"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?

Couple of clicks at 18 here, in the morning and late afternoon, and then otherwise set at frost, no need to have it on overnight. Might give it a boost before bedtime if it’s really cold.

Our gas use it’s fine, it’s electricity that’s costing us a fortune!

In the summer our heating is off completely - only the hot water operates (so even if we had a freak drop in temperature to 0 degrees, it would not come on). In winter it is on a timer, with the thermostat set at about 19/20 degrees. It comes on about 6am in the morning (so about half an hour before we get up), goes off about 8am, shortly before we all leave for school and work. Then similarly comes on for a few hours in the evening when we are home. It clicks off about 10.30pm. When it's off, it is "off off". I.e. it will not come on, regardless of temperature. If the weather is extremely cold, I will sometimes override the off function, so it stays on at night but I reduce the temperature considerably when we are in bed.

always same dates 🙈

@Scianel always the same dates 🙈 regardless of weather …thermostat never goes up or on for longer. Just put a sweater on or move about more ..

I've not had any heating for 2.5yrs now (on benefits and can't afford to fix the boiler), I just wrap up warm, eat stews and soups, drink coffee and snuggle up with the dog to keep warm.

Same here.

I can’t bear to be cold though and thankfully our house is easy to heat so during the colder months whenever we are at home the heating is set at 22. Well, this year will be different but that’s how it’s always been in the past.

Unpopular opinion, and this is not having a go at anyone that can’t afford energy bills, but for many years I have wondered why ‘not having the heating on’ is worn like a badge of honour?

I don’t have the heating on overnight, nor do I sit around in shirt and a vest with the thermostat on high, but if I feel cold I put the heating on. I hate to be cold and thankfully our house is easy to heat - and until now at least we have been able to afford it. I do not take that for granted.

But I have never understood people’s arbitrary dates between which they refuse to use their heating - UK weather is notoriously fickle so we can get some very cold days in the summer. A date on the calendar is just a date, if it’s cold I have the heating on.

Over the years I’ve known many people that go through this martyrdom of not turning their heating on between April and November for example, and when they do use it it’s only for an hour in the morning and an hour at night - but they could perfectly well afford to. And it’s not because of any eco reason, have a cold home if you wish but don’t say it’s because you’re saving the planet and then jet off to Lanzarote with the family.

I grew up in a house with no central heating, I remember how miserable that felt - I don’t want that for my kids, and I don’t want to feel like that again.

Having said that, that opinion is a luxury of the past given what’s happening now, but I still wonder why people feel that living in a cold house is something to be proud of.

Whenever I hear someone professing about how they never use their heating I can only think of Lady Whiteadder sitting on a spike 😂

I grew up in a house without central heating, but it certainly wasn’t miserable. We had heating just not central heating. Electric blankets and hot water bottles were also used along with big dressing gowns with hoods to snuggle into

Growing up without central heating was miserable.
Only hot water one day a week- Sunday bath night.
We had a coal fire but that was kept for high days and holidays as it was expensive to run. In the lving room we mostly had an electric fire, with red hot elements behind a mesh.e I have not seen a heater like that for years, and were
dangerous. As were parrafin heaters- house fires were common, wet laundry would be crowded round to dry.
These heaters were often used in bedrooms too, and girls often wore long flammable nylon nightdresses- sometimes with devastating effects.

I remember very few good things about growing up in the 60s and 70s.

@Fisifoofoo How does turning up the heat whenever you feel cold work if there are other people in the house? We had our heating on at 17 and for more hours before the price rises started last winter, but DS was in jeans, t-shirt and barefoot, any higher if I'd been a bit cold and he'd then be uncomfortable.

We don't have a fixed date to put heating on but once it is on then there's the transition of remembering to close windows before it kicks in in the evening. So October is usually just the one hour boost if needed after checking windows are all closed.

I remember very few good things about growing up in the 60s and 70s.

And I’m struggling to think of any bad things. Some things were different, but not bad.

Depends on your financial situation.
I gre up in a huge cuncil scheme- kids from about the age of 3 were allowed to roam the streets with older kids - I saw lots of injuries.
A huge amount of domestic violence, usually carried out by drunk husbands- and police would not intervene, a it was deemed a "domestic".
Tranquilisers were handed out like sweets by GP, and often the percieved MH issue was actually debt, or marital violence.
ECT was performed readily and often at the local psychiatric hospital.
Child sex abuse was swept under the carpet- police woul persuade families to not persue things, because of the "shame" it would bring onto the victim and family.
Scabies, lice and disorders from malnutrition were commonplace.
Diet was very bad, lots of processed tinned meat, sugar, children had lots of cavities and most people over 45 had dentures.

