Have you got your heating on yet?

[Haloween]

Have you got your heating on yet?
I have just today for the first time.

Sounds like my house as a child in the 80s 😂
We had no central heating, just an open fire in the front room and one of those gas bottle heaters. We all had to wear 2 pairs of socks in bed, hot water bottles all round and in the morning we had to run downstairs to sit by the gas fire while mum got our breakfast before school.
The downstairs bathroom used to have ice on the inside of the windows. The wind used to howl through the single glazing.
Despite all that, I had a bloody brilliant childhood in the Cotswolds countryside. Just a very chilly one in winter. It didn't help that we occasionally had the electricity go out for a few days at a time. It just seemed very normal then, all my friends had the same life.

Because you don't actually feel cold if you dress appropriately? It is expensive, no good for the environment

I'm not talking a hat and scarf. I'm more than warm enough at 17 degrees in long sleeve pyjamas and a dressing gown.

My inslaws sit around in T shirts and nighties and wonder why they are cold

Loads of people do things that are expensive and bad for the environment. Drive cars, fly, buy unnecessary items shipped from abroad.
Having a warm home is my non negotiable.

Mine went on for the first time properly this weekend because we had older visitors. Probably wouldn't have bothered if it was just us.
Same today, it's gone on just now because I'm expecting a friend round for coffee shortly.
Otherwise, we've reached the stage in the year when it'll go on at weekends if we're at home, but it'll stay off during the week when we're out all day. A warm evening meal and some blankets are enough to get us through the evening.

What do you set your heating for day and night? I moved from Australia to UK and I’m feeling it now ans wondering what the norm is?

Day time it comes on for an hour morning and evening to 18. Off the rest of the time. Not on at night ever, but we might add an hour at lunchtime for late December / Kanuary.

Not yet trying to hold out for as long as possible. We are on oil. So like to make it stretch.

17 degrees might be ok for you, but not for most people. It’s below recommended room temperature and a room that cold can negatively affect health.

I mostly wfh and I’m not going to be sitting about in a dressing gown while working!

Yes but it only kicks in if it gets below 17.5°C. I have a hat, a blanket and jumpers, my husband puts on a jumper if he gets nippy!

Exactly, I’d look a right twat in meetings in a dressing gown.

No, but the house is still over 19 degrees anyway. We did light the bio ethanol fire the other evening for a couple of hours though. Heating doesn’t really go on until we’re cold when we’re busy and we’re already under blankets when sat.

Yeah I hate feeling cold. So if I have a jumper on and it’s still cold then it goes on. I’m not wandering around in bloody dressing gown or those fleece things people go on about. You can still feel that your house is cold.

I do have sympathy for those who can’t afford heating.

Are you quite OK? I don't think anyone can dictate anyone how many degrees is cold according to them. For me its 20. Wish you a happy life at 15. We just have different temperatures we feel comfy in. Everyone's entitled to their own comfort.

90% of my the people in my team meetings are in an oodie or a dressing gown. Everyone with a blanket on, some around the shoulders.

We obviously don’t work for the same company then. I work in corporate banking. My manager would be having a very stern word if I was on a meeting in a blanket or dressing down, as would I with my team.

Unfortunately, no one is entitled to it at all. Much depends on whether you can afford that comfort. I did say if I “felt” cold, then it would go on.

No, not yet… but I wish I did this evening, it’s bloody freezing!! We’ve got shitty 40 year old (at a guess 😂) night storage heaters in our ancient draughty crappy house and they’re just shit and so expensive to run it’s not even funny so we hold out as long as we can. We’re moving in the middle of December (for our sins!) to a house with a brand new heating system and I am way too excited 😂

It’s not cold yet, so no. I haven’t even got a coat out, either.

All the upstairs windows have been open all day and I’ll have our bedroom and the en suite windows open tonight, as I do all year round.

Mines on all year round set to a temp schedule, max of 20/ min of 17. During summer it barely switches on, this time of year the radiators are warmish but not blasting heat out until it gets much colder outside.

No but I wish I could afford to as my old terraced house is damp and freezing. I put an electric heater on for an hour tonight and we’ve got extra blankets but I need to hold off using the heating until November at the earliest as I just can’t afford it.

Central heating no but log burner in lounge is on tonight, for the third (I think) time. It's been grey and drizzly here (Normandy) today and I've been cold all day.

Well no you are being obtuse you could however wear a jumper

No but I’ve had the log burner on a few times.
My heating won’t kick on until the house temp drops to about 16 degrees

Or she could just put the heating on.

I like to think I'm an old Scrooge and feel morally superior to those who sit around in (what I think are) overly-heated houses.
The reality is that I don't like warm houses (18 in depths of winter is great) but love breathing cool air whilst feeling cosy in woollen clothes with heaps of blankets. My thermostat runs hot and I'm not particularly thin which "helps".
The only downsides are visiting other houses in winter and sweating, feeling barely able to breathe, and having to crank up the heating for my elderly relatives who all forced a freezing house upon me when I was little.
Ps. Heating not on yet but house still at 19, in mid-October!
The furnishings make a massive difference. Families with laminate are going to feel chilly - sod's law, these tend to be those who can least afford heating.