To ask how I’m supposed to pay this heating bill?

[ye10000]

This month I put the heating on set to 18. It automatically clicks off when it’s got to 18 and it goes off entirely at 10pm until the morning. I’ve looked at usage and it says the heating has been on an average of 7 hours a day. This had meant a bill of 502 pounds. We are in a three bed detached. That is almost a quarter of my income and I have one dc in nursery, single parent. I am so worried about the coming months, is 7 hours a day average a lot? I thought I was being careful.

How much of that is gas and how much electric ?

Check your bill and see how many units you are using per month.

There is a (fairly) common billing error with gas, where you can get charged 3x as much as you should. But you have to do some work/provide some information in order to check it. More people have found this error recently because the price of gas has got so expensive. I've seen 2 or 3 people on here have this issue.

If you are heating full on for 7 hours a day I would guesstimate that would cost about 200-300 a month in gas. It's complex though because my guess is everyone is using a lot more gas because of the low temperatures at the moment, so a month is made up of the mild earlier temperatures in November and the very cold bits at the end.

My asthma consultant thinks 18 is too high! 18 might be sensible with pre-school children and the elderly but not everybody can afford that luxury - it is not a necessity for all in my view.
And not all houses are capable of being heated to that level. My rental is listed and poorly insulated. I cranked the heating up to the max and the house got to 16-17!

That homes in the uk can't be heated to 18 is evidence of how crap out housing stock is

And I suspect that many people who think. 18 is far to high have a sneaky wood burner or something running also

Can you say where you got that information from? 21 would be way too hot for me, and 19 for a bedroom when it's fairly well established that cooler bedrooms are beneficial for sleep, is also very high.

Mine is set to 18, but the thermostat is in the living room opposite a radiator. I switch it on in the evening, and use a space heater if I get cold during the day. I don't put it on in the mornings as that's when I open windows. I think keeping the house aired and dealing with humidity is enough to prevent mould.

Cost is obviously a massive factor at the moment, but I've always used CH sparingly for environmental reasons, plus I'm frugal by nature.

In many homes, it's actually cheaper to leave the heating on low 24/7. I live in a 1930's house, solid brick, so no cavity insulation. I keep my heating on constant at 15 degrees. Sounds low but I have one room where I keep the door closed and it's a comfortable 18 in there. My bill is £300 month, 3 bed semi.

It comes down to physics, how much energy it takes to heat an area with its contents. Say it takes 15 units of energy to heat a living room with carpet, sofa etc from 10 degrees to 18. It would take less units of energy to heat if the temperature was kept at a constant.

Ex plumber/heating engineer here. Your heating is warming up every surface/ contents of your home, not just the air.

If you claim any sort of benefits like UC or pension credit you can get free insulation in your home.

It won't be £500 every month though, maybe for 3 or 4 tops. Mumsnet is very scroogelike when it comes to being warm.

Our heat is basically on all day in this weather. It feels really cold.

@ye10000 We are retired and live in a 3 bed semi-detached. Ours goes on around 8am - maybe 30 minutes before we get up. We have it set up to switch off at 10 am. Then it switches on again automatically, from 12.30 to 2.30 and back on again at around 5pm for the rest of the evening ( about 10.30pm), so around 9 hours a day. Our house was built in 2004 and is reasonably well insulated though and your house is detached, so will cost a bit more. But we are Paying around £170 per month by DD for both our GAs and Electric. Built up a good credit over the summer, but our actual usage during the Winter Months is around £200 for both - £502 is a horrendously high amount. Are you sure that is for a month only?

Someone may already have suggested this but you can buy a good dehumidifier for about £80-£100. These extract damp from the house - which makes it heat up much quicker. They are pennies per hour to use. They would also dry your clothes. This might work for you. (Meaco is one make)

ClematisBlue49 My friend is an architect who works with social housing providers. Current regulations are that when outdoor temp is -1 , heating systems should be able to heat rooms to temps of 21 (living areas), 19 (bedrooms) when thermostat/heaters are set to appropriate levels.

