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?

Had the self-same convo with my brother. If we're cold, the heating's going on. It's now damp and miserable, I'm not gritting my teeth and invoking the Blitz spirit just for the sake of a credit balance with my provider.

I'm not getting into competitive coldness. My heating goes on when I feel cold not according to a calendar.
Usually
Day time thermostat at 20C
Night time off at 9pm unless it's -5C outside.

I find I feel the cold more at different times. Mornings I am busy and don't feel cold but in the evening when I sit and watch TV or read I feel colder.

I caved this morning, 15.5 when I woke up and felt DAMP. Bath towel still wet from last night. I'd rather pay the extra in careful heating than have a mould problem come Spring.

OK if you can pay enough to keep the energy company from forcing a pre payment meter. Otherwise, next winter you would be paying off this winter at the same time. I'd rather watch my usage now.

They don't have the manpower to do that to everyone. Keep in contact, be reasonable, and polite.

The debt doesn't go away does it? You'd have to pay eventually and it's hanging over your head the whole time?

Yes.
But I don’t have it on overnight, Input daughter to bed in pjs, bed socks, quilt and a blanket.

Simply doesn't bother me. It's been there for years and I just keep in contact and explain we give them all we can. We give them a reasonable amount. They focus on the ones who don't communicate and they don't have the manpower to install prepayment meters to everyone.

Used to. Last year I did if DS was home, but during the school day only if it went down to 16.

Now DS is school refusing and the prices have gone up so much I don't know what to do. So far it's not gone below 18, so I've not had to make a decision yet.

Also waiting for a date for a new boiler to be fitted which may change things as it will be considerably more efficient than our current 35-40ish year old boiler.

Our dual fuel bill has just gone up to £700 per month. It's mostly electric (we have an electric car and do a lot of miles) but the heating has been coming on for an hour or so a couple of times a week. It's currently 14.1 degrees inside so too cold really but we can't afford for it to go up much more. We are so lucky we can afford the increase as it is but gosh I am miserable about it. It has such an impact on our lives and we're not even fucking warm.

Ouch @Doubledenimrocks! that’s the killer for me, we can hear the house to say 18° but that’s still not warm, just less cold!

The house temperature dropped to 18° for the first time over the last few days and I've been putting the heating on for a few hours here and there. I have a one year old who's learning to walk and won't wear socks so I don't want him to be cold on the tiles with bare feet.

I had it on today at 22 because our house is freezing and we are all poorly. But I turned it off after 2 hours. It's 12c here outside. And it feels colder inside than our. I saw some mould starting on our bedroom window and I'm thinking it's because it's been cold and we haven't had heating on or windows open?

But I think we will start putting it on more regularly. In the day it's off when kids are at school as it's just me home.

heating went on here for first time today
its set to come on for 90 minutes in morning and 4 hours at night
thermostat set to 19

We haven’t had it on yet- we’re in the south east. It’s been an incredibly mild autumn. We are trying to hold out for as long as possible because of the bills.

I won’t let DS get cold, so if it goes a few degrees lower then we’ll put it on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, but we’re holding off for now. Will keep going with thermals, blankets and hot water bottles until DS’s gro egg is on the verge of going blue. (He’s nearly 4, by the way, and always dressed very warmly; I wouldn’t let it get chilly if I had a baby).

Crikey, at 18°, I feel cold and already have fleece joggers and a Teddy fleece on over a thermal top. My feet are feeling cold underneath thick socks and slippers with a thick sole. At 17°, my fingers turn to ice and I realise the heating has to go on for a bit.

So how the heck are people managing at below 16°? It falls to that and maybe 15° degrees at night, but we've already got 13 tog duvets on and blanket bedspreads. In fact, I just raided my dad's linen closet for old wool blankets from the 70s because I know we won't manage much longer at night.

Is it because you all have carpets and curtains? I can't understand how you are dealing with sub 17°?!

We have carpets, curtains in the sitting room and over the front door, blinds elsewhere. Duvets are 7.5 tog with weighed blanket on top. We wear pyjamas.

No carpet here, laminate flooring. Also in the SE, I put it on one day, because of health issues, sacroiliitus, ended up in a tepid bath at 4am,then using an ice pack. It would be 18c. Same duvet all year,4.5 tog. I wouldn't be able to move in a 13 tog owing to arthritis, wouldn't be able to lift it. Never had heating on over night in my life. DD has a new baby, went round in a cotton shirt,it was 25c, I couldn't breath, felt I was going to pass out.

House temp dropped to 14 last night, and my fingers were chilled to the bone.
Held out anyway.
I used to have the heating come on when it got below 18

how Did we all manage without the luxury of heating etc? my old house where I grew up had just a range in the dining room. every room upstairs had Lino, all the houses in the street had outside toilets & bathroom in deepest winter there would be ice on everyone’s windows inside & yet no one complained because everyone had the same issues, now I’m reading anything belo 18 is heating time. How times have changed

Well, more people died? People die of cold and damp, especially children and the elderly.

But you wouldn't know - you've no experience of not having heating, have you? I know of people who had no heating, and if you know anything about that, you would know it is dangerous.

This is like a friend of mine, who heard someone say smugly 'oh yes, we've had no heating on ... except the wood burners'.

No experience of no heating that’s my point, I lived with out it as did the rest of the street. Didn’t have any of it till almost 30yrs of age. I grew up with it. Why is it dangerous? If you ain’t got it that’s it.

Well you did heat your houses somehow...
"Heating" doesn't just mean central heating.

Do you know what we also did a while ago? Smoked on public transport. Now look at all them wimps moaning about smoking in buildings. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

That's how these "but back in my day" sound

All I’m saying is the range heated one room that was it upstairs was freezing every day,

you had to prepare the range ever day & of it had been snowing then most of the coal was damp. Most of the residents in the street lived to a grand age, now 18 degrees is cold.

Well you really should have looked into the coal storage there. In my days, our coal was never wet. Tsk