compromise with DH about the heating

[tysonfanuk]

DH doesn't want to put the heating on and the house is freezing. He says gas costs too much money now due to "the torys" or whatever

I do..

Is it worth putting it on for a few hours in the evening only or is it not efficient?

^ 860 square foot, not m!

Have you had the heating on in previous years? I know that energy costs have increased hugely but if you paid for heating last year and are getting the £400 rebate, then you could at least have some heating up to that amount.

So I paid £180 a month last year, building up a credit of £250 over the summer months. Adding the credit and the rebate together I have £650 to go towards say 5 months bills taking you from now until end April. Divide £650 by 5 I have £130 to add to the £180 I paid last year, meaning I have £310 to spend each month on heating.

I don’t have a prepayment meter so will need to take weekly readings to calculate my costs and I might need to reduce the temperature or times towards the end of the month but it’s better than no heat at all.

obviously if your personal circumstances have changed since last year, this is not going to work but when a partner is just refusing to pay the increased costs on principle, then this argument might persuade him not to be so selfish.

Why are there so many posts about husbands who refuse to put the heating on tonight?

It would never even occur to me to ask DH. If it's cold, on it goes.

Dh has become stingy with the heating now.

he’s walking round the house with a heated coat on that you charge up!

Just put the plops t heating on, if you are skint surely you can afford what you did last year at least.

Topic of the day with lots of NC OPs🤷🏻
Always happens with anything topical

£5 a day to keep a 2500sqf home at 21 degrees 24 hours a day?
Those numbers don’t sound remotely normal.

Me too

My friend has had a new boiler fitted and the engineer told her too leave it on constantly at about 16 degrees and let the thermostat automatically turn it off when the room is that temperature is cheaper than keep turning it on and off. X

These men remind me of my dad in the 80s - if anyone so much as looked at the hot water immersion switch it's like some alarm went off that only he could hear and he'd be up the stairs in seconds!

Exactly. If I want the heating on, I ... go and turn it on. I pay my share of bills, I don't need to ask any fucker's permission.

Also, has he actually worked out how much your heating costs to run per hour?

I have the same issues lol..

My DH has also put a pin number on the heating settings. To the other lady who mentioned the pin number... Do you also have a Smartstat heating system?

I've gone to bed early with the baby with me to stay warm.. Coz under the duvet

Do couples who disagree about the heating not have a thermostat that shows actual evidence of the temperature in the house?

How does that help? Not everybody feels cold at the same temperature.

This!!

We're having a new boiler fitted next week and will quote this!

It's also very different depending on where you live in the UK. We're in the South East and until now we've only had to have the heating on for about an hour maximum throughout each day.

Our home heats up, then we turn it off and the radiators retain heat for a long time.

Yeah there was! In fact, it seems like there's an inordinate amount of threads on AIBU about heating and energy bills just lately. Why are people not putting them onto the 'cost of living ' board? (Where they belong!)

www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living

I am bloody sick and tired of seeing them now. I must have blocked about a dozen since yesterday evening!

@tysonfanuk FGS just turn your heating up if you're cold!

So what is he sacrificing personally to help towards the heating bill?

I really hope you have that pin;if my husband blocked me putting on the heating like that he'd end up very cold;as on the driveway with his stuff in bin bags.

Same here. If I meet a man that I'm considering getting into a long term relationship with, I need to know his stance on heating even before I sleep with him!

This. ^

The obsessive heating and energy threads have replaced the covid threads.

I have the same issues lol.. My DH has also put a pin number on the heating settings. To the other lady who mentioned the pin number...

A fucking PIN on the heating controls? What fresh hell is this?

It's not a competition.
But surely you can understand that lots of people have to make decisions about how they eke their money out?

I don't understand the threads (and articles elsewhere) trying to suggest it is a black and white choice about 'having your heating on all the time' vs 'never putting the heating on'. There's a Huge line in between that, and it makes sense for most people to turn the thermostat down a degree, or put the timer on for a shorter length of time when money is tight.

Obviously we have no idea what the situation is in the OPs case, but we've got by with minimal heating for quite a few years when money was tight, and even now when we are in a better place financially, I still don't waste heating - I would always put another layer on before putting the heating on when it isn't timed to come on.

Good for you for blocking.

A fucking PIN on the heating controls? What fresh hell is this?

That's the thread I was referring to. Someone apparently claimed they couldn't turn the heat on because their husband hadn't given them the PIN. I (IMO, rightly) asked: How would any of us know the PIN? What do you expect us to do?

@UsingChangeofName

I very clearly put in my post that wanting to put on your heating and being unable to is a disgrace.

being unable to afford to* is a disgrace

Yes, but the point is, it isn't black and white.

Some people choose to spend more on one thing and that means spending less on something else.

For example, some people would never scrimp on food.
Some people feel it is really important to go away on holiday every year.
Some people refuse to buy things from charity shops or 2nd hand on-line
Some people might be happy to do some or all of those in order to have their house stuffy warm all the time. Others might prefer to put an extra layer on and keep the money for something they consider more important.

Surely everyone has things they can't afford. Most of us on budgets factor how long we have the heating on and at one temperature as one of the things we look at. It doesn't mean all those people couldn't afford to put it on if having a hotter house were their priority.