Guest turning the heating on

[2petrabbits]

Just to be clear I’m not upset about this. To me it’s a bit audacious as I would never do this in someone else’s home and now I’m wondering if I’m the oddball. I’m more amused than upset.

We have our heating on a timer. It can only be changed at the boiler, which is in the utility room, which I do not give guests a tour of.

Last night guest is in bed and we’re getting ready for bed when my husband realises the heating is on outside the schedule. He investigates and sure enough it has been set to “always on”.

It could only have been the guest but I’m kind of surprise:

1. they didn’t just ask
2. they found the boiler
3. they felt brave enough to move it off someone else’s timed setting
4. they didn’t turn it off before bed

our heating bills are really high because my husband works from home and feels the cold easily, so I’m not worried about a scary bill but the guest doesn’t know that?

also, sleeping with the heating on is my pet hate!

DH and I get very uncomfortable sleeping with the heating on in our room, so I'd be really annoyed if someone just cranked up the heating without saying anything. If they did ask, we'd be able to turn down the radiator in our room and have their room warm, and make everyone happy. I'd always offer guests extra blankets and water bottles anyway though.

Your husband's the culprit, he took his chance.

Most people I know don’t have their heating on at night. It’s not bad hosting to assume that if you’re in bed you don’t need the boiler going full blast all night. And it’s definitely bad ‘guesting’ to just go and help yourself without asking.

I do this at my parents and friends if it's cold, not usually on the boiler tho, just nudge the thermostat up. I can't bear to be cold

That's not on at all - they should have said they were cold. Even then, I wouldn't put the heating on at night as I hate it, but I'd have found them some hot water bottles.

I thought that

I have a cold house. I warn people I have a cold house and have spare oodies and extra blankets.

I will not have the heating on overnight. They have a choice whether to stay or not.

I don't know of anyone who keeps the heating on overnight! It would be unbearably hot with the heating on constantly.

It's very strange for a guest to do that. Bloody cheeky in fact. I would never, ever do that. No even in my mum's house. I would just hint that it was a bit cold lol.

The in-laws always ask if we're warm enough and turn the heating on regardless of our answer!

I doubt it was your guest - more likely one of you changed it by accident or forgot you had.

If it's a youngish person (30-65ish), I'd think it was a bit odd.

If it was an elderly person (70+), I'd let it over my head. My 74 year old mother is obsessed with the heat. It just has to be turned on. No qualms or arguing about it.

Your guest may be cold in bed and is a bit panicked. Esp if they're older.

I couldn’t get too stressed about this. They must have been cold.

How audacious! I would never ina million years do this in someone else's home.

I usually keep the heating on longer when I have guests staying as I am mindful that they must be comfortable, but it's usually off by 10pm and definitely not on overnight.

Heating is always off at 8pm here. The guest should have asked. I find heating on at night very uncomfortable .

Can you not turn your radiators off or down at night?

İ find my bills are cheaper with it on very low overnight because it prevents the house temp from dropping too low and therefore doesn't eat up as much gas trying to get it up to a reasonable temperature and stay there again in the day. Hardly need it on in the day, as the temp of the house overall stays fairly consistent. Currently my gas and electric combined is about 90 per month for a three bedroom new(ish) build terrace, with two of us living here. Keep all the radiators on as well.

This is why I never travel without a hot water bottle

Me too @Thighdentitycrisis!

I think it's cheeky to mess around with someone else's boiler, they should've said something instead. I've stayed in people's houses and been freezing. I've never said anything tbh, I should really.

I wouldn’t dare do it but wouldn’t be bothered if a guest did it when staying with us. Our house is cold, that’s how we like it but we want our guests to be comfortable.

I would he cross about this - we are very mindful of switching on the heating only for an hour or so to take the chill off - I can’t have it on for more than an hour as it causes migraines for me - I am very sensitive to heat!

Tell your DH to get a heated electric blanket while he's WFH.

You'll save a FORTUNE.

I thought the same too 😆

I can't imagine a guest just fiddling with the heating, it's very brave.

The husband and I always play cat and mouse with the heating in our own house. We both work from home and generally the heating is only on before/after school when the kids are home, even then he complains it's hot [it's set to 20 degrees] and turns the radiators down and I go round turning them back up. The week the kids went back to school after Christmas, we had snow for a week and it was below 0 outside and the heating was on all week during the day, I can't work when it's 14/15 degrees in the house, but he would have been fine with it.

Would you do that without a word to the owners of the house?

Wow, I feel sorry for the guests in this instance. Surely you check that it’s warm enough for your guests comfort?

You just wouldn't do this, such odd behaviour!