What temp is your house right now?

[TicTacFrenzy]

And do you have the heating on?

I thought it was a bit chilly this morning/last night but moving around today it was ok (hoovering etc)
We are sitting on the couch tonight with blankets, and ds just commented it seems to be warmer to night than last night. Checked the thermostat and we are sitting at 15.5 degrees. But we are ok tbh.

How warm is your house tonight?

(No heating yet and I think we are doing ok feeling cold wise iyswim? None of the kids have complained yet! Although we have a box of blankets by the couch. Have put up an extra set of double lines curtains on the main "cold" windows, put in extra foam on windows that were a bit leaky and tend to go to bed earlyish)

18 degrees

I live in a damp part of the north and I value both my health and my home. I will make savings elsewhere if needed - heating is a basic essential.

I appreciate I'm lucky to be in this position as not everyone is. However, I do know people who can also afford to heat their homes but are bizarrely choosing not to do so. It's a weird sort of martyrdom. It seems crazy to me that they are choosing to maintain spending elsewhere but not heat their home sufficiently to maintain their health and reduce the risk of damp.

New Hive. It says it's 18.9. Almost midday, heating is not on. But this house is warm in the winter and cool uk the summer naturally. Heating kicks in for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, if temp drops low enough.

19, thermostat set at 18, humidity is about 50%.

I agree! Just can't fathom the logic / priorities of trying to tough it out in a cold house then going to buy lunch at pret / paying £16.99 a month for Netflix premium plus 3 other TV packages.. etc

I can afford to heat my home more than I currently do.

It’s not martyrdom, it’s protest.

I am keeping as much pressure off the supply because I can’t stand it that we are held to ransom by Putin and the oil and gas Co shareholders.

But I won’t endanger my health or my house.

But surely the only person who youre directly affecting is yourself?.
Id rather just been warm than protesting and freezing my bits off in the process.

Front room is nice and toasty as we have a log burner. I know they are controversial, however it's cheap heating (for us). The rest of the house is cold

Just can't fathom the logic / priorities of trying to tough it out in a cold house then going to buy lunch at pret / paying £16.99 a month for Netflix premium plus 3 other TV packages.. etc

Does this help?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63738388.amp

I know JH is largely saying this to avoid long term government support, but many people I know have been keeping energy use to a minimum since the Ukraine war began to cut down reliance on Russian gas and the ensuing market costs of energy.

Thank you @Talia99 and @Caspianberg that is helpful to know. I’ve been out at work all day and the heatings been off; humidity is now at 58% so Ok-ish but presumably it’s something I need to watch.

The beauty of an old house is that it is breathable at least!

That's a new one to me. Most people have been saying it's to save money / they are worried about bills.

Freezing myself at home for to blackmail Putin sounds beyond the call of duty to me, Jeremy Hunt can p* off

part of our house is always over 20 degrees. I have a respiratory illness at the moment and really feel for anyone who can’t afford to heat their homes. The NHS is going to be on its knees by February if this continues.

As far as I am concerned it is Putin and the greedy racketeering energy companies that can piss off!

But 16 pm isn't enough to heat a UK house in winter is it? If it only cost me £16pm to heat my house it would be 21dc 24/7 and I would forgo Netflix. Unfortunately it's closer to £10 per day fuel costs with to keeping the house over 18 versus £4 per day without heating.

No one goes to pret daily, has Disney plus, netflicks, smokes, drinks and goes on holiday abroad and sits in a house that's bearly in double figures.

@IncessantNameChanger for us it is about the war and reliance on Russian gas plus our ambition to be more green. We are currently using the heating once a week to warm the house through and prevent damp, the solar panels are heating the hot water with only a top up if absolutely necessary we then have the log burner to warm the main living space.
We were in the bonus room last night with blankets and it was quite cosy.

Next year we hope to have a ground source heat pump installed and be self sufficient all summer power wise

I bet Jeremy Hunt and his family aren't sitting in the cold.

19.5 for us but the heating will come on if it dips below 17. We can have it at 21 where I usually like it but I’m another one trying to be greener.

So I'm back from my experiment...

Running just my heating (rented: no room thermostat, boiler thermostat set to high, all (5) radiators set to 1, then two without valves so running on full. Three bed mid-terrace with four occupants, sixties built, cavity walls not filled, double glazing but fairly old, as is the boiler) for 7-8am then 4-6pm cost me £2.23. P/h breakdown in the picture attached...

Todays experiment is running the hot water too, to see how much of a difference it makes to the cost of the hot water if the boiler is already on for the heating (water alone costs approx £1 a day)

@BeyondThinkOfTheOptics what was the high and low of the outside temperature?

@BeyondThinkOfTheOptics so 3hrs heating is less than £2.50

High of 10'c, low of 5'c

I have an 1820s victorian terrace which has 11 radiators over 3 floors. Energy efficient boiler and new double glazing. It costs me about 70p an hour to run my central heating, all radiators are set to 3.

I'm hitting about £4 a day now for heating. I'm looking at last November's £20-ish gas bill (for about half as much usage tbf) and gritting my teeth.

I've just got some second hand heavy lined velvet curtains off ebay to replace the thermal but thin ones i had, and am putting some of that secondary glazing film and draught seal tape on my windows tonight - will see if that makes any difference.

So @Blondeshavemorefun and @BeyondThinkOfTheOptics
would I be right in saying that the first hour of heating is about £1, then 50p per hour after that? For your situation anyway - you have a slightly bigger house than me but I can just about do £2.50 per day / £75 per month for just heating so that's reassuring

It'll always be more expensive for the first hour.

My heating last night used 8kwh in the first hour, 6.5 in the second, then about 3.5 after that.

Thank you @NewBootsAndRanty - this all makes a lot of sense. The graph helps. It shows that it will be more expensive to have the heating coming 3 or 4 times a day just for 1 hour - but better to have a solid chunk that warms the house through.
Thanks!