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Can someone explain if I'm (not) heating my house wrong

50 replies

twoandcooplease · 14/12/2022 12:11

I have a top-up gas meter and it's costing so much but I also think I'm using my heating wrong. I've looked for a dummies guide to using your heating but I can't find the answer I'm looking for

I set the thermostat to 3 times and tell it to go to 20 degrees. The rest of the time it is set to keep the house no lower than 17 degrees and I have a boost option to put it on for 1hr too

Would it cost more to set it when on at 21.5 degrees?
Or would it cost the same as it'll still be on for the same time?
I'm just wondering if my family are suffering a cold house and I can turn it up? They are saying they're still cold. I'm saying the heating is on.

OP posts:
NewBootsAndRanty · 14/12/2022 18:27

It costs me about £2 to keep it at 18 overnight. I tried a cosy toasty duvet and electric blankets and no heating on and ended up ill. It's not about the heat of my body, it's about the temperature of the air I'm breathing in.

Cactuses3580 · 14/12/2022 18:43

@SmallPrawnEnergy but even if your rads are blazing hot, they may be undersized for the room, or your insulation must be poor if you still can't reach 20c when it's -5c outside. Both can be improved by I get it's difficult spending the £££, I miss the heating bills of last winter

steppemum · 14/12/2022 18:44

NewBootsAndRanty · 14/12/2022 18:27

It costs me about £2 to keep it at 18 overnight. I tried a cosy toasty duvet and electric blankets and no heating on and ended up ill. It's not about the heat of my body, it's about the temperature of the air I'm breathing in.

I agree that for you you need to breath in warm air. But that is just not true of everyone.

I don't think our bedrooms are ever as warm as 18. And we can afford them to be, but for me that is too warm.

And if your house is warm during the day, very few houses are so cold to be an issue overnight.
Obviously for some, eg asthmatics, that may be an issue. But for most people it is fine.

SlipperyLizard · 14/12/2022 20:08

Our heating has always gone off overnight, last night our room dropped to 12.8 degrees but I only noticed when I went for a wee, with enough duvets/blankets & an electric blanket on for a bit before we get in we are perfectly warm.

Oakbeam · 14/12/2022 20:36

The strange thing is that I have been sleeping in temperatures of just a couple of degrees above freezing for the last few nights, and been having the best nights’ sleep I have had in ages.

JamMakingWannaBe · 14/12/2022 20:58

What time are you up in the morning and how long does it take you all to get ready?
Set the thermostat to come on for 18 degrees say 40 minutes before you get up eg: 6:20am, and to go off 20-30 minutes before the last person leaves the house.

If you are moving around, having a shower, getting dressed you don't have time to get cold.

What time are you in from school/work? Set the timer to come on 30 minutes before this time.

Our heating goes off at 9pm as kids are in bed and we can use extra layers/blankets etc.

As PP, our minimum temp is set at 12 degrees so if it falls to that, day or night, the boiler will kick in.

If I am WFH I'm in layers with a heated blanket. No point heating rooms I'm not in.

steppemum · 14/12/2022 22:47

it is an often repeated fallacy that leaving your heating on the same temp all the time is cheaper.

It isn't. It is just as good tohave iot come on when you need it.

Jellycatspyjamas · 15/12/2022 04:56

I have to admit I was unaware that heating your house at night when you are in bed was even a thing, we have never done it.

Its been -9 where I am overnight, heating is set to 12 degrees overnight to avoid pipes freezing cos in this weather the frost setting doesn’t get the house warm enough to stop pipes freezing. Yes it’s costly but burst water pipes would be much more so.

Mol1628 · 15/12/2022 05:55

I’ve tried to have mine off overnight but the fluctuations in temperature caused the external
walls to get damp. It’s now on 15 at night and
19 during first thing in the morning and in the evening for a couple of hours.

It works better for us to keep it at a steady
warm but it’s different for every house.

Nolongera · 15/12/2022 08:58

Jellycatspyjamas · 15/12/2022 04:56

I have to admit I was unaware that heating your house at night when you are in bed was even a thing, we have never done it.

Its been -9 where I am overnight, heating is set to 12 degrees overnight to avoid pipes freezing cos in this weather the frost setting doesn’t get the house warm enough to stop pipes freezing. Yes it’s costly but burst water pipes would be much more so.

The inside of your house goes below freezing overnight if you don't have the heating on? Do you keep the windows open?

The coldest we had it in outside was minus 14C a couple of years ago, this was in Scotland, no heating on at night, no overnight pipes bursting.

Unless you live on a house with insulation like a tent, it's takes ages for it to cool down to below freezing, especially if you have been using the heating.

Our unheated garage is plumbed for a sink and a washing machine, it's been minus 6 outside here several nights in a row and 1°C during the day, no pipes have burst.

I don't understand people's desire to piss away energy pointlessly, fair enough if it's for health reasons.

Jellycatspyjamas · 15/12/2022 09:08

I don't understand people's desire to piss away energy pointlessly, fair enough if it's for health reasons.

I live on top of a hill, part of the house is very exposed - the rooms in the house don't need to reach freezing for there to be a risk to pipes given they run through walls and floors for the most part. My house is well insulated as are the others in the street however two of my neighbours have had burst pipes during this cold snap and I have no desire to join them. My health wouldn't be improved by trying to find a plumber and deal with house damage at this time of year.

Oakbeam · 15/12/2022 09:21

My heating is off overnight but to prevent burst pipes will come on automatically if the inside temperature drops ever below 7 degrees. Regardless of what the schedule is set to or if it is turned on or off.

twoandcooplease · 15/12/2022 09:52

* *If I'm understanding this correctly, you're heating the (poorly insulated) house to at least 17 degrees day and night? Plus also boosting it up to 19/20 for a few hours each day?

