It's a heating one I'm afraid!

[zingally]

We've recently moved to a new house. A late 60s, dormer style, 3-bed semi. It's lovely, we love it. But we've come from a more modern mid-floor flat.

In the flat, even with the heating off, I never knew it fall below 15C inside, even in the most bitter of winters.

But in this short cold snap, we've been coming home from work about 4pm, the house is 12-13C and feels absolutely baltic. I turned the heating on as soon as I got in yesterday, and it was almost 9pm before it hit 18.5C.

This morning I suggested leaving the heating on while we're out all day, at maybe 15C, just to keep the edge off, then we can give it a boost once home? But DH told me I was mad! I'd be just throwing money down the drain, heating a house with no one in it!

I confess, having lived in a flat for donkeys years, I'm not that well-versed in how to run the heating, but I thought that was a reasonable suggestion...? But DH looked at me like I'd genuinely gone mad!

Some days I'm home by 4pm, other days it's closer to 6pm. DH usually gets in just after 6.

Who is right? Me who thinks keep it ticking over low, or DH who thinks completely off and then turn it on once home?

Look at your insulation. It shouldn't be getting that cold.

But having the thermostat at 14/15, then upping it to 17 half an hour before you are due home will probably be better.

Can’t you put it on a timer to come on at 3pm or something?

Agree with prisonpillow set it to come on an hour before you get home

Timer?

It was 12 when I got up this morning. Bit nippy like, popped the heating on while I was at work. It's 17 in the living room and 13 in the kitchen and I've turned it off now. We're ok at the temp sitting at 16. We've got the layers in the house nailed.

I tested the theory of leaving it on low Vs turning it on from cold, it cost more to keep it on low all of the time.

Do you have a timer? Set it to come on an hour before you come home.

Use your central heating timer.
When we moved in there was a basic one where every day was the same programme. We changed that to a weekly programme so that midweek we can have different on/off times to warm the house up before we get up, and again before we get home if we're out, but allows it to run all weekend.

But you seriously need to look at your insulation, glazing and draughtproofing to reduce the amount of heat you're losing and make it faster to warm up. If it's a radiator system check that all the radiators are bled, and give them a feel all over to make sure that they're evenly warm after the system has been running a while.

What was the EPC rating when you bought it?

The reason it didn't get as cold in your flat was probably because the people above and below you had their heating on.
Most boilers have a timer, get one added if yours doesn't and set it to come on for an hour before you get in, then at least the radiators will be throwing heat out when you get in even if the house isn't up to temperature.

My house sounds very similar to yours. Early 70s 3 bed semi.
My old house was a relatively new build, and small, with the hot water tank in the airing cupboard and it was always toasty.
Current house is bloody freezing. I tried last Xmas while we were all off school/work, to do what you were suggesting, and keep it on low. It cost me an absolute bloody fortune!
So now we are back to timed (6-8.30am and 6.30-9.30pm)
It's set to 19 but literally never reaches it. 18.5 is the highest it'll go in that time.

can you heating be set? Mine comes on at 6am goes off at 10pm and is managed via the thermostat so it comes on if it falls below 17 at the moment. So you could set it to say 15/16 when going out, or when I worked out if the house it was set to come in an hour before I would be leaving work so 4pm until 10pm then 6-8 am

longer term you need to look at insulation in the roof, do you have cavity wall insulation? Old radiators that need upgrading? I found when I replaced mine there was a bid difference as heat is chucked out now. How effective is your double glazing?

Where is the thermostat? This can make a huge difference in whether your house is being heated most efficiently

When you come to redecorating use insulating lining paper at lest on the outside walls as it makes a big difference.

Pop to B,&Q at the weekend and pick up a couple of rolls of insulation for the roof - don't forget eye protection gloves and mask, you don't want the fibres in your system.

