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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Original poster

So anyone else at loggerheads with DH over when the central heating should go on?

17 replies

VoluptuaGoodshag · 03/11/2006 14:56

I'm a SAHM and he thinks that I should sit in and freeze my butt off with my two kids. Thing is, I am conscious of wasting energy needlessly but it's cold outside. He comes home after cycling 5 miles up a hill and swans in stating that the place is like a sauna and leaves the back door wide open so all the heat just leaves and then he says that we should be more energy conscious!!!! WTF if he didn't let all the heat out in the first place I wouldn't have to turn up the radiators. Grrrrrrrrrr. He would sit with his 3 jumpers on and feel smug.

And don't get me started with the dishwasher arguments.

OP posts:
beansprout · 03/11/2006 14:59

What does he say about the dishwasher?

beansprout · 03/11/2006 15:00

The rule here is that you are not allowed to comment on the temperature until you have been in for 20 mins. Cycling up a hill and then complaining that somewhere is too hot is a bit mad methinks.

Pages · 03/11/2006 15:01

I am a much colder person than DH so we always have these arguments - in the house, in the car... -and probably always will. It's true you do tend to stay warmer if you are out and about, and I have got used to putting an extra jumper on. But you have the kids to think of - are they warm enough without the heating on in the daytime?

Original poster
VoluptuaGoodshag · 03/11/2006 15:02

My theory
Starting at breakfast, load each dish into washer. Continue throughout the day until after dinner when washer is full then switch on. By morning dishes are clean, dry and ready to go

His theory
Don't use dishwasher. Or he washes some things by hand; and or takes some things out of dishwasher to wash by hand. He doesn't fill the sink to do this, he just keeps the hot tap running which IMO uses more energy in the long run. This means that the dishwasher takes longer to fill and stuff is harder to clean and basically it pisses me off no end.

Not wanting to appear a downtrodden wifie, I put CH and dishwasher on anyway and just anticipate the arguments

OP posts:
ProfYaffle · 03/11/2006 15:15

Oh the heating thing winds me up. Dh seems to expect me and dd to freeze while he spends his day in a nicely heated office. he continually sneaks around turning the heating off/down when he comes in at tea time so the evening is freezing!

It's just about the only thing we argue about though, so it could be worse!

admylin · 03/11/2006 15:30

My dh is the other extreme, he stays up really late working at his desk and feels cold as he isn't moving and then he goes to bed without switching off or atleast turning down the CH, when I get up in the morning the heat nearly knocks me over when I open the bedroom door. I suppose he pays for it so ... if I was in charge I would atleast turn it all down at night time but then I come from a family where my dad used to shout if we opened the door just to leave the living room because we were wasting heat.

lizziemun · 03/11/2006 16:07

he must have money to burn.

It cost more to turn the heating up and down why not leave it at 20 then it keeps the house at a comfortable temp. Although on a realy cold day i will turn the temperture up if its very cold as dd get cold when playing on the floor, i will put a jumper or cardi on her first.

As for washing up with the water running the on going draught doesn't include him, with the amount of water he is wasting.

theUrbanDryad · 03/11/2006 16:19

my dh turns the heating on just before we go to bed which really winds me up. not only do i have to have a window open in the bedroom (otherwise i have crazy dreams - don't ask me why!) but i'm also 7 months pg and so have a tiny little central heating system in my belly anyway! THEN he wants to be all snuggly in bed under the TWO duvets and gets upset when i push him off!

we've had the should we/shouldn't we get a tumble dryer for the new baby discussion... well, the new baby's nappies anyway we're both very "green"-minded and i don't really like using a tumbledryer when we've got radiators etc. we've agreed to try without for the first few weeks but get one if we can't cope with the laundry....

gigwig · 03/11/2006 16:20

I have this as DH never feels the cold whereas I do, DS is the same as DH so heating is not on often and they are hot while I am feeling chilled.

fizzbuzz · 03/11/2006 16:35

Apparently women have more efficient circulatory systems than men, which is why they feel the cold more. I found that out on a website last winter(which was **freezing)and I was totally sick of endless bickering about CH with dh

Twiglett · 03/11/2006 16:37

once you have bought a dishwasher it is actually more environmentally sound to use it than to wash by hand so you can be scathing of his water and energy wastage

BettySpaghetti · 03/11/2006 16:45

I definately feel the cold more than DP and I suffer from Reynaulds in my fingers.

DP's answer is always "well put another jumper on" - personally, I find it a PITA to wander round in the house with so many jumpers on that I have restricted movement and look like the Michelin man !

hollyj · 03/11/2006 17:57

lol betty, i have always claimed to have Reynaulds and dp thinks i've made up a disease so he has to agree to have the heating on.

He also insists on having the bedroom window wide open when it's -15 degrees outside and constantly bangs on about how my jumpers aren't 'proper' jumpers.

Mind you his parents' house is actually colder than it is outside so i know where he gets it from...

SpaceCadet · 03/11/2006 18:09

when dh and i were together he had arule that the heating didcxnt come on before 7am and went off at 8.30 am, then it didnt come on again until 5.30 am, even when it was - something outside. now hes not here i can switch the heating on when i like however, im still leaving it off during the day as i cant afford to get a amssive gas bill.

twelveyeargap · 03/11/2006 18:22

DH won't let me set the heating to come on for a couple of hours each day on low, when we go away for the weekend, becuase he thinks it's a waste. I prefer not to come home to an ice box...

However; he's happy to fall asleep on the sofa with the heating on full blast whilst I sweat under the duvet in bed and he's too lazy to walk down two flights to the kitchen to turn it off when he's too hot in the evenings and instead opens the sash windows.

IvortheEngine · 03/11/2006 18:42

As a reply to the OP, no he doesn't. My blood circulation is knackered and even in a warm house I can strip off my layers of clothes, socks and slippers and into my brushed cotton PJs in seconds and still my hands and feet are freezing. And where do they go to warm up? Yep! Dh's chest and back for my hands and legs for my feet! I say "If they are that cold on the outside, imagine what it's like to be on the inside?" which I'm not sure makes sense but I say it anyway! Oh yes, also I do wear socks in bed when it's really cold as I won't be able to sleep otherwise.

mummymic · 03/11/2006 21:39

oh the joys of being a single mum - no arguments about the heating, or the dishwasher in my house!!

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