Thermostat at 18 degrees

[SmileEachDay]

My sister is telling me I’m a freak - but any hotter is awful, surely?

YABU - team sister
YANBU - me and the correct answer

18C is miserably cold if you're sitting around. It's OK if you're sleeping or moving about doing physical labour.

New windows and doors won't magically make the house warmer than 18C - they might decrease the amount of heating energy required to keep it at 18C but yeah, if your heating is set to 18, or especially 16C, most people would feel cold.

If you have any damp issues at all, 18C is the minimum they recommend keeping your rooms at to avoid mould.

I would have mine set to 23-25 ideally but that is a bit too warm for DH so we have it at 21/22 usually.

18 here too in the day/evening with the thermostat left on 15 overnight which only kicks in on the very coldest nights

Neither of you ABU. Ours is set to 15°c at night, 18°c during the day and if we get cold we bump it up to 21.5°c.

Ironically if the outside temperature was 21°c I'd be complaining that I can't cope and I'm melting but in a drafty house mid February, it's nice.

Everyone has a slightly different heat/cold tolerance. I know a few people who at 18°c would be miserable and opening windows, others won't have it below 24°c.

Even with it set at 21C I need 2 pairs of trousers, a jumper, a vest and blankets in the evening

I hate the cold but can't deal with hot (over 25/28) either. I would love to have a personal temperature bubble at all times which would magically bring me to the perfect temperature and never let me feel any wind movement at all.

Depends entirely on the house and where the thermostat is located. Our new build feels stifling if it's any higher than 17, but our old house needed to be 21 to feel pleasant.

Ours is at 18 as well. My mum thinks it's freezing but i was in her house the other day and hers was at 20 and I was sweltering

I also don’t have the heating on most of the time. 18 degrees is just for when it feels cold.

i do have a heated blanket and an impressive range of woolly socks.

We’re in a new build, ours sits at a comfortable 16 upstairs in the day , night time heating doesn’t come on until it gets under 13.
downstairs we keep at 15 degrees, it’s not cold by any stretch at all.
anything over 17/18 is way tooo hot

21°C in an old end of terrace house in the North East just about keeps me going.

I'd imagine 18°C is fine in the South and in more energy efficient properties.

17.5 at night during the winter and around 20 from tea time until bed.

Mine's at 18 but I leave the thermostat in the coolest part of the house, so it's probably warmer elsewhere

Ours is 19c and we boost when required.

Usually 19. Comes onfor an hour in the morning then at 6ish, goes off at 930. In our old house, that was toasty. In this one, it's not warm.
House has been around 14-15 downstairs today. I have had my heated footwarmer on, a blanket and 5 layers. And went for a walk. Was still actually shivering by 530.

Currently on the sofa with 3 layers+ oodie + blanket. I was not made for a cold climate.

I prefer 19.5 but that's because my house 129 years old and drafty

Why would different temperatures feel different in a more energy efficient house? Surely you just need less energy to maintain the 21.5 temp in the more energy efficient house.

I promise you I am much further South than London and it is still cold at 18 degrees. IME the only thing that can make a temperature feel different is humidity, or the temporary effect of having come from a very contrasting environment e.g. I always feel really hot when I come in from outside, but now sitting here in the evening I am chilly without my duvet/blanket with sleeves.

We've just moved from a house that we couldn't get above 16/17.....it was bloody perma-freezing!
The house we are in now has been easy to keep around 20, it's bliss.

So in our old house we used to have the thermostat at 24c to feel not cold. We moved house and took the exact thermostat with us, 19c keeps the cold away.

Same thermostat but different houses. 24c on it here would be cook eggs on the work top.

17 during the day and 19 in the evening is perfect for me.

depends
before new windows and roof insulation 18 degrees would feel cold.
now it's pleasant

I have very poor circulation and my fingers and toes will literally turn blue anything below 19.5 even with socks. My thermostat needs to be at 22.5 to not need to walk around in multiple layers and blankets. I'm actually in southern Europe right now and wearing the exact same clothes that I took on my nordic countries tour last January because it's too bitter cold for me 😅

Mine is 18 during the day going up to 19.5 when it's really cold and first thing in the morning before getting up. Off at night. I like morgue temps to sleep in.

Ours is set at 21. We have 2 stoves as well so if they are lit then the heating won't come on. Heating is on from 7 to 10 am and 5 to 9 pm. Big Victorian house. Gets very cold very quickly. We are late 50s , both retired.

Ours hovers between 12.5-14.5c. It’s too hot for us beyond that. 😂

I heat only one room at a time. Generally 12 degrees and good thermals and jumpers. 14 degrees max. I cannot afford more than that. Not if I want to eat. Generally, unless it’s bitter cold, I curl up under an electric blanket and a sofa blanket.

When I could afford proper heating we went to around 17 degrees as ex DH ran hot. It was more than enough though. DS has grown & flown so I don’t need to worry about his comfort. When he was growing up we had wood burners and rads heated by the back boiler.

Mine's at 16 during the day, 13 at night, and I wear a fleece on top of everything else, plus a throw if I'm sitting down for a long time.