"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 usually have it off through the night but if it’s several degrees minus we’ll put it on at a low temperature so we’re not trying to heat a freezing cold house in the morning.

All these ‘I grew up in the days when the windows froze on the inside’ irritate me no end. So did I, and people were delighted when central heating became a thing - waking up to a warm house was wonderful and not having to sit in a freezing loo was great. I don’t recall huge swathes of the population demanding they keep their lack of central heating, coal fires and gas or electric fires. Makes me so mad that we’re now in a situation where people can’t afford food and heat - 2022 in a developed country ffs.

My heating went off in April and won't be on until at least October this year. Even then it'll be on for half the time it was on last year. I've just stockpiled a load of coal at summer prices so we'll boost with coal fires when necessary.

To answer the OP - yes our is off at night and most of the day tbh. The temperature may go into single figures overnight but I've never bothered to look to see. Probably unlikely.

I used to turn it off at night and the room temperature used to get to around 14/15 degrees in our bedroom. We found our house would never really get warm when we put the heating on so now we don’t let it get below 16 degrees.

With rising bills I don’t know whether we will have the heating on much this winter so the house is going to be so cold and miserable. When we went away for a few days and turned the heating off it was nine degrees in the house when we came back. We had to bath the children at my in- laws and stay in the living room with the log fire on.

Ours is currently turned off and has been since about April? We also turn it off overnight in the winter but it sits at about 18 during the day so comes on and off as the temperature fluctuates.

We live in a new build house though and there is never any need to have the heating on at night, even in winter. I have a hot water bottle if I get chilly.

We have our heating on for about 2 hours in the morning and about 4 hours in the evening. It varies a bit by how cold it is, and how much we are at home, but that was the general pattern last winter. It would never occur to me to leave it on all night while I'm in a nice warm cosy bed!

I suspect this winter we'll have it on for an hour in the morning and about 3 hours in the late afternoon/evening.

Mine's either on or off, no thermostat. In the summer it's just off round the clock. In the winter we have it set to come on for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening. It definitely never gets to single figures!

@GoneWithTheWine1

if your tv is on standby mode, do you class it as on or off?

I've never had central heating, much less on overnight!

In the past it's just been a woodstove in the living room, which slowly cools overnight. This year it'll be a single oil radiator in whichever room is used most, set to 17, switched off overnight. Other rooms are freezing cold in winter. Chopping vegetables is risky with cold numb fingers; freezer stops working when the ambient room temp drops too low. Showers are hurried and hair-wash day is dreaded in winter. Wrap up warm for bed. I love the contrast of being warm and snuggly in an icy bedroom. I can't sleep unless it's cold overnight anyway. Getting out of bed is bracing!

The temperature drop depends on your house. In our freezing old Victorian terrace it could get down to 10-12C over night in the middle of winter.

Dp once had a competition with a friend to see how cold he could get the house when I went away for a few days - eventually fridge switched itself off as the temperature of the kitchen was lower than the internal temp of the fridge.
i was very pissed off when I got home to a frozen house and very miserable cat that week!

We usually keep the house at a more civilised 18 these days and our new 1960s built house seems to get much less cold and drafty than the terrace even though it has solid floors. We have the heating off overnight though it might click on if it goes below 13 or 14.

We would usually only have the heating set to come on when we are home in the evenings and a little in the mornings if it’s really cold. We spend more time dashing about getting ready so are less likely to notice the cold in the mornings.

Do you mean at night when you're asleep?
We've never had it on during the night when we've been asleep. It did come on once on its own and I woke up absolutely boiling at about 4am!
It's only ever on if we put it on which isn't for long and isn't until October ish.
DP is always reluctant to put heating on and that was before all this with the rises.
DP literally freaks out if I put the heating on, even if it's December!!!
We have a newborn now so no idea how that will be over the next few months.

