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Original poster

"We don't have the heating on"

750 replies

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?

OP posts:
Clovacloud · 27/08/2022 16:25

We live in a 1930s semi (so not a super insulated new house), and the only time we have the heat on at night is if there is snow on the ground. Don’t know why, other than we like to sleep in the cold. We just have hot water bottles, duvet, blankets, it doesn’t feel like it gets super cold though though.

In winter we tend to have it turn off at 10pm, and then it comes back on at 6am as we get up at 7am. At the moment it’s entirely off and probably will be until mid to late October depending on the weather.

Beatrice88 · 27/08/2022 16:25

megletthesecond · 27/08/2022 16:18

I can't sleep in the cold. I did manage to get mine down to 21° overnight last winter though. I'm going to try a degree lower this year, but if I start waking in the night it'll go back up.

21 degrees overnight when you’re in bed? The boiler running at night would drive me mad for one thing but it must be insanely hot in your house.

our thermostat is set to 12 degrees for night time and it has only kicked in rarely. It comes on at 6.30 in winter and is comfortable when we get up. At the moment it’s set to off.

GoneWithTheWine1 · 27/08/2022 16:26

I turn mine to 0. That is off. 15 isn't off.

Arenanewbie · 27/08/2022 16:27

I do the same as you, only I put 18 for night. Our thermostat is in very warm corridor so when it’s 17 in it the whole house is frozen. I put more before bathtime and in the morning and less when we are going out. I’ve found this approach very energy savvy.

AntlerRose · 27/08/2022 16:27

I think people mean they dont put it on at all.

Like you, my thermostat is set for 14 degrees at night and when we arent in. it incredibly rarely comes on. We do this due to advice we recieved about freezing pipes. Basically for it to be 14 degrees where our thermostat is, some of our pipes would be in spots they could freeze.

Crotonifolia · 27/08/2022 16:27

It would have to be absolutely freezing outside for us to have heating on overnight. I mean snow on the ground for a week or two type of thing, where the house never gets that warm even in daytime... and that hasn't happened in years. Praying for a mild winter.

Ours will be set in winter to go off at 8.30pm. 7°c is the lowest at which it will kick in overnight (the heating engineer says to protect the pipes?) But that's never happened, and isn't likely to. The lowest I've seen it is around 13 to 14°c overnight. We'll have it on for a couple of hours AM, and a few PM.

dressupinyou · 27/08/2022 16:27

Ours is left really low at night and where we live it's rarely cold enough to need it. Even before energy prices shooting up we've always done this. Sleeping with the heating on makes me feel like crap so I'd rather wrap up.

Justcallmebebes · 27/08/2022 16:27

Previous winters my thermostat is set around 18/19 but it goes off completely at night, always has

phishy · 27/08/2022 16:27

I need the heating off completely. Just the thought of it on (even a low temp) would stop me sleeping.

Getoff · 27/08/2022 16:28

Univalve · 27/08/2022 16:11

I don’t understand this either. My plumber told me it’s more energy efficient to have the thermostat on a constant low than to keep switching on and off, because it takes more energy to heat a house from very cold to warm.

For years I saw people post things like this, which make no sense, taken at face value. I mean obviously it takes more energy to heat a house from a colder temperature, but it takes even more energy to keep the heating on all the time so it's never at the colder temperature.

A few years ago I finally came across a plausible explanation for this. If your house is prone to damp, then bricks saturated with water will conduct more heat to the outside than ones that aren't. In this case, it makes sense to keep the heating on all the time at a level high enough to make sure the bricks are always dried out, because then you will keep more heat in.

If you don't have damp brickwork then the simple rules of physics do work, and you should have the heating off when you don't need it.

BooksAndHooks · 27/08/2022 16:29

Ours has never been on at night it’s off from 9.30 until 6.30am. Last year we had it on 16 during the day, doubt it will be on at all this year.

KickAssAngel · 27/08/2022 16:30

I spent several years living in the UK in a house with no heating at all.

When we had central heating, it would come on for an hour or two in the morning, then for several hours in the evening, but set to about 18 degrees. Otherwise, off. It never got cold enough at night to be a problem, even in an old detached house. It's a total myth that it's cheaper to run it all the time.

Now I live somewhere where it can be -40 at night, we have a lower setting at night time, around 12 degrees C.

