Argument with my DH this morning over heating!!!

[MakeMeStronger]

I am sick and tired of my husband watching the heating like a hawk. I am careful with money but I think what he sets it to is ridiculous. He has it on at 6.10am and off at 6.50am we don't go out til 7.30 on a Mon-Weds and the house is cold when I come downstairs. He then has it set to 4.30 til... 5.30!!!! That's it! I turn the heating on when I want but if he's in he'll make a comment or turn it off without saying anything.
Love him to bits but I mentioned I was cold this morning and we ended up having a heated row about it. Interested to see what other people think and what you have your heating on?

ours is on 6-10am and then 5-10pm. It is on a thermostat set around 18/19°C so will click on and off as required. I think we pay around £80 per month for gas.

Our gas and electricity is £80 a month. Our provider said they had never seen such low usage for the size of our house- I was embarrassed and my husband acted like he had won an Olympic medal!!!

That is £80 total!!! Not £160!

I'm with him in the mornings - generally running around so much you don't really need the heating on anyway.

In the evening's I'd have it come on later and go off later - i.e. most important later when you're "sitting" not so much when you're busy doing.

I don't have any heating on at all when I'm home alone during the day. 2 jumpers, sheepskin slippers and jobs to do keep me warm.

What is it set to? If you can turn it down a couple of degrees you can probably have it on longer without noticing any difference in cost.

That said, when you have the heat on isn't his decision to make alone - you get a say and need to come to an agreement.

unless you have cavity wall insulation and thick loft insulation, the temp will drop noticeably after an hour or so.

What temp is the wall stat set to?

I would hate to live in a freezing house. Our heating is off between 10 and 5 during the day but if I get too cold I will boost the heating for a wee while.

our outside temperatures are cold too just now (Scotland) so I like to have a bit of warmth indoors. Due a high of 4°C tomorrow so if I am cold the heating will go on.

Do you have children? And do they find it warm enough?

I'm not sure having the heating on for such short periods is an effective use of energy. The guy who installed our heating was talking about the idea behind central heating being that the walls of the house become warm enough so that it was never gets really cold. Plus an efficient thermostat means that even if the heating is programmed to make the house 18c for 4 hours, it won't actually be on all that time. (Only when the temperature drops below that figure.)

Also if there's a concern re wasteful heating, it makes sense to invest in good loft insulation, effective double glazing etc. (Not just reducing the amount of hours that the heating is on.)

Your H would hate me.

Our apartment has instantaneous electric wall heaters. I turn the big living room one on as soon as I get up with DS, between 7-8. Stays on, set to 20° 'til roughly 11pm at night. That's the only heater we have on though and it's all one level so does the job pretty well, I turn it off if I'm too warm.

We don't have gas and we pay £50p/m electric.

I agree with your husband in the mornings, ours comes on 10 mins before we get up and off 20 mins before we all go out - like it warm while actually getting up but don't need it on when we are moving about and dressed.

In the evenings ours is on for about an hour (its not been on today since 8.10) as I'm not in much during the day and when the kids get home we are warm from the walk. Then they don't seem to feel the cold and I'm doing jobs etc, making the tea so I'm moving about and keep warm.

In the evening I might put it on at about 7pm off at 8 and its just cooling down by the time we go to bed.

However our thermostat is set at 19 degrees, and our house is well insulated, well aired, and cosy. If your house is draughty or badly insulated, or the air is damp, then it will cool down quicker and feel colder.

If the heating goes off at 6.50, you all go out at 7.30 but the house is cold by the time you get downstairs... I'm not sure why it would be cold unless you roll out of bed 2 mins before you leave the house

At the moment the weather is so mild I hardly ever have our heating on - never in the morning and maybe a couple of hours in the evening.

But that's irrelevant if you're living in a house that's too cold for you.

At the risk of sounding like my mother, can you compromise by wearing an extra layer so you can turn the thermostat down or have the heating on for a shorter time?

