How to not have the heating on all day?

[Hello113]

It's freezing where I live. But I am worried about the cost of having the heating on all day when I'm at home. I've bought a heated throw and I wear lots of layers.

Heat one room, I WFH some days and I have an oil filled radiator on the go, keep the door shut and it's toasty. Get moving often, don't stagnate, central heating on for an hour in the evening if I'm in and sitting.

Fingerless gloves
Warm socks (bed socks, not day socks) and slippers
Head, or at least neck, covered (take the hat off when I've got a video call or working on site).

Before I had a heated throw, I used hot water bottles. The snake one that wraps around your waist and sometimes another one up the jumper. But the heated throw is better.

We've got a (shared) heated gilet in the family. I don't need it when sitting down to work, but it's great for when I'm in the kitchen or garden for an extended period.

Some thermal vests, tops, and leggings for when it gets really cold. I haven't got them on yet.

Since I've got the heated throw and a heated blanket on my bed, I actively dislike having the heating on because I prefer to snuggle with the blanket. I don't live alone though, so I have to compromise on heating.

I have the heating on 'all day' but I can see from my hive app that once the house has done the hard work of getting up to temperature then it clicks on and off in short bursts.

If I got the house up to temperature, let it cool right down again and then put it back on again to get it up to temperature in the evening, then I'd use almost as much gas but I would have been cold through the guts of the day.

Great suggestions here. I have one of the cheap little electric blow heaters beside me and I find that having it on for just 5 minutes every so often heats me up enough to keep going for at least half an hour.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rainberg-Settings-Function-Electric-Thermostat/dp/B0CJRWVP9C/ref=pd_day0fbt_thbs_d_sccl_1/262-4422349-4046067?pd_rd_w=FMjEH&content-id=amzn1.sym.aa5f0976-1480-46a8-ac3e-86a6a439835e&pf_rd_p=aa5f0976-1480-46a8-ac3e-86a6a439835e&pf_rd_r=JBNDD7AV0JMW47C2EHYW&pd_rd_wg=sfaB5&pd_rd_r=5165b568-20c7-4514-bf84-5b5a9c5ba65d&pd_rd_i=B0CJRWVP9C&th=1

So this was yesterday...

We keep the thermastat quite low so if I do turn the heating on for an hour, it takes the edge off, but it's not suddenly a warm house. Right now i'm wearing jeans, socks, a vest and a jumper and it's fine.

Moving about will get your muscles, joints and blood moving more. This helps keep you warm, along with lots of PP suggestions. It’s definitely dropped colder (UK) this last week, so usual routines, clothing, diet/drinks might need tweaking.

Mine is on for an hour in the morning 2 hours in the evening, it's quite manageable on this, though I do wear a jumper. Newish house

I like a lap hot water bottle.... I wfh and heating is currently on morning and evening for a couple of hours.

I've never had the heating on all day. I probably count as elderly (69) but am very active and don't sit down much until late afternoon. I wear a jumper over a T shirt. If my hands started to feel cold I'd put some heat on. I've never in my life had heating on at night, I wouldn't be able to sleep if I did.

Tey that first OP. The mumsnet Scrooges with one piece of coal on the fire for Christmas will advocate a miserable existence.

I would look at increasing insulation of your house. Our heating must have kicked in this morning for a short time before we got up, as the radiator was warm. It won't need to come back on till perhaps same time tomorrow morning before we get up (have Rayburn for cooking and log fire). But we have decent insulation really good double glazing, small rooms etc.

We use a fan heater and heat the room up in the morning. It only takes 5 or 10 minutes and then it stays warm most of the day. If it gets cold again then we just turn in on again for a few minutes.

We find this is much better than an oil filled radiator.

I did it once when a friend visited and she literally wouldn’t stop complaining about the cold - cost me £90 for three days. I was only on mat pay and I cried when the bill came .

Yes, wear several layers of thermal leggings and long sleeved vests, not just on layer.

I wear 3 layers of each. It makes a big difference.

My calves get very cold so I also wear 2 of these on each leg:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08GWYG49K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I second what everyone says about heating one room, wearing lots of layers etc. I also strongly recommend fleece-line socks - they are soooo comfortable and comforting. I usually wear another thin pair of socks inside them.

I also bought this as a cheap alternative to an Oodie and can strongly recommend it.

I find the residual heat from fan heaters are rubbish! Compared to an oil filled one. Probably my draughty house though...

Uniqlo heattech. I wear a heattech vest and then a heattech long sleeved top. That's usually enough but they are thin enough to chuck a cardigan on top if it's really nippy.

Mine's on all day at present. It's clicked on and off a few times today. I left it on low during the night and it came on briefly at 4 a.m so it must have been cold. I'm more concerned that if we get very cold weather I will have a burst pipe than the cost of keeping the heating on low TBH.

Oil filled radiators cost an absolute bomb to run! We got hugely caught out by that!

We did have the heating on very sparsely in 2021 - result: huge elec cost as we stupidly used oil filled heaters and mould on walls/windowframes (we were constantly wiping it away). Would have been much cheaper to keep gas heating going on an even temp rather than whack it up for 30 mins to warm up the space and switch to oil filled heaters.

I have an electric fan heater on me in one room rather than heating on unless drying clothes

We have smart TRVs. An initial outlay but it reduced our gas consumption a lot so we've made it back now.They allow you to heat individual rooms on various schedules and to different temperatures, without manually titting about turning radiators on and off and adjusting the temp on them all day. So we have certain rooms heated at different times. Eg today kids are at nursery/school during day so we just have the offices heated until about 3ish when the other room schedules kick in.

Ah lots of hate for oil filled radiators here, sorry OP! I think in my specific situation it worked well but clearly not for everyone, worth researching a few options maybe. In our house I WFH in a poorly insulated but small room, so the oil filled radiator worked well because it took no time at all to heat the room and the residual heat meant it wasn't actually on all that much, so no hefty bill.

We have the heating on in the office and living/kitchen/diner only. We put the towel rail on for about an hour a day to dry our towels/the bathroom.

I notice I'm a lot warmer when I go out for a walk daily! I walk the dog twice a day and I'm fine in a jumper and jeans. There are days where I lug around a hot water bottle or make lots of cups of tea though!

It doesn't help that our flat is North facing and our EPC is D!