Have you turned off your heating now?

[WombatChocolate]

I know some people haven’t really had it on all winter - terrible position to find yourself in and I’m truly sorry people have had to do this.

But if you have had it on, have you now turned it off or if you’ve reduced it,how many hours per day now?

It’s late March and ours is till on for 1 hr in morning and about 4 hrs in evening. Obviously it’s not firing up so much as it gets to temp (17 degrees) faster now.

Just wondered when people who’ve already turned it off did so and what those still using it are doing…and when you’d think it will be off fully. Thanks.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2022/nov/27/uk-households-have-cut-energy-consumption-by-10-say-suppliers

My memory failed me there! That was actually in November!

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/costoflivinginsights/energy#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20adults%20(54%25)%20in%20Great%20Britain,February%20to%205%20March%202023).

Statistics office says a bit more than half of us have cut back, but I have not found a year to year comparisson on Kw spent and I think that would be the one to follow indeed.

Those of you who leave your thermostat permanently in 17/18 … is that all night as well? I’d be roasting in bed at that temp 🤒

Yes, I have to for my disabled child. The radiator is switched off in our bedroom though.

I've had the heating off for a week now, but of it gets very cold I'll pop it back on.

@DannyZukosSmile

I DON'T HAVE A HEATING SYSTEM!! I have three electric radiators. That's it. They're plugged into the walls and horrifically inefficient. One has DS bed directly in front of it as it's in a stupid place and a bed won't fit anywhere else so it would be a fire risk.

I live in a middle floor rented flat. The downstairs flat has their heating on a lot. The whole building is riddled with damp so even in the summer I have to clean the walls. It's no worse in the winter.

My credit is going to be eaten up over the summer as the government £67 a month has now stopped.

@DannyZukosSmile

Where did I say I didn't use electricity? I have an electric immersion heater for the hot water tank which gives me enough hot water for the day. I'm not quite sure why you're so angry with/at me. I was answering a post truthfully. Neither my DS or I (we don't have any pets) has asthma or any other breathing conditions so not sure how we're doing anything wrong or dangerous!

It only took me a few days to adjust to it (asthma, plus diagnosed with COPD last year) - meant my 15 tog duvet wasn't needed any more though. Being a bit too warm is still preferable to not being able to breathe properly.

It would be hard because different winters have different levels of severity.

I find it hard to believe as a nation we will only be down 10% on energy usage !

Everyone I know has made significant cutbacks - I guess the people I know and the people on here must not be very reflective of the UK as a whole.

My gas usage has doubled over the last year (because health reasons mentioned above); on the other hand, I've pretty much halved my electric consumption.

Yes it does sound low. We have halved our gas usage out of necessity.

@DannyZukosSmile How can you have a 'lovely amount of credit on your electricity account' purely for not using the heating? Do you switch off the majority of your electrical items too? No TV, no DVD player, no computers on, no laptops, no phones, no stereo or music. Just all huddled around a candle in your oodies reading a book? (Probably Charles Dickens as you probably feel like your in a Charles Dickens novel living this way!)

I've been paying £100 a month for my electricity by DD. My bill is just shy of £100 but with the government money, the credit in my account has gone up by £67 each month.

We have a well insulated house and have still heating set to 22 so I think it comes on first thing in the morning then doesn't really do anything after that. The beauty of TRVs.

It's still cold so no I haven't turned it off in the day. Never have it on at night.

@GasPanic and @Okunevo
That was back in November, when it was still mild.
I am positive too that if we could get the same data for Dec, Jan and Feb it would be higher.

I haven’t reduced my usage this year. We’ve only ever used what we need, which is a lot due to our disabled child. We couldn’t reduce it further without causing significant problems.

Ours was fixed until April and just found out it has nearly doubled from £65 to £110. We were lucky the £67 government credit covered it before and so we hoped now the weather is warming up, we'd be paying what we did but it's based on usage throughout the year. We still need the heating on to dry washing as it's always raining atm.

My heating has stopped kicking in overnight the last few days - yay spring!

It’s 4 degrees outside here. Forecast to be -2 overnight tomorrow. My heating is on right now as my house felt cool.

We still have it on for an hour early morning, and then as and when throughout the day. If it's particularly cold and damp outside we'll pop it on for an hour here and there.