I wonder if it has had chance to warm the house up?! Apparently we do have a strange heating system which I can't get my head around. We don't have a thermostat on our water tank so apparently it is constantly being heated, it doesn't cut out and because of the a) we have bloomin hot water and b) our heating isn't effective- sorry for being dim but I don't get why. Our hall thermostat is on 20 and we do have kids. My 7 yr old would walk round topless if he could, doesn't feel the cold and goes to bed in boxers so my DH uses him as back up that it's not cold! Whereas my daughter is like me and feels it (she's my back up!).
Think it would be good idea to talk it through and agree. We have had some quotes to get the whole system sorted but money won't allow for the time being.

your heating wont be effective if its never on! Do you not have a switch to switch the hot water on and off? Does your house even have time to heat up to 20°C in the short time it is on?

No it doesn't but it does when we're at him and DH is at work! It's all very cloak and dagger!!!

It sounds as if you're not communicating very well.

And if there are issues around money, are there other economies that could be made - as an alternative to being so frugal re heating?

MakeMeStronger

it sounds like you have an old system with a gravity feed to the cylinder. This also takes a long time to heat the cylinder. The cylinder is probably a copper coloured one.

This can be altered at modest expense, you don't need a new boiler, but you do need a thermostat on the side of the cylinder controlling a 2-port motorised valve on the pipe that goes from the boiler to the cylinder. It may be a 28mm pipe and the valve will be more expensive than a 22mm pipe.

if the boiler and cylinder are fairly close, it is not much of a job, but if they are a long way apart, a cable has to be run between the two which might mean taking the floor up.

A better, but a bit more expensive, way would be to convert it to fully pumped, with a three port valve. You will still need the same thermostat and cable.

Better still would be to do all that and also fit a new cylinder, which will have a faster heating coil and factory-applied insulation.

None of these jobs involve work on the boiler, so you do not need a gas-safe engineer, but an experienced plumber or heating engineer will understand the procedure.

In the meantime, it is very important that your cylinder, and the pipes between it and the boiler, are very well insulated, as they will be wasting energy during warm weather. Use two red jackets, and climaflex or similar on the pipes.

Why don't you work out what the extra is that it would cost to have the heating on as much as you would like, and then see if you can together find some way of saving that money from elsewhere in your budget?

I think we do need to communicate better on this issue. I think he is trying to save money with the heating but we're not that tight for cash that we could afford to have it on a bit longer. I sort out all the utility bills etc and always do price comparisons to get the best I can so I'm not sure we can save much there and again I'm careful with our food shopping, always meal plan etc! A friend said about seeing how much it costs to have it on longer too. I think he's got into this habit with worrying about the heating when it's really not necessary. Will have a chat tonight!
Thanks for the advice PigletJohn- will see if that's similar to what we've been quoted.

I would be more inclined to leave the timer "on" and perhaps nudge the wall stat down a bit to give tolerable comfort and economy.

If the stat is in the hall it might not bear much relation to the temp in other rooms. This can be adjusted by balancing the radiators.

Improving control and insulation of the cylinder and pipes will not make much difference in winter, as the waste heat warms the house, but will cut your summer bills.

Hi PigletJohn, our radiators have been balanced a couple of months ago and that made a huge difference. I still can't get my head round our heating system. Does our thermostat in the hall work like most houses and the heating turns off when the temp is reached? I've switched it round to 18 about an hour ago and house is a perfect temp.

yes, it probably does, but you might have an eccentric installation.

If your house is well insulated, it will take hours to cool down, once it is warm. 18C in the hall may (should) mean that living rooms are a bit warmer.

How about a compromise to turn down the thermostat to 17 C and have the heating on for longer?

Isn't setting the thermostat at 17 the same thing as turning the heating off most days It takes a really cold day here for our room temp to fall to 16 - I don't put the heating on at all when I'm in the house alone, so I know!

Oh my goodness how dictatorial is he being?! Why does he get the final say?

Our heating goes on in November and gets turned off at the end of March and we pay £100 combined pcm for gas and electric.

My heating is on 24/7, with the thermostat set to 16 c.
I would hate to live in a cold house.