Ours is off overnight. Like many others on this thread, we would never have it on overnight. It would click on if we got down to something like 6 degrees, but it never has got that cold in the house. It’s on a timer (off at the moment, obvs, but during the cold months) - an hour or so in the morning to take the chill off, then just a couple of hours in the late afternoon/evening. Our bills have always been astronomical as we aren’t on mains gas - it’s LPG delivered to a neighbourhood tank - so we’re going to try not having the heating on in the mornings this winter. It will be fine - quick shower, dressed promptly, porridge for breakfast and off to work (I imagine I will very much appreciate my heated seat in the car.)

Ours is set to 16C day and night, we’re in a four hundred year old stone cottage with walls that are over a foot thick in places so it is much cheaper to keep it at a stable temperature as reheating that much stone is very expensive! We had a young baby last winter but this year he will be in nursery four days a week so we are hoping we can keep the house warm enough almost entirely using the woodburner - although working from home is more expensive in terms of heating at least one of us will be there to keep the fire stoked. Otherwise our bills could potentially wind up being in excess of £9000 a year as we have only electric boiler (no gas or oil) which costs around 2-3x more than gas…. Don’t know why the previous owners put it in.

I posted that 😊and yes, our heating is on a timer and timed not to come on until 6am. Most people I know time their central heating like that 🤷‍♀️

If it’s REALLY cold outside then our draughty Victorian house might drop below 14 overnight. Can’t tell you how cold it gets because I’m asleep at that time!

There’ve been periods when we had no heating at all during very cold snaps (fixer-upper house) and while that certainly affected our daytime comfort, it did not make any difference to night times.

Mine is always set off at night, it'll only kick in if the temperature gets very cold. There is no need to run heating at night. Set a time for heating on low an hour before you get up, then it'll be nice and toasty for getting up and showered.

If it is exceptionally cold I will put mine on overnight - and set the thermostat to around 16. But usually I have mine off off.

I hate a very warm house and prefer to snuggle under a blanket. Or light a fire

Surely you risk burst pipes if you turn it off completely in winter. My dad was a plumber and he insisted on turning it down low when we went away over Christmas but never off completely.

People have the heating on at night?!

It would be so stuffy, I can't imagine that. Sometimes I've fallen asleep accidentally without switching it off, and woken up with a dry mouth feeling horrible.

Of course it doesn't go down to 0 degrees. The house retains heat and the walls and roof provide shelter! Even if it was actually freezing outside, it won't be zero degrees inside just because the heating is off overnight.

Coldest night I ever had was eight degrees in an ancient, unheated caravan in December. Now, that was unpleasant.

Ours is also one a timer. It goes off off at 9pm and then the house stays warm until about 10.30 ish. Then the temperature will drop to whatever it drops to. We don’t know once we are tucked up in bed. It then comes on at 6.30 for an hour then off again once the dc leave for school at 7.30. Then on again at 4.30 ready for their return. When it’s on we have hive portable thermostats so can set different temperatures in different zones of the house. So in total the heating is in for a maximum of 5.5 hours a day. We turn it off again though if it’s too warm.

Completely off. New build and it doesn’t get that cold overnight. We only ever have the heating on for an hour at a time, any longer and the house is too warm.
We don’t use a thermostat, just press a button that puts it on for an hour when it feels cold (normally once when we get up and once in the evening)
This is a fairly large house in the north of England. We used to live in an old 1930s house and the difference in temperature and how much we need the heating on is phenomenal. I’d never go back to an old house now.

How cold does it get at night? Surely it gets down to single figures most of the time?

15 degrees mostly and some cold nights 13/14

I never have the heating on at night. It goes off maybe 8:30 or 9pm. Then is off until about 5:30 am (I’m up at 6am). Off again about 7:30am. Back on about 4pm.

house never gets below 15degrees.

not 1 but 15 degrees

We have ours on for a couple of hours in the morning, couple of hours in the evening, in autumn/winter. I had no idea anyone had it on overnight. We just add extra quilts if we're cold but I've never been too cold.

Yes same. I’ve got an electric blanket if I’m really cold though but I actually get too hot in the night if the heating is on.

During the week it's set to come on at 16:30, then it goes off at 22:00 or so. We're all up and out of the house very quickly in the morning, so no sense having it on then. It's set to 19C, which is a very comfortable temperature.