When do you switch heating on?

bluedrop

Wondering how far into winter do money savers manage comfortably without turning the heating on?

How long can you manage with layers, particularly with children?

macman

Rather depends how cold it is usually...so far it seems to have been colder this October than last.
Since insulation standards and ambient temperature varies considerably across the UK, it's variable to say the least.

Eliza_2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/276410

Liz

good_advice

Hi bluedrop. we will start with the coal fire soon. In a week or 2. Try to put it off as long as possible.
I think may be watching the temperature gage will help as well as that cold feeling. If it goes under 18C heating needs to go on.

WestonDave

Has kicked in a couple of times on the thermostat (set to 18C daytime 14C overnight). I think if we let it go below that we would start to get a lot more condensation, damp and mould problems so I'd rather have it set up "scientifically" to a sensible temperature than try to "hard" it out to an arbitrary date.

Having a decent programmable thermostat is worthwhile if you have the facility to install one (i.e. own your own place etc) as once set up you can leave it to deal with temperature variations. Ours may well mean a few early days of heating (and we're only talking running for half an hour first thing to take the chill off at present) but the converse is that later in the winter if we get warmer days, we'll use less heating than a system which is set up to run for a set number of hours every day after 1st November.

Mehitabel

It amazes me that people think 18degsC is the lowest liveable temperature. It's 16 in my house at the moment and I'm quite comfortable in just a sweatshirt and I'm not specially tough nor a masochist. I do think that setting the thermostat too high gets you used to a higher temperature than necessary. When I lived in a house with no heating at all, I was comfortable down to 11 or 12degs. Now, I set the thermostat to 15.

Still costs a fortune, though!

good_advice

4.20pm and 19.4C. The same- jumper with thermal, long t.shirt under.
Just off to do some ironing. Moving around keeps you warm.
Heating is getting nearer, need to get the chimney swept.

Andy_WSM

Mehitabel wrote: »

It amazes me that people think 18degsC is the lowest liveable temperature. It's 16 in my house at the moment and I'm quite comfortable in just a sweatshirt and I'm not specially tough nor a masochist. I do think that setting the thermostat too high gets you used to a higher temperature than necessary. When I lived in a house with no heating at all, I was comfortable down to 11 or 12degs. Now, I set the thermostat to 15.

Still costs a fortune, though!

There is no "one size fits all". If there was, thermostats wouldn't need an adjustment.

When I was younger, low temperatures were no issue, but as I'm ageing and my joints ache and I have got arthritis etc I couldn't handle much lower than 19/20C without feeling uncomfortable - and that, after all, is what heating is all about. Comfort!

Pincher

My programmer doesn't believe in OFF. It's Comfort or Eco.
So I set it to 10/10 degrees in summer, and 20/14 in winter. Since it got chilly a couple of weeks ago, it's been 18/14. Including hot water and cooking, it's averaging 3 imperial units gas per day. So £3 a day.

The weather compensation is really good. The boiler just simmers away, and the radiator is lukewarm. This means the boiler is condensing, so I get 90% efficiency ALL the time!:T

tim9966

Not yet, and hopefully can go into November. It's 16C inside at the moment which is fine for me. I often feel too hot when I'm at work or in someone elses house.

lemontart

ch never - cannot afford to heat whole house and why do that when rooms not used - sooner do a hot water bottle and get into bed with laptop - though do have electric oil rads that I can move to a room should I need to heat it. and gas fire in front room