"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?

We normally try not to put heating on until October but DH says we have to try to last until November this year 😱

We have it off most of the time. The rule is, it can go on for an hour or so but only if we're already layered up and still cold. Always off before bed. We have a duvet each and blankets on the sofa, layers etc.

It's been off since March and probably won't go on till October/November depending on temp.

Toddler GS here sometimes, it will be on for him but off as much as poss. I totally agree with people who would rather spend their money in beneficial ways rather than feed greedy energy companies and investors/shareholders
Got a camping stove and head torch for power cuts which are expected and hope I do not have to use them
Got a single induction hob to save using my ancient, energy guzzling electric cooker and found it boils faster than my fast boil kettle, no idea about energy consumption but so far so good, may invest in a halogen heater to save heating the whole place when it is just me - I like a cold bedroom
Anybody else think the whole situation is now a bit hunger games/squid game ?
If we do have a power cut I will help my neighbours as much as I can we had one before and it was brutal, fortunately a lovely neighbour brought me a flask of boiling water and I was able to warm up
"May the odds be in your favour"

Boiler been off since Feb, apart from to bathe the GS occasionally

We don't have the heating on at night. It's set to come on about an hour before we get up in the morning for an hour or two, an hour or so around lunchtime (I WFH) and about five hours in the evening, from about 5pm-10pm.

Our thermostat (in the hallway) is set at 16.5, so when it is on, the heating doesn't boost higher than that.

As a minimum in the winter the expectation is that people will be covered up - I.e exposed skin covered in one layer of clothing where appropriate. I mean, I don't expect my family to be wearing hats and gloves but if they're sitting around in shorts and a vest top they need to get changed rather than asking for the heating on. We also have blankets on all the sofas so that if you're chilly when you're not moving about you can snuggle down. The aim is that people expending a usual amount of energy pottering about will be comfortable.

Of course, this all means we don't have much left to shave off our gas bill with the increase in prices.

I detest the feeling of the heating on at night, it's suffocating. I used to flick the thermostat down to 10 degrees so it wouldn't click on, but then it got really cold and started up a few times so now I put it on the frosty setting to be sure.

Nothing worse than trudging downstairs to turn the heating off cos you've woken up feeling all stuffy and hot 🤢

My flat is new build and triple glazed , I’ve never needed to have the heating on

Plus it’s underfloor heating which is very expensive however heats the flat better as residual heat lasts longer

We just turn the heating on and off as we need - never worked out the timer. Therefore we have never had the heating on at night! We do live in a purpose built flat though which means we benefit from neighbours heat!

I grew up in a house with no heating so it doesn’t bother me. Being overheated gives me a headache so I never have it on at night, just timed for getting up at 18° or so.

The Heating Rule is that it goes on no earlier than the end of Autumn half term holiday and off no later than the Spring half term.

Never ever on at night. An hour in the mornings and a couple of hours in the evening. No heating in kitchen - the cooker does the job - or hallway as no one is out there. Generally don’t bother with it in the bedrooms unless it’s really cold, just communal space. Electric blankets, extra duvets and hot water bottles for bedtime.

We are lucky though, we live in Cornwall so no snow to speak of. Fingers crossed for a nice mild winter this year.

Always heating off at night. And I'm a person who gets cold easily!! Have never really felt cold in bed, you don't notice the cold when asleep, but I do have a nice fluffy blanket on top of my duvet in winter.
Schedule is usually: on 06:45 to 07:45 at 18 degrees (I get up at 7 with kids, leave home 08:15), then off until 6pm. On at 6pm for 2-3hrs depending on how cold it is, then off all night i.e. 5 degrees for anti-frost.
NB: My reasons are the cost and the environment - although I could probably afford it*, it seems like unnecessary waste to me (in both senses).
*Until this year!!!

@BillyWilliamTheThird Do you mean off mid February? That's early!

Minerva yeah. We can get away without it from the end of Feb this far south. Not sure we could anywhere else though!

Double glazing, small rooms with small windows, terraced house and good insulation also really help obvs. The super-thick granite walls also retain heat really well so a bit of sunshine goes a long way iyswim. Flip side is that the house has been unbearably hot and stuffy during the summer!

Minerva yeah. We can get away without it from the end of Feb this far south. Not sure we could anywhere else though!
I was forgetting that February break was pretty much until the end of February. Still early as a 'no later than' date though! We turned ours off at the beginning of March then occasionally used the boost on a few days, it was a mild March though I think. SW too but not as far SW.

Haha the one year I went to Oz for a month we had snow right into March when we returned!! We assumed when we left the snow in feb that we would come back to spring but landed in March to just as much snow. One year we also had a head wave in March so turned the heading off expecting a lovely Easter but then the Easter break came round and heading went back on as temp dropped dramatically. Months are quite arbitrary these days for hearing cut off!!

I've always had the heating off overnight no matter what temperature it is outside. When the DS were babies and we lived in an older house as well. Snuggly duvets and a cold bedroom. Can't bear a warm bedroom/house at night. Ours gets to about 15/16 but is well insulated.

We put thermostat on low temperature, never have boiler off. Anyway, our "low" is warm for some people. With new prices, we are planning to keep 20.5 during the day and 18 at night. I just can't go below this. I'd rather eat less to afford gas bill.

I should add, we are buying dehumidifier for upstairs, I hope this will help. I heard that high humidity adds up to feeling cold.

I'm chronically ill and need the heating on all night when it is cold.

Exactly. I never get how that works (we have a log burner - it does not heat the whole house).

Heated blankets have just gone up by nearly a tenner, don't know whether to buy now or save the money for the meter 🤔

I live in the Midwest USA, with 90 degree heat common in the summer and an average temperature of -15 degrees Celsius in the winter. We have an older house with hardwood floors throughout - no carpet at all.

In the winter our daytime thermostat temperature is set to about 21 and at night, maybe around 17? Turning our heating off is not an option - our kitchen/bathroom pipes would freeze! (It's so cold here in winter that they recommend to keep your car fuel tank over half full so that your fuel pipes don't freeze).

I grew up in a cold house in England - no central heating and a fire in one room - and I hated it. Thankfully although our utility bills have gone up a bit, they're nowhere near UK rates. I can't bear to be cold. When we leave the house in the winter we have to be bundled up like bloody Eskimos. I'm not going to scrimp on heating inside!

Our heating stays consistently at 20 degrees all day and evening (DH and I are almost always home, we turn off if not), then no lower than 17.5 overnight. When the thermostat learned our pattern it tried to randomly boost to 21.5 degrees on certain days morning or evening, but that's just occasional boosts so I switch it back to the pattern. I don't plan to change it, we are in the young-child-many-virus stage of life, so we want them to clear as quickly as possible. We're also hard to get up when it's cold.

Our heating comes on for half an hour mornings and 1.5 hours evenings. Previously Oct - March, but we'll try to hold out longer this year- and reduce the times.

If it was really chilly, ie snow on the ground, and everyone at home we can override it.

Upstairs regularly gets down to 9 degrees. It's not fun, but we try to keep one room comfortable (kitchen or living room).

Anyway all this talk is irrelevant at present because our boiler isn't working 🙄.

I've never had the heating on overnight, in the South though. Even when it has been very cold/snowy, I just make sure the windows are closed, as we gnerally sleep with them open a crack. No idea how cold the house get's down to, but as the heating comes on at 7am, it heats up nicely by the time we all need to get up. The timer is set for 7-9 and then 4-10, if it is particularly cold during the day we let it run between 7-10. We do have stats on all the radiators too though, so that also helps regulate room temps.