My OH grew up in the same era- but they had money, firewood to fuel the aga- they were well off financially.
He has a different view of childhood.

kids from about the age of 3 were allowed to roam the streets with older kids - I saw lots of injuries.

I thought that was normal. I didn’t see any injuries serious enough to remember. Lots of grazed knees. Also lived on an estate of rented terraced houses.

As for the rest, did you experience or were even aware of it when you were a child?

Heating is always off at night. If the sun shines we use the conservatory to heat the house during the day. CH is on in the morning and evening for a few hours only.
If cold, I try to warm up with hot water bottles heated blankets etc rather than heat the whole room. I grew up with no central heating, ice on the inside of bedroom windows, would get dressed under the bed covers, could see my breath in the cold air in bedrooms.Trying to be Wim Hoff but not working! Hate being cold so looks like it will be early to bed during the winter months.

I grew up in a number of freezing cold rural farmhouses (tied cottages, so rented).

Interestingly don’t mind a cold house because I think somewhere in my head the childhood message is hot houses are for townies wimps and old people.

However I only really enjoy super hot baths and wallowing for ages. Not showers as I can’t stand the difference in temperature when you get out of the cubicle or curtain.
Weirdly I like cold water swimming and will go in open water all winter long, so it’s not being cold itself I mind.
It’s the perception of cold and what it means to me. I guess I might try cold showers and think of them as being healthy.

I’m sorry I really don’t understand what you’re saying - you’re assuming that the other people in my home want to be cold?

Having the heating on at 17 degrees is not a warm house.

Currently on holiday. Got up at 6 and the temp in the living room was 18 degrees I was perfectly content in my PJ shorts & vest. Temp is currently rising and we are all up now in shorts & t shirts and the back door is wide open so the ducks can come and get their seed.

We’ve been here in the winter too and asked the owners to reduce the temperature because we genuinely find it uncomfortable being too warm and opening windows to let heated air out is wasteful and very un environmentally friendly. DH and I didn’t install heating until we had our first child and one of my neighbours still doesn’t have CH. Not sure how old she is but was born during WW2 and has lived in the house all her life. She has a gas fire in the living room and that is it. She is perfectly happy.

I'm not assuming anything. Just saying that different people can have different preferred temperatures, so in our case, 17 was a temperature we were both happy with. If I was feeling chilly even in the cheaper energy times I would put on more clothing as if I turned up the heat then my DS would complain and he is already usually barefoot and in a tshirt. I thought most families worked like that and found a compromise.

My thermostat is off all the time, i put it on as and when i need it. As i run hot, usually its only on 18 if i have others in the house i turn it up, if im alone and cold i put it on to warm the place up for an hour or two then off again. Never on at night.
It is not true that its more energy efficient to leave it on low all the time, it used to be the case years ago, no longer. If your thermostats on its using gas.
Martin Lewis covered this on his programme last year.

Ours is set to 14 at night, 16 during the day and we have a couple of hours programmed to be higher (1st thing in morning is 19, and between 6 and 8 we also have it set for 19). We can boost it if necessary, but if it goes below the set temp, it will come on automatically (as it's more efficient to keep a relative base level heat than completely off and heat up from cold). Up until 2020 and WFH, we used to not turn on certain radiators in autumn (we turn them all off for summer so gas only heats the hot water), like only heating the spare room when we were expecting guests etc.

We have a pretty well insulated extension which has a lot of south-facing glass, so the kitchen/diner/living room tends to be quite warm without any heating most sunny days even in the depths of winter. If we have the oven on for anything, that also does a very good job of heating that room. So we are often opening the door to the hall to let the heat spread out to the rest of the house rather than needing the central heating.

And we've spent a lot of time over the years trying to slowly improve the insulation everywhere (1980s house with no cavity blocks and almost no insulation in the walls, and very thin insulation in the roof, originally had single glazed windows) and put in double glazed windows, properly fitting door, adding thermostats, getting good curtains to keep the heat in the room not let it out the windows etc. They have all made noticable differences.

Regarding keeping on a low temp such as ..

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

I remember Martin Lewis talking about this on the radio and he said don’t! Most of us have quite big tanks now and keeping that at a regular temperature uses more energy than turning it on twice a day. I go by what he says!!

Aren't tanks generally smaller these days? Compared to those massive cylinder tanks we used to have.

17 /18 degrees counts as “comfortable”.

Many people have combi boilers with no tank at all.