I hate being too hot at night.

drunktrifle · 27/08/2022 16:32

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?

Ours is off completely now but when it's on in cold weather it's on a timer. So it comes on for a couple of hours morning and evening, within that time it's controlled by the thermostat which is usually set to about 18. It's always off overnight regardless of the temperature, (although we do have UFH in the conservatory on a separate control that has a frost mode so even if it's off it will override that and come on if it's freezing.)

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.
Our plumber said you shouldn't use the thermostat to control the heating coming on and off, it should stay the temperature you want it at then use the timer to control when it's on or off. I can't remember why though.

anotherpotoftea · 27/08/2022 16:32

We have ours set to never come on. We’ll put it on manually for a bit when it’s cold but never have it on automatically.

Metalandtea · 27/08/2022 16:32

We keep ours off totally in winter apart from an hour in morning and early evening. Off completely from end of March until October. No heating overnight at any time in the year.

Bluedabadeeba · 27/08/2022 16:32

My parents actually have it off off at night. I used to wake up angry in the winter because any extremity out of the cover/your face were freezing. And my feet and hands were always ice. When I grew up, I got myself a heater for that room, and now I don't wake up with the rage!!

... but with all that's going on, maybe I'll have to revert back to the ice age of yester year!

Plasmodesmata · 27/08/2022 16:33

I can't sleep in a hot / heated bedroom, our heating has always been on a timer and goes off at night.

BeanieTeen · 27/08/2022 16:33

I’m the winter ours is now set on a thermostat to 15 degrees or so - but in our previous house the heating was essentially ‘off’ and set to come on at a certain time. It depends on what kind of heating system you have. Either way it would be unusual for the temperature to drop below 15 degrees within a few hours in the night, unless it’s really freezing outside. Good insulation makes all the difference.

PeloAddict · 27/08/2022 16:34

BabyofMine · 27/08/2022 16:20

So… your heating is on now, in Summer??? Our heating hasn’t been on at all, for months.

At night our bedroom is currently about 24 degrees Celsius and has been for weeks! Even in winter, we turning the heating off, entirely, when we put little one to bed at 8pm and the bedrooms very rarely go anywhere near 18, usually stay around 19-21 from the heating being on during the day. I can’t imagine keeping it on at night. I’d boil!

I mean mine is technically "on" as in it's not switched to off
But it only comes in during the day if it drops below 16c and overnight below 5c so, it doesn't ever come on in summer

strawberrysea · 27/08/2022 16:35

We don't have central heating, we have electric radiators. In the winter we turn them on for maybe 2 hours at a time in the afternoon, but not everyday because they have always been expensive. 2 hours is enough to warm the place slightly and for the rest of the day we wrap up warm.
We have never had them on at night.

Sceptre86 · 27/08/2022 16:35

We are in Scotland and heating has been off since April. We will turn it on for an hour before the kids go to bed and an hour before they wake up until they get to school (7-8.30am) in the next few weeks.

HorribleHerstory · 27/08/2022 16:36

The coldest temperature I’ve recorded inside was 3 degrees in the winter of 2010, that was when we didn’t have any heating or hot water so the house never got warmed up and hot water never went through the pipes. If the heating had been working it would have kicked in at 5 degrees to stop the pipes freezing and rupturing (which is what happened).

When we’ve had heating on periodically and hot water available it rarely drops below about 9 degrees indoors I’ve found.

when the pipes froze it was -16 outside so still a good 19 degrees warmer inside than out even without any form of heating.

WeepingSomnambulist · 27/08/2022 16:36

I have mine set to 8, I prevent freezing pipes. So when I say off, I mean back to 8.

It's 18 for an hour in the morning and a few hours at night during the winter.

I turned it off off in May. Probably going back to 8 in mid september.

yomellamoHelly · 27/08/2022 16:36

I've got used to not having the heating on at night. Struggle to sleep when we go somewhere that has it on. Guess it's what you're used to. Love that weighty feeling of blankets on top of me too.

speakout · 27/08/2022 16:38

Heating is off during the night- and I am in Scotland. On very rare occasions when minus 12 I have put it on, but otherwise never.
I like cool air to sleep, mostly with a window open.
I also love being cosy in bed, so cosy sheets, layers over the duvet .
There is something so delicious about having a cosy warm bed in a cool room.
Switches on the hygge- and saves energy.