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!

Turn the radiator setting to 3 which is 20c for rooms you want to be colder. My kitchen is 16c on a morning, and is set to turn on to 19c. But I put it to 21c some mornings until I warm up.

Some people feel the cold (I don’t ever, probably well insulated!).

I think if you invite a guest then just be aware you need to make them comfortable. I always ask if people want the heat on.

Cant imagine one night of heat will send your bill up that much!

Did the guest go to bed earlier than you because they were cold?

It's really rude for your guest to turn the heating on or up without asking you. You should provide extra blankets in case your guest is cold in bed and maybe an electric blanket. If they are cold in the day they put extra clothes on or leave.

19c isn’t cold? Anything below 21c and I’m freezing.

16 is freezing!! Your poor guest. I would wake up constantly if it was that cold.

Our heating is never on at night and even when it’s really cold outside it’s rarely above 18/19 … makes me feel ill. I would rather layer up.

It must have felt really cold for them to do this.

16 at night is roasting when you’re under a duvet!

But it is cold to wake up to. I put the heating to come on an hour before I wake up. I put the heating to turn off an hour after I go to bed.

But you don’t know that, they might just have thought, ok I’m not at my house, someone else is paying, let’s just whack the heating up and sleep naked. You just don’t know.

18-21° is actually the ideal room temperature. And bedrooms should be even cooler (apparently 16-20) for ideal sleep.

It’s Very bad mannered.

Do you ask first? Because that’s fucking annoying if not.

Anything above 19 and I’m sweltering.

I'm more likely to go round opening windows in someone else's house, probably equally rude!

It's rude to unilaterally change the temperature.

If the heating had gone off at 8pm then I would've been pissed off and cold by 10pm. Some people have no comprehension of how cold their house is because they're used to the temperature. My previous flat was relatively warm but my house is completely different (which is understandable).

Also, the OP guest may have wanted to have a shower before bed and appreciated a warm bedroom afterwards whilst changing / reading.

This is the thing, everyone is different. I can’t stand having the heating on above 16 and it goes off overnight. I would be sweating to death in your house but I would never have the nerve to change your heating without asking you. I’d just have to strip off 😆

I would be so cold on those temperatures, we set our thermostat at 21

I wouldn’t be comfortable in 19c. I’d find that cold. We keep our thermostat at 21c in day and 19 overnight but I know that some bits of the house are colder than this. In general I find most people keep their houses colder than I am comfortable and I get really cold and feel miserable quite quickly. Staying at BIL last year and I asked to turn up heating twice, first time I was told it was timed to come on soon, second time surprise that I was cold and agreed but I suspect they didn’t or just did it a smidge. They’re affluent with large home. It would be nice to stay with them again this year but I can’t bear the thought of being that cold so I wont till Summer. I imagine they thought they were very hospitable and they were in all other ways.

To have our heating on at 19 it costs us over £200 a month, if we turned it up to 21 the cost would be crazy, you can't expect to stay at someone's home and drastically increase their heating bills.

It is cold to wake up to, but I am the only one who does it as I get up 75 minutes before everyone else because of work. If I sleep in, I wake up exactly 15 minutes after the heating kicks in because I feel so dehydrated and uncomfortable.

What did the friend say after dh spoke to him?

This 100% also- I run hot, i’m usually too warm if the heating is too high, DP runs cold and is always freezing but he would never expect me to turn up the heating because it’s a lot easier to fix being cold than too hot. OP sounds like me and surely the guest pulling on a warm jumper and grabbing the blankets is a better alternative to boiling OP alive in her own home!

You can get a separate radiator thermostat for your bedroom. We have them in all of our upstairs rooms. While your guest should have asked you, it is not polite to turn the heating off at 8:00pm while you have guests, unless you have established that they run hot too. I have said that I run cold, but I always ask my guests about the level of heating. If they are staying, I point the radiator thermostats out to them. My friends also ask, in winter, if I am happy with the heating level, even if I just pop in for coffee.
A couple of posters have suggested that a room temperature should be between 18 -21 degrees C, but these are figures given by the energy saving trust. A lot of people on here have said that they are happy at 21C, which I would agree with.
There are many reasons why some people might feel hotter than others. My husband started to feel the cold more when he lost weight as fat has some insulating properties, but it does not always work like this.