30 degrees but still never had it on at night as it was too hot, however, my new house is 3 storey and I hardly ever have the heating on in the day let alone the night as it’s generally warm.

Apparently the juries out on that, but probably not, for gas and electric anyway. You might save a bit on the system heating up, but unless you'd be switching it on and off every two minutes or actually want heating on all the time, you save by having no heating on when you don't need it