"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?

Do you not realise that on mumsnet it's a competition as to who can have the coldest house? It's like a badge of honour. Not one that I'd want personally mind you.

Some posters seem to have really complicated systems!

Our thermostat in the hallway is set at 20/21.
The timer on the boiler is set to come on a 7am and go off at 10pm.

If the temp on the thermostat goes below 21, the heating kicks in.

We have radiator thermostats in every room so even if the heating is coming on across the whole house, we can turn it down or off in any room.

Obviously the thermostat is not in the best place as it's right outside the kitchen door, so sometimes heat from cooking means it's higher than the temp upstairs.

Never ever had the heating on after 10pm. No need.

Loft insulation, cavity walls insulated, new double glazing.

Do ppl have heating on at night regardless of time of year?
Our heating has been off since May, before anyone asks I'm in Scotland.

Off from April- October. Just hot water at set times. As soon as it gets cold, on for 2 hours 5-7am to get us up and to work and then 3-8. Only if needed.Thermostat at 17.

It's an old house but we are so rural we are on oil so it is bare minimum right now and last year too. If you think gas or electric are bad, dear lord oil! It literally went up in price x 8. We have no other option because there are no mains.

Surely you risk burst pipes if you turn it off completely in winter.

no as the pipes aren't outside and the house doesn't get down below freezing

ive had a pipe/tap burst that was outside in a coal shed - but thats not got any insulation and was never heated

Me too! I wish I could sell my internally generated heat back to the national grid...

In the winter ours is set to come on in the morning and evening. It is then off completely between those times. There is a frost thermostat so if it got really cold overnight it would kick in enough to stop pipes freezing.
Once you're asleep it doesn't need to be on. You are under a duvet and/or blanket, and with the body heat you will be warm enough.

Ours is a nest and has an eco setting. Think it’s 8 degrees. Never had the heating in at night, even with a newborn, but we're in London so it never gets that cold, even in an old house like ours.

When I say this I mean I've set it so low it won't come on - e.g. 8 degrees or something. I think once mine came on when it was set to 12 degrees and it woke me up because I got so hot, so now I put it even lower. I don't actually know how to turn it off completely!

I've never felt cold in bed. The majority of people shouldn't need heating when they're sleeping, if they've got warm pyjamas, thick duvet and a hot water bottle/electric blanket if needed (obvious exceptions for the very young/old/ill or if you live in a single glazed house in the highlands).

We always turn the heating off at night. I absolutely could not sleep with the heating on because -

a) the bangy floorboards would wake me up in the middle of the night
b) I love fresh cool air when I'm snuggled under the duvet, preferably with a window open somewhere
c) it seems like such a waste to have the heating on when we are all asleep

The heating goes back on the minute I wake up and I don't get out of bed until its's toasty - loving the Hive App on my phone for that.

We have the thermostat set to 19 but turn it off if we feel warm. I don't see the point in having the heating just because the thermostat says so.

@SirChenjins All these ‘I grew up in the days when the windows froze on the inside’ irritate me no end.
..
Me too. Its not like that existence was a good thing. I'm not saying let's not save energy, which is an environmentally positive thing to do, but equally, a bit of balance please. Feels like some posters are competing about who can survive in the coldest house, rather than asking to tackle the source of the problem, greedy private energy companies.

Ours if off from 8 pm and on for an hour at 8am. Both windows are open at night whether it's -5 or +15. Heating on at night is a ridiculous waste and environmental cost. Get a decent duvet and comforters . . .

It's summer! Heating is off until autumn. Then it goes on at 12 at night and 17 day.

I don't quite get the idea that you'd set your heating by a month on the calendar!

It's a bit like people saying they change into summer clothes in April or whatever when it's still bloody freezing outside!

It reminds me of when I worked in schools and we all longed for the 2nd half of the autumn term when the heating would go on, having spent a lot of the term bloody freezing!

Surely it all depends on the weather?

We'll have our heating on LONG before October. It all depends on the temperature.

That's what we used to do - our house takes ages to heat up of it's gets too cold so set to 15 degrees overnight. Our new thermostat doesn't let us do that so it's properly off overnight. Or if it's really cold we leave it on at 16 or 17 and then turn it up when we get up (didn't need that last winter). I am never too cold at night, but find it hard to warm up if the house is too cold first thing (below 17).

I cannot sleep if there is a heater on anywhere in the house. I grew up in the Highveld in South Africa where there is no central heating, no heaters were left on at night, and the temperature on a winter night can be -5.

I had no idea sleeping with the heating on was a thing.

I have always turned it off at night.

And we don't turn the heating off or on depending on the month either. April can be freezing - more likely to snow than December - and November very mild. Some years I've been exercising outside in tshirts in Nov.

It depends what you mean by ‘the heating is on’. Our boiler is ‘on’ all year round. But the heating is on a timer, so ordinarily it would only be activated morning and evening. And the thermostat is set at 18, so as long as the room is over 18 the heating is not turned on. It probably won’t start to turn the heaters on until well into Autumn (we are in France). It does have a ‘minimum temp’ setting as well: if the room temp goes below 15 then the heating will come on, whatever the time of day. But it only very rarely does that.

I'm one of the people who doesn't use a timer. I press a button to turn on the heating for an hour whenever it's needed - which is never in the summer and 3 or 4 hours a day in the winter.

I don't have an indoor thermostat. My boiler outside has a temperature control which is set at 65° (so 18°C) and needs a screwdriver to change so that's not something I'd be doing twice a day like some of you.

I've been saving to switch to a heat pump and solar. I won't be happy if the bedroom ends up oppressively warm. Cool air and an electric blanket suit me perfectly. I'll have a wood burner to create point heat in the room we relax in to have it nice and cosy for vegging out

It's amazing how quickly cultural expectations and comfort levels seem to have changed in the last 40 years

our thermostat is always set to at least 10 degrees.
at the moment it means heating doesn't come on because it's warm enough.

in the colder months the thermostaf is set to 18 degrees during daytimeand 10 again at night.
radiators are on only inthe rooms we are in.

One thing I would recommend is having thermostatic radiator controls - loads of ours had been cracked for ages and I didn't realize how easy it was to change them! Did 3 last year and it cost £12, and it's much easier to heat the right rooms now.

People who are saying they don’t have heating on at all/not much - or are planning to do that with what we’ve all got coming up… how do/will you dry washing?

I stick it outside in summer but in winter I usually put on hot radiators (with windows opened for ventilation) and then tumble some of it. But not everything can be tumble dried plus I’m thinking we need to run the tumble drier as little as possible.

Have just bought an electric clothes dryer but it seems a bit shit/pointless tbh - takes hours to not fully-dry one load.

I don’t know how to efficiently dry stuff if the heating is on less. Damp washing just sitting in a cool/cold house just won’t dry.

Usually our thermostat is set to 18 in the winter but it is also on a timer so if it drops below that temp when timer is on the heating will come on.
Last winter I think the timer was set 6.30am-8.30am and then back on at 4pm until 8. 30pm. If it drops below 18 outside of those times the heating wouldn't come on.

This year we probably won't be able to afford to have it on nearly as much. We will probably set it for an hour in the morning and an hour in the eve.

I live without central heating. I have a small oil radiator that I put on for an hour or so & that's it. I am quite happy down to 8C then it hurts.