Is your heating ON or OFF?

Glamazon

boliston wrote: »

I've always wondered why people bother having the heating come on in the morning as the shower will heat you pretty rapidly and if you blow dry your hair then that will get things warmed up once you are out of the shower. I sometimes put it on for a few minutes while I sit down for breakfast if it's really chilly.

There is nothing worse than getting out of a lovely warm shower and into a freezing cold bedroom! Brrrrrr
Sometimes if I shower later on in the day I put my clothes in the bathroom and get dressed in there so I don't have to be cold.

flutterbyuk25

I have electric storage heaters in my 2 bed flat - 4 in total. I have only used 2 over winter, in the big lounge/kitchen and in the hallway. I hate having my bedroom too warm, so the hallway one heats it just well enough. Yesterday I turned off the one in the hallway as it was far too warm, I've not felt cold today so I think that one may stay off for good unless we get a real cold snap! The lounge one I'm not too sure on yet as the room is pretty big so gets chilly without it. My birthday is late March so may wait til then!

x

nearlyrich

Well the way things are gong here I think it will be on for ever LOL, it's been snowing all day today.

valk_scot

I play it by ear as to when I turn the heating off for the summer. Each room has individual radiators and two bedrooms and the study radiators hardly ever go on anyway, while the others get turned off more and more as spring approaches. At the same time I cut down the hours on the timeclock when the boiler is firing up...atm it's on for a couple of hours in the morning plus 3pm-11pm. (I'm at home all day.) Once it gets down to just having the lounge radiator on just in the evenings, I'll shut the central heating off and just use the fire in the lounge. This will be around April I expect. It's colder longer here in Scotland.

Ours is a combi-boiler btw. I can switch off the central heating section and just leave the other part on to provide hot water on demand only. Most modern boilers have this two section arrangement.

As to leaving the heating on low at night to avoid the house becoming freezing cold and having to reheat it...well, the answer there is better insullation I would have thought, to conserve heat? We got cavity wall insullation, better double glazing and the loft insullation topped up a few years back and afterwards the house stayed significantly warmer even though we cut the time the heating was on right back. Before we did have to leave the heating on overnight in very cold spells. Since then, never.

Olliebeak

Aiming for 1st March - unless I've got very young/elderly visitors.

That isn't exactly written in stone; IF we get a sudden drop in temp, it WILL go back on again on a day-by-day basis.

bertiebots

We were lucky enough to get free cavity wall insulation last summer (council did it for everyone) and extra loft insulation too! Despite this I did start to panick over xmas as to what our bills would be with the heating on 24/7. It didnt get above freezing for a month and at one point even our boiler froze and stopped working for 3 days! I decided to be brave and read the gas meter and gave it to our supplier. We pay by monthly dd so never get an actual bill.
I am very ,very relieved that despite the bad winter our bill has come down by a huge amount and we are actually in credit:T. We have almost halved our monthly payments too as I have worked out our annual usage has dropped to about £300 inc. hot water. We do have a condenser boiler which helps ,not a standard combi. But we dont have a fire/ alternative heating (except my halogen heator)
We only have the heating on overnight if it drops below freezing as the house just doesnt get cold as it did before the extra insulation. And I switch it off during the day when I am on my own...if I get chilly I just stick my halogen heator on in the lounge for a bit and am toasty warm again!:D The boys bedroom is warm this winter for the first time since we moved here 5 years ago. When we had our survey for the insulation to be done the guy said we had nothing in the walls at all!
I cant recommend good insulation enough as it really has saved us a lot. I am not going to worry too much about setting a date to switch off, but ours is usually off by the end of march weather permitting of course. At the moment it is snowing and forcast for -4 tonight so its staying on!

LeLLe

I think it's really good people can keep their heating off from March to November. I couldn't do it tho, my house is too cold, even in the height of summer i need the heating on. Will aim to cut down in April, March still too chilly for me!

Justamum

We've had our heating on low 24/7 for the past few months. We have oil, so I can see exactly how much is being used, and with my trusty tape measure I can work out how long it will last! A full tank lasts 10 weeks, so works out at just under £50 a week. The only other heating we have is a fire and it would easily cost that just to have a fire going to heat one room, so we've only had a fire when we've been able to get free wood. We need the heating - we are on a hill which faces the sea and when the icy wind it blowing it's bloomin' freezing in here (it's a very draughty house and I can't locate the draughts).

I was hoping to turn the heating off on 1st March as it did seem to be getting a bit milder. We woke up this morning to snow, which I wasn't expecting! I'll see how it goes over the next week before I decide whether or not to switch the heating off.

Butterfly_Brain

:eek:If the Arctic conditions continue I won't be turning mine off till Easter

Alison_Funnell

We work by thermostat, timer and sitting room door!

The therm is in the hall - up high in a daft place so we cannot use any heating in the hall as it stops the heating going on else where. So that rad is permanently off.

The timer is set for day time.

So effectively when it is cold enough within the daytime hours. But there is another problem. The hall sees the sun in the morning but none after about 10.30 so in the evenings etc it is far cooler than the rest of the house. Hence the sitting room door. We open it enough for the warm to trip the therm off if it gets too warm and close it so the therm gets cold and cuts in.

It's a high tech system :rotfl:

We really should get the therm moved but the door method is a fool proof one!!!