At which point do you put the heating on?

[MakeItADouble2]

Just went into my bedroom and the temperature is 17 5° C
I think I will be OK but wondering about rest of house with kids in it who are asleep now.
Are you holding out for a bit longer or is it on now?

Yes! A bit like threads about how poor we were when growing up eg “ You lived in a garden shed! You were lucky, I lived in a dog kennel!”

Exactly what I do! Currently set at 18 during the day and 10 overnight. I turn it up to 20 in the evening if I feel cold.

My energy costs work out at £180 per month on current prices based on last years usage - and I have the bonus of the £400 from the gvt being put into my bank account over the next six month which reduced the bill by £33 pm to £147. I’m ok with those figures fortunately, there are other ways I can reduce spending if I need to.

When it feels cold in the house or damp but we're Southish so still warm enough to have windows open at moment.

It's been warm where we are so we've only had it ok briefly since April. However last night was raining heavily and it felt chillier so we put it on for an hour at 5.30am as our toddler wakes up then.
I'm not not using heating this winter. I have a little one and he'll be in warm clothes but I refuse to have a cold house.

Put mine on for the first time yesterday-lounge was 15.5 degrees. Set it to 18. Took AGES to come on as the boiler was trying yo heat up from 25 degrees to 69.

Was so hot after about an hour! Had to turn it off again.

Apparently not. I am sure a system efficiently setup with a thermostat and on 24/7/365 is actually cheaper to run.

at some point over the next few weeks when it’s cold and we have a couple of similar days weather wise I will try both methods and see.

assuming the house is well insulated, then surely letting the actual fabric of the house become too cold and the air heavy with moisture is going to cost far more to warm up to a comfortable level than quicks blasts now and then when the thermostat calls for it?

Mimikievs. Why are you asking the boiler to get to 69degrees, that’s an awful waste of fuel& money. Turn your boiler flow stay down to about 60.

Ours was 17 yesterday and although it’s been 17 before it felt much colder than before so we put it on. Just set it to go off at 19 so it takes the edge off. Our direct debit has come in at £200 so my husband thinks we will be ok to put the heating on now although I think it will soon creep up now we’ve put it on.

I had exactly this conversation with my dad yesterday as it sounded really high. So I googled it and it said for a new (mine is 2 years old) combi boiler, it should be set at 60-70 but ideally over 65, so I think it's ok.
Thank you for mentioning it though as I wasn't sure myself

We hadn't needed it yet, the fake Oodies are doing their jobs, washing becoming an issue though. I am so happy it has been so mild, dont think we have made it to November before. We had oodles of insulation put down when we had our floor done recently and I think that is helping, the lounge is still about 18°. But my parents are coming for dinner tonight and I dont want them to be chilly so the heating is going on at 4pm and I am looking forward to it.

Fake Oodies doing us proud but the washing is starting to be a PITA. I have a heated airer but not sure how much energy it uses and tbh it’s pretty weak. Tonight was the first night it was cold getting out of the car.

No heating on yet. Moving into the now low can we go now. The teenagers are actually coping pretty well. The longer I can resist giving the bloodsucking energy companies a penny more than I have to the better.

Ours has been set to 17.5 in the mornings for 15hrs
In the eves if it drops below 17.5 it comes on and heats to 18.5

Should read 1.5 hours 🤣

The “experts” do not agree on which method is cheaper, keeping house at an ambient temperature through the day ( say 7am to 11 pm) or setting the heating to come on twice a day.

In my experience since I had my new boiler installed six years ago, my gas usage has reduced when I keep the heating on set at 19 degrees all day. If I need to boost it when I feel cold, the whole house heats up very quickly. When I only had it on for a couple of hours in the morning, it took ages to get up to temperature when it came on again late afternoon.

Also, I used to have damp and black mould in two bedrooms so keeping all my rooms at the same temperature has prevented mould from recurring and my gad usage has still gone down

Just up and it's frosty outside this morning. I have a Hive and the thermostat states 15.5 today so I've set it to 17 to warm the house a bit for kids getting up. The Hive is generally set to 15 and then I put it on to 17 or 18 if I think it's cold.
Last year it was set to 18.

I put it on when we have my stepson over and me and my partner will just use blankets and jumpers to keep ourselves warm so we can not worry the 3 days a week we have my stepson.

As long as my stepsons warm I’ll put it on for as long as needed so justify by having it off the rest of the time!

I’ve put it on a couple of times so far but luckily winter has been quite mild.

Common sense would tell you that there couldn't be one definitive answer to whether it's cheaper to leave the heating on. Every house is different , they only way to know for your house is to test and work it out.

It would have to be significantly colder outside for my flat to get to 17 degrees. I am very fortunate that my flat is well insulated and my smart meter means that I know what my is. The only concession I have made in the last two days is closing windows and wearing slippers.

My vampire DD’s blackout curtains are permanently closed, which means her room hasn’t dipped below 22 degrees this year.

My greatest cost savings this year have come from DD cutting out her 30 minute daily showers and blackout curtains in her room.

Ours has been on since 3 weeks now. I can't bear feeling cold and miserable. We also have small dc, just feels cruel to let them feel cold.

It’s not actually cold, though, where I am. I’m in a terraced house, so maybe that helps. It’s not a matter of trying to bear the cold and feeling miserable.

We have frost on the ground where we are today.

Heating is on.

Why does anyone currently in the UK need the heat on overnight?

@fluffiphlox

who are you to judge?! Seriously - why is it your business.

I literally don’t care how much anyone heat their house.

Why does anyone currently in the UK need the heat on overnight?

Maybe people who are unwell? We just wear warmer nightclothes and put our winter tog duvet on the bed in cold weather. I can count on a handful of occasions when our heating came on at night, and that is when we had temperatures of -10.

Good grief. I only asked a question. Not judging at all. It’s not cold currently and it seems such a waste to use energy when you’re in bed. So there must be a reason.