Is your heating ON or OFF?

A_fiend_for_life

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

People keep telling me that its more economical to have the heating on at about 17C 24 hours a day even when you are at work because it takes less energy to heat the house up when you get home and it doesn't take much energy to maintain 17C compared to having a cold house when you get home.

I see the theory but I can't really get away from the fact the 17C house is losing heat all day while you are out, seems like a waste to me! Any comments?

My guess is people who say this live in a house that rarely drops below 18 C. They might discuss xboxes, standby, bulbs etc but not actually get round to talking about the ambient temperature.

A_fiend_for_life

zcrat41 wrote: »

Hello,
Mine is on now its warmed up a bit from 6am to 7am and 4pm till 9pm. This is the first month I've lived on my own in a new house so I'm petrified what my first bill is going to be!! I've budgeted £50 per month for gas and electric, I have gas central heating (which does the hot water too) for a small 2 bed cottage and a gas hob.
Got a bit overexcited when it was cold though and had it on lots and lots and lots.
Now quite worried about the first bill!!!

ZC

Try https://www.imeasure.org.uk and join the MoneySaving Carbon Club. Entries can be submitted at midnight Sunday night / Monday morning.

It helps hugely to create a spreadsheet too as you can see the price per week.

The advantage of this is you always have a good idea of what the bill is going to be so there is no unpleasant surprise.

BitterAndTwisted

zcrat41 wrote: »

Hello,
This is the first month I've lived on my own in a new house so I'm petrified what my first bill is going to be!! I've budgeted £50 per month for gas and electric, I have gas central heating (which does the hot water too) for a small 2 bed cottage and a gas hob.
ZC

I'd do that iquote thingy recommended up above if I were you. I ran my gas c/h very, very economically last winter which wasn't a patch on this year's temps, running the heating for an hour in the morning and two in the evening. That was heating only the radiator in the living-room and hot water and the bill was £150. I was expecting the bill to be much higher, so it was a bit of a relief

MiserlyMartin

A_fiend_for_life wrote: »

My guess is people who say this live in a house that rarely drops below 18 C. They might discuss xboxes, standby, bulbs etc but not actually get round to talking about the ambient temperature.

Just to add a little more info (thanks for replies!) Brick and breezeblock constructed houses with cavity walls do take a while to heat up compared with timber framed houses, which do heat up quicker when you have been out/heating off. I still see that as no reason to heat an empty house. When a house is heated regardless of if you are in or not, it is still losing heat through walls, roof, windows etc and you can't stop it totally however well insulated. But if the house is not being heated then no heat will be lost. I'm glad some of you agree as so many people are convinced about this leaving the heating on idea.

A_fiend_for_life

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

I'm glad some of you agree as so many people are convinced about this leaving the heating on idea.

That said I did leave the heating on over xmas and the new year to reduce the risk of burst pipes but that is a necessity imho.

zcrat41

Thanks for the tip, i'll try the website; it'll hopefully help me be a bit prepared! Just to clarify I've budgeted £50 for gas and another £50 for electric - not just one!!! In my head I was thinking it'll be nearer £100 for gas during Jan

ZC

Rebekah24

So glad the temps finally up!! off with the heating and even had windows open today tis lovely after the last fortnight!!

mrsr

Rebekah24 wrote: »

So glad the temps finally up!! off with the heating and even had windows open today tis lovely after the last fortnight!!

your right its a lot warmer,and heats off here again :j

mrsr

Just got my winter bill £161 ,i was a bit disapointed at first but rethinking its not that bad really seeing the extra cold spell we have had :TStill keeping switched off as much as poss

Caterina

Hi all

In the same line of our "not putting the heating on until 1st November" decision we are thinking of switching it off on 1st March.

This does not mean that we will never have it on, but so far it has been on regularly. sometimes 24/7 - low at night and then we would crank it up when awake - I work from home so needed a bit of heat to be able to type without my fingers freezing!

We felt that the savings we have made by keeping it off for longer are balanced by our need for more creature comforts when it was freezing outside. But more and more mornings we have been waking up in a very hot house and thinking that the time has come to start saving on heating again.

It is possible that, if the weather turns really cold again, we might put it on for the odd few hours, but we hope to be able to manage with the usual mix of jumpers, wood burner in the evening, hot water bottles at night etc.. from 1st March.

What are other OSers doing about this? Let's compare notes (in a peaceful, non-competitive way :T and definitely not a challenge to anyone to suffer the cold in the name of OS)!