£502 for a quarterly bill? Or a month?

3 bed semi here, I have heating on when needed (7/8 hours a day approx) and pay gas/elec about £160 a month

The comment about seven hours being unnecessary in the south isn't true either. I live in the far south west which is technically the mildest part of the country. However it's also one of the dampest and we also get more cloud cover. A lot of the houses are also granite which is not ideal. Solar capture is extremely beneficial for heating houses - on a cold bright day (rare), the house feels warmer than on a milder dark rainy day (common), especially if you have south and east facing windows. It's not all about temperature

Damp air takes more heat to warm it than dry air. But you DO need to heat it (and ventilate it), otherwise you get mould

Mine comes on in the morning for one hour to take the chill off then for two hours in the evening to stop pipes from freezing and then the gas fire is set low until bed time

Not paying anywhere near that and our house is 22 degrees 24/7. Heating on most of the time. We did have our windows and boiler replaced in the last 5 years though and it's not super huge. Maybe there are changes you can make because that doesn't sound healthy or sustainable.

Yes, I agree - it’s not helpful. It’s very well established that 18 is pretty much the minimum room temperature most people need to feel healthy and comfortable- and that’s still with wearing jumpers. My boiler is not working currently so heating a couple of rooms with electric heaters but it’s only getting to around 16 degrees and the other day my bedroom got to 12. I had to put a heater in there for a while as 12 felt dangerously cold. It’s been pretty miserable.

some people may not feel the cold but for most people once you get to 16 or below it increases your chance of heart attack or stroke. It’s not something to dismiss.

Goodness wear a jumper, dressing gowns, blankets. 7 hours a day is stupid. I’ve had mine in for 7 hours in total and only because I was poorly this weekend.

that sadly it what it costs now. I have cut mine down to an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. I am wretchedly cold most of the time but am coming to terms with it . I use a heated throw when I am up and dressed, and dress in a lot of layers. Measure water in the kettle for hot drinks, use my slow cooker to bulk cook, then freeze and use microwave to reheat. I used to run my heating for around 7 hours in a day pre the price rises, they estimated that this would now be costing me approx 4k a year which is totally unaffordable for me. Last winter was awful but I am adapting to being cold most of the time now. What a time to be alive!

Gone are the days when people can just have the heating on with no regard to cost.
You don’t mention any energy saving steps you’ve taken to save energy
-energy saving light bulbs

• better insulation
• using fleeces /warmer clothes
• switching appliances off when not used
• Checking energy tariffs
• pulling curtains On at night/keeping doors shut

Having your heating on for that length of times is a lot. You may not like the truth but it is . If you want it on your bills will be high

Yes it's hard for everyone @ye10000 Nothing anyone can do. We're all in it together.

I've kept my home at 20.5c for the whole of November between 6am - 10pm and my gas bill for that time is £140.

Are you sure you haven't had a quarterly bill set against your dd credit, op?

When i worked from home my winter warmth strategy included: woolly hat, fingerless gloves, layers of jumpers/fleeces, thick socks and fluffy slipper boots, and a small oil filled radiator under the desk, heat rises so it kept me warm.

Depending on your job i think you might need to consider heating just the room you work in rather than the whole house.

Thank you @Charlieradioalphapapa , that's interesting. Perhaps there's a difference between having the ability to heat to that temperature (with insulation also being a factor), and needing to have it at that level all the time for health reasons? Although it may have something to do with older people needing higher temperatures, and a lot of social housing is presumably occupied by older / vulnerable residents.

@Itsnotallaboutyoulikeyouthink

There are actual negative physical implications to not having your home heated to at least 18 degrees. It's not brave to endure the cold, it's a risk to health.

She has a child. She can’t expect the child to sit under a blanket all day.

Seven hours of heating a day is not a lot in winter and it’s disgraceful that people are needing to question if it is.

Something doesn't add up - we're in a bigger house than that with DCs and it's about half of yours with the heating on a lot (as we both spend a lot of time WFH)