Different attitudes towards reasonable room temperature at home

Prothet_of_Doom

If you refer your Lodger to 2 documents

1) British Standards for Engineering and Scientific Measurement, defines British Standard room temperature to be 20 deg c plus or minus 0.5 of a degree.
2) House mates / lodger agreement. You reserve the right to ask him to leave. Give him notice.

I have experienced this from both sides.

I shared a house with 2 guys, one from India, and we shared the bills. I wasn't there at weekends, and the heater controls were in his room. In June, he asked "when will spring come". When the other guy tackled him on the size of the electric bills, it turned out he had a massive electric heater in his room in addition to the gas central heating.
Then I rented a room off a guy that was a skin flint. With 4 inches of snow on the ground, he thought that it was pointless having the heating on in the morning, as HE, would just up and out, in 15 mins from waking to leaving, and in the evening it came on at 7 pm and went off at 9, and he objected to the thermostat being above 18 (Not that it did).

I got a fan heater for my room, (which I hid away from view) and borrowed an electric blanket, and gave him notice.

Idiophreak

Mallotum_X wrote: »

What are you on about, why shouldn't they? The temperatures are set are reasonable levels. Lodger feels its cold, put a jumper on. Its a normal item of clothing people wear in winter. Its hardly the same as them putting a coat and gloves on.

20 degrees is a perfectly pleasant temperature.

For who? For you?

Let's face it, home thermostats can't exactly be taken as gospel..if it says 20, it could well be 18, if it says 18 it could well be 15. If the heating isn't on for long enough, it may not ever get up to the specified temperature anyway...so speculating on whether it's actually a "reasonable level" or not is somewhat pointless.

You can, however, make assumptions based on what's happening. The lodger is feeling compelled to turn the heating up - so it's fair to make the assumption that he's cold...if he's cold, it's not a "perfectly pleasant" at all.

moneyistooshorttomention

Home thermostats are indeed not that reliable I gather, but I think that depends on what type they are.

For my last house, where I had one of those "spin the wheel" type house thermostats, my plumber told me to allow for the fact that the temperature may be 1 or 2 degrees different to what I set the thermostat at. Errrm....wasn't pleased with him, as it was his decision not to tell me digital ones existed when he swopped the house thermostat:mad:.

With the digital one I have in this house, then I understand it is accurate provided the nearest radiator to it is set at its highest setting.

Anyway, its easily enough possible to establish exactly what temperature a house is by just placing a thermometer or two around the place.

Still puzzled by people thinking a lodger should "put up and shut up" automatically, when we must assume they are paying the going rate for their room and therefore are entitled to the going level of service (including that heating at guideline levels). If the lodger was on a cheap rent or was someone being put up as a favour, then that would be a different kettle of fish. The landlords finances are none of the lodgers business and, if the landlord cant/wont afford guideline level heating then they must expect the lodger to hand in their notice and find one who will.

benjus

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Home thermostats are indeed not that reliable I gather, but I think that depends on what type they are.

I have 2 programmable digital thermostats - an older, wired one that directly replaced an old dial-type one, and a wireless one, installed with the new boiler at the start of this year. Put them side by side and they consistently read about 1 degree different.

CH27

I'd buy a lockable thermostat & set it to what you deem suitable.
If he doesn't like it & he can give notice & leave.

BitterAndTwisted

Landlord's house, landlord's rules. If the lodger doesn't like it they can go. The sooner the better. I think I heard on the news recently that utility bills have increased 100% in the last five years. Dunno if that's accurate or true or if I've just made it up but I do know they went up by about ten percent just before Christmas. That's not an insignificant amount by any standards.

DRP

Temperature variations within the different rooms of a house would be greater than any perceived 'error' on the part of a thermostat, surely?

Dogmatic thermostat watching in the downstairs hall will tell you nothing if you've got carp windows in the back bedroom...

katejo

cattie wrote: »

I wouldn't put up with it either. I used to host students from overseas who came here to attend college, many from very warm countries in South America such as Brazil.

On their beds were electric blankets & high tog duvets for use in the colder months. Additional blankets were available if wanted.

When they first arrived I would give them a print out of house rules etc. & amongst the rules was the warning that England could be very cold, but electricity & gas were very expensive so it wasn't possible to provide constant heating & that it would only be on at set periods during the morning & evenings during weekdays, but on for longer periods at the weekends.

They were advised that by just sitting in front of a laptop or in front of a tv they would tend to feel cold, so to get up move about to bring their body temperature up. Also they were advised to put on a jumper or cardigan if cold & to use thermal underwear in the colder weather & that plenty of hot drinks would help them feel warmer.

I also provided thick warm dressing gowns & slippers for each student as I knew most would come without such things.

Some students would snuggle up in bed to watch tv in their room as they just loved the idea of a warm bed & never heard of something like an electric blanket before.

I never had one student complain that they were having trouble keeping warm in my house & I had quite a lot stay with me over the years.

You're the one having to pay the bills & if your lodger is being unreasonable about how much the house should be heated, then I'd get rid of him asap & look for a new lodger.

With a new lodger, inform them of the heating arrangements in the house & tell them if they want the heating on for longer or a higher temp, then there will be a supplement to pay on top of their rent.

I'm sure if this guy was responsible for the bills, he'd soon be looking for ways to cut back & ensure he was well wrapped up indoors to avoid excessive heating bills.

My place is not my lodger's main home. He lives in Preston and has a house there but has a job in London so I raised the issue of home temperatures with him. He just said that he expects to keep a 25 degree temperature which he doesn't consider to be hot.

Mojisola

katejo wrote: »

My place is not my lodger's main home. He lives in Preston and has a house there but has a job in London so I raised the issue of home temperatures with him. He just said that he expects to keep a 25 degree temperature which he doesn't consider to be hot.

That's fine when he's paying for the extra heating - his money, his choice.

katejo

Idiophreak wrote: »

For who? For you?

Let's face it, home thermostats can't exactly be taken as gospel..if it says 20, it could well be 18, if it says 18 it could well be 15. If the heating isn't on for long enough, it may not ever get up to the specified temperature anyway...so speculating on whether it's actually a "reasonable level" or not is somewhat pointless.

You can, however, make assumptions based on what's happening. The lodger is feeling compelled to turn the heating up - so it's fair to make the assumption that he's cold...if he's cold, it's not a "perfectly pleasant" at all.

My remote control thermostat shows both the required and actual temperatures and my heating system has no problem in reaching the required level.