Also, keep your curtains closed during the day. We've got one window in particular that we're investigating as the room seems particularly cold compared to the others, so we're keeping the curtains shut in there during the day. It made a real difference yesterday. Even with the heating on, the room only got up to about 17 degrees. With the curtains shut, it made it to 20!

DH is going to do an experiment one day to see what the cost differential is between keeping the heating on low all day versus just having it on morning and evening like we currently do.

We have wooden flooring downstairs and it seems to take a good few hours to heat the room up of an evening.

We have an old fashioned dial thermostat in the hallway, which I think we're looking to change next year to a digital Alexa linked one so we can adjust it without having to physically be there.

My DPs keep their heating on low all day and their house is so lovely and warm. They have oil rather than gas, but spent less on oil last winter than we spent on gas.

There will of course be a big difference between and house and a flat in terms of how quickly the property looses heat. Do as others say and set a timer for just before you get home. But it shouldn't take from 4pm to 9pm to heat up to 18C. Definitely look at your insulation. Also get your heating system looked at to check if there's anything that can be done to make it run more efficiently. Bleed your radiators. Unfortunately it's quite common for dormer bungalows to be a bit cold because of the lack of loft space for insulation.

I have to do this in my flat! The thermostat is set to 16 during the day otherwise if it's really cold it never heats up again properly when the heating comes on higher in the evening. I only have it set to 20 for a couple of hours morning and evening but in this cold weather it's taking all morning to get to that temp!

Bubble wrap with the big bubbles. Cut it to size, mist the window with water and lay bubble side outward. It still lets all the light in but traps heat.

Some houses are just colder and draughtier than others, so YANBU for wanting to take steps to keep the chill out.

It doesn't sound like you have a timer?

Look at getting a dehumidifier as well. The temptation when it's cold is to close all vents to keep the warm in, but that traps moisture in the house (from drying laundry, cooking, breathing) and damp air takes a lot longer to warm up than dry air.

5 hours to get up to a warm temperature - something’s wrong there!

Leaving the heating on all the time on low will cost more. But the point of the heating is to keep your living space at an acceptable temperature. If that means the heating needs to come on at lunchtime, or stay on all day, then that might be what you need to do.

In the long term, the solution is to insulate the house more. Unfortunately achieving decent insulation in a 60s dormer bungalow probably means adding between the upstairs ceilings and the roof, which can probably only be done by either taking down ceilings inside (messy) or stripping the tiles off the roof from the outside (expensive, and you want to do it in good weather!).

In the short term, you'll need to find a balance between affordability and comfort. The house won't heat up instantly, so can you use the controls you have to switch the heating on a suitable time so it can heat up just enough before you come home? If not, replacing the controller with something more sophisticated (Tado, Hive, Nest etc) might be a relatively inexpensive upgrade in the shorter term.

We have an old house and just keep our thermostat to 18.5c so it just comes on when it gets below that. Our heating hasn’t been on for anymore than 3 hours in an entire day this month. Mostly it’s 1.5hours. Because the house doesn’t get cold to need the heating on all the time.

Trying to go from 14c to 19c is going to take a lot longer than just topping up by .5c

Try and find where any of the drafts are coming in from; thermal curtains, door curtains on external doors, are you properly insulated as well? Carpets or tiles? radiators bled so they are working properly?

We actually have the curtains open on the south side as it warms the house and closed on the north side.

Thats probably the best solution.

As far as I'm aware, you need your house at a minimum of 14-15C to protect the plumbing, 15-16C to help prevent damp, 18C for healthy humans to be ok and 20C for vulnerable humans to be ok.

How much gas are you using for such day? If it's not up to the thermostat temp do you mean the boiler is running the whole time the heating is turned on?

Look at your radiators.

You need to calculate the correct amount of BTU's (output) for the room size.

We have a cold house and damp can be a problem. So I have the heating on 15 constantly and fire it up when home to 20 for a couple of hours and it keeps the damp at bay and house isn't freezing when we get home