Of course that will be expensive, you're using lots of heating!* *

Hey! Sorry I didn't realise pp's were still responding - thank you
I'm embarrassed to admit (but need to for the right advice) that since reading these replies ... I didn't know setting it to not drop <17 between my three settings ... cost money ...

I thought that was low enough to not be on as the radiators are cold and I never hear the whoosh of the boiler
On Monday I woke up at 6 to the house freezing because we ran out of gas before midnight. By the time I got the shop to top up it was 9am and said it was 14 degrees. So it had been off during the coldest hours and that's as cold as I've seen it get to

So would you suggest lowering the temp to only click on if the house is below 15?

OP posts:
Greeneyegirl · 15/12/2022 09:56

You seem to keep your house very warm. We are just aiming to keep ours at 12 degrees at the moment with the heating. In the evenings we do have a fire in the living room which keeps that room toasty

Hugasauras · 15/12/2022 10:00

Ours is 18 during day and 15 overnight. Gas is expensive now though, it's tripled since last winter, so you might well not be doing anything wrong. We are £10 a day on gas during this cold spell. It does just cost a lot of money to heat a family home right now.

Hugasauras · 15/12/2022 10:02

Greeneyegirl · 15/12/2022 09:56

You seem to keep your house very warm. We are just aiming to keep ours at 12 degrees at the moment with the heating. In the evenings we do have a fire in the living room which keeps that room toasty

12 degrees is ridiculous. This competitive underheating on MN needs to stop. 12 degrees is into the category of a risk to health. If you can't afford anything else then that's awful but don't advertise it as being something to aim towards.

twoandcooplease · 15/12/2022 10:13

I know it's colder this year and I do feel the cold a bit more since pregnancy but I'm finding drafts are all over and they're giving me sinus problems as my nose keeps getting cold
I also have chronic pain in my back which the cold is making worse

I have a 1yo co sleeping ds so we can't use an electric blanket or duvets unfortunately. So putting the heating on during the night is something we do have to do. I've kept it to just 45 mins but is that pointless? As it's only just on then it's off again

I know there are things I can and have to do to warm it up. I can: carpet the living room, put up blinds and change curtains throughout and ask my neighbour for more knitting ...

I am lucky that we stay in a council house with a great repairs office. I have stayed here for 20 years so know all about the house too. If I report to them a list of things needing updated they will send tradesmen to do the work

The windows must be due for replacement around now
There is a hole in my bathroom ceiling where a water pump burst and leaked. They'll have to repair that as I can now see into the attic where its absolutely freezing and definitely has poor insulation
The radiator under the window in the living room under the window is long but short and could be changed
There's draft all round the sills

OP posts:
twoandcooplease · 15/12/2022 10:15

Would it be cheaper to get two electric radiators. One for the bedroom another for the living room and just use them In whatever room were in and out the heating on a boost now and again when it gets really cold but otherwise OFF?

I was always told they cost a fortune to use. But at this point I think the gas would be more surely?

OP posts:
twoandcooplease · 15/12/2022 10:18

My bedroom was 14 when i turned the rads down in there the other day; it took hours to get back up to 18, and cost about £2 more than usual for the day

@NewBootsAndRanty well this was my thinking too. Say I turn it off totally. Or to a temp where it won't click on. Then I boost it to 19 for an hour. I wouldn't get an hour of heating as it would take so long to get up. It'd need to go back on again for the benefit

OP posts:
HumourReplacementTherapy · 15/12/2022 10:32

There's a thread where some of us monitored different ways of heating.
It does depend on the house though. For me it only costs £1 a day more to have it @ 18° all day instead of 18° for two two hr blocks.
So it's worth it to be warm
Do you have a smart meter with a home display?
If not you can just take daily metre readings or closely monitor how much your putting on your metre.

HumourReplacementTherapy · 15/12/2022 10:34

I can't link from the app but the thread is called ' heating on low all day experiment'

MothBat · 15/12/2022 10:38

It's not true that the heating is either on or off. Our boiler reduces the power input/flow temperature as it approaches the set temperature (weather compensation). It would be better to have it on longer at 20° than shorter at 21.5° as condensing boilers are more efficient at a lower flow temperature. In current weather we need the flow temperature higher otherwise it takes hours to heat up.

twoandcooplease · 15/12/2022 11:25

@HumourReplacementTherapy that's really helpful thank you I will have a read

Thank you @MothBat that's what I wasn't sure about - I did think it wasn't cost effective in the small bursts

I have turned it down to not turn on until <16. So at 15.5 it will come on if it has to otherwise won't until the set time

OP posts:
MothBat · 15/12/2022 11:40

Just to clarify ours has a load compensation control not weather compensation and we are on mains gas.

Nolongera · 16/12/2022 15:33

Jellycatspyjamas · 15/12/2022 09:08

I don't understand people's desire to piss away energy pointlessly, fair enough if it's for health reasons.

I live on top of a hill, part of the house is very exposed - the rooms in the house don't need to reach freezing for there to be a risk to pipes given they run through walls and floors for the most part. My house is well insulated as are the others in the street however two of my neighbours have had burst pipes during this cold snap and I have no desire to join them. My health wouldn't be improved by trying to find a plumber and deal with house damage at this time of year.

Everyone else's pipes run through walls and underfloor.

The solution to the threat of burst pipes is to lag them, not heat your house to a level that heats pipes outside of it's insulation.

No wonder the planet is fucked.

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