Is 15 degrees an OK indoor temperature?

[nappyaddict]

I have got tshirt, cardigan and hoody on plus socks and slipper boots. I feel fine temperature wise. We have a real thermometer in the room that tells you the exact temperature as opposed to one of those colour changing ones so I know it really is 15 degrees and not any colder. Sister came round earlier and said it was freezing and that we were neglecting our poor DS in that temperature. We haven't had the heating on yet and trying to hold out until December cos of a big bill earlier in the year. Does anyone else wait until December if they can?

I have never been as cold in my home as when I lived in South Africa. Joberg is at altitude and it was cold enough to snow when we lived there. The houses often have little if any insulation, no central heating and huge gaps round the doors. It was freezing first thing in the morning. Give me cozy UK houses any day.

I keep ours low 16deg C after school and eve, off the rest of the time, we can afford it on higher, I just can't stand it any higher especially running around doing housework. If it feels cold I put a cardi on or the fire on. I have v. good circulation though, hardly ever feel cold, my kids (7 and 9) are fine at this too.

Ours is never bellow 19 or over 22

Mine is 14.5c at the minute, I have jogging bottoms, long sleeve t and socks on. Not cold
Overnight it can drop to 11c which is fine until I get up. Below 14c and I put the heating on to bring it up to 17/18 or so

I think you can get used to 15 degrees, for some reason 16 is a more acceptable temperature but you would still need one room maintained at 20 or 22 degrees, our house is big and old and very cold - think 5 degree in winter, we try and maintain it to 15/6 degrees all day and one room at 20 degrees with a Woodburner, I have to say I start to feel faint and begin to strip layers off if the temperature rises above 20 degrees.

A cooler house is a lot easier to bear if you CHOOSE to live at 15 degrees to conserve funds, you can do so fairly easily with lots of layers of cashmere and warm sheepskin lined boots but it is very miserable existence if it is enforced due to lack of funds and accompanied by lack of food and other essentials.

Everyone should be able to have at least one warm room, to me it seems very wasteful to heat an entire house.

Our kitchen is cooler - it has been down to around 13 due to poor insulation and a big kitchen with tiled floor, no underfloor heating and 2 small radiators which only heat it up to 15-17 degrees.

Our house gets cold enough to have ice on the inside of the windows and water left in a glass freeze in the kitchen.

I keep the room we are in warm and the heating is on around bed time/shower time and getting up time for the kids. Otherwise I have lovely fleecy pjs and lots of blankets.

Kids' friends do find our house cold so I try and remember to turn the heating on for them but if it is on for any length of time I feel like I'm over heating and have to retire to a room with the windows open.

I need finger gloves, maybe hat & four layers on body right now (it's 17).
Friends complain that it's balmy if they get above 12 in their house.
I have to wear my coat & can only stay about 90minutes.
Am not sure about the acclimatisation theory, I used to wear shorts outside when snow on the ground, not any more!

It is 15 degrees ATM and not even remotely chilly here, I'm not even wearing tons of layers just a long sleeved t shirt and cardi.

I find that my hands start to get too cold once its under 17. I wear sheepskin boots (like uggs) in the house to keep my feet warm, a gilet, woolly scarf etc. I have an electric blanket on my side of the bed so I can add a bit of warmth if I wake up because I'm too cold in the night.

TheJoyfulPuddleJumper, are you doing this because you can't afford to heat your flat? If so, I totally understand, if it's just because you don't feel cold then I do sympathise with your poor guests. I would be utterly miserable at that sort of temperature and a jumper or blanket just wouldn't cut the mustard. If you are sitting down at a friend's house, which is usual, not running around hoovering or whatever, then your extremities can get very cold which is just horrible.

It's not very hospitable and I would be mortified if I thought someone was cold in my house although if it is due to finances it is of course a different story.

Depends how busy you are. If hoovering, housework etc I think it's ok but if sitting around it would feel cold.

I'm at home alone in the day and feel guilty for putting the heating on.

I do, though!

I wouldn't give guests a blanket! That's outrageous

I'd give them a hot water bottle

Get everyone over in the summer TheJoyfulPuddleJumper and go around to theirs in the winter !

Depends on child. Mine is always warm, he'd be fine at 15 degrees.

Oh the children don't ever feel cold, it's ME I'm thinking about !

I've just purchased room temp gauges and put them throughout the house and can therefore correct my previous post! I thought I was keeping the dial at around 20 but of course it isn't accurate, the house actually hovers at 17/18 degrees. This is great when we're moving around and doing stuff, it feels cold when we're sitting still on the sofa at night, but the bedroom has to get down to 15 to be ok for sleeping and I've since learned that 15 isn't as cold as I thought!

Glad to hear that there are others who don't worry too much at a chilly house. d(3.5)s and I are at home and temperature is 14. Its fine and our hands are not cold but I do have a fleece that I put on when I come into the house. He's going to nursery soon so I don't feel the need to put heating on. It takes a long time to heat up so.there's no point

Puss it wouldn't take a long time to heat it up if you had it on low all the time. A stone cold house takes days/weeks to heat up properly.

My parents went to the States once in November for 10 days and decided to turn the heating off completely - omg that house was unbearably cold for ages after they got back. It was really chill through to the bones as it were.

Modern programable room thermostats are very good for that. You can set them for different temperatures at different times of day and days of week, and can (for example) set it to 12C for frost protection for 13 days holiday, returning to normal the day before you are scheduled to come home.

Insurers frown on claims for damage from burst pipes if the house was left empty and unheated during a winter holiday.

Piglet-we gave just fitted a new thermostat, it's fantastic and we have set it to come on at different temps at different times of the day. It's also so accurate that it had eliminated arguments Dh and I have about the house being too hot or cold. we got ours from Ebay and fitted it ourselves, it was half the price of an engineer doing it

Our kitchen was 11.4 when I got up today!! I would have put the heating on when we got up but we were both going out within 30 minutes so it seemed a bit pointless!

15 is really cold.