Anyone putting their heating on yet....

Richie-from-the-Boro

Warm depends on what you are doing, and what you've been doing for the past hour or so and your age. No one can in fact define [absolute] comfort. The WHO standard for warmth says 18°C for healthy people who are appropriately dressed. For the sick, disabled, very old or very young, a minimum of 21°C. The Cold Weather Plan for England 2013 recommends 18°C minimum recommended night-time temperature for bedrooms and 21°C minimum recommended daytime temperature for rooms occupied during the day. For myself a living area of 14°C is medieval, and less than my core body temp sitting on the end of a pier in the winter and getting a couple of stone of mackerel. No point in working for 60 years and sitting around in tee shirt & shorts in less than 22°C.

Southend1

I would say 18-19 is adequate for a healthy adult. Any higher and I would feel uncomfortably hot wearing a sweater.

My heating and hot water (I have electric shower and dishwasher) are switched off April to September to save money. I have switched it on for an hour or so for three days so far in October. Probably within the next couple of weeks it will be on timed morning and evening and left on for the winter.

[Deleted User]

Most of us are sitting around at the moment , in Autumn, with no heating on at all, with our rooms no more than 14 c/15 c and we re all quite happy at the "comfort level ", so why do you all mostly feel the need to revert back to mid-summer levels of 18c-22 c. I ve never had central heating and feel quite comfortable at much lower temps than some of you consider to be normal. I m no spring chicken, diabetic and manage fine, I m also only 10 stone in weight. Maybe its because I was brought up in an era when no one heated any rooms other than the main living room that I dont feel the need to swelter at 21c. It really annoys me, in an age of global warming that people swan about in T-shirts and shorts on the coldest winter days in their houses. Maybe in the future each house would be allotted a kwhr maximum usage level per week then triple price for every kwhr used thereafter.Another excellent use of a smart meter maybe.

Pincher

Assuming boiler replacement every 10 years, and the next one will cost £2,000, including power flush, new valves, etc. it means I am spending £200 a year before I even switch it on. Since I spent £6,000+ around 2010 on the whole system, including 1st floor UFH, it's insanity to NOT use it.

Southend1

Pincher wrote: »

Assuming boiler replacement every 10 years, and the next one will cost £2,000, including power flush, new valves, etc. it means I am spending £200 a year before I even switch it on. Since I spent £6,000+ around 2010 on the whole system, including 1st floor UFH, it's insanity to NOT use it.

Why replace the boiler every 10 years? Surely their average life is longer than that?

Andy_WSM

Southend1 wrote: »

Why replace the boiler every 10 years? Surely their average life is longer than that?

It depends how lucky, or unlucky you are.

I'm on my 3rd boiler in 9 years.

Boiler 1 was the old back boiler (approx 30 years old) which cracked it's heat exchanger 2 weeks after I purchased the house, flooding the place in black water. Nice!

Boiler 2 was a Biasi combi-boiler, which had more repairs than I've had roast dinners and it eventually become uneconomical to repair when it was just 5 years old.

I then went a period of time without a gas boiler and had a heat pump, which whilst cheap to run, wasn't very good at heating! - I managed to sell it for virtually what it cost. Fortunate!

Boiler 3 is a Glowworm HX something other and is about to enter it's second Winter and has "only" gone wrong once so far...It has a 5 year warranty, beyond that one major component can write a boiler off nowadays.

Pincher

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Boiler 3 is a Glowworm HX something other and is about to enter it's second Winter and has "only" gone wrong once so far...It has a 5 year warranty, beyond that one major component can write a boiler off nowadays.

Let me guess, a short hose was leaking. My guy told me it was happening a lot, and Glow worm had a replacement part ready because the factory original was failing.

brewerdave

Around this time of year, my OH and I play a game ....she turns the thermostat up ....and I turn it down again -we haven't got TRVs on the radiators so I leave all rads. in the unoccupied rooms turned off with the doors shut --reckon the heating has been on for ~ 4 hours in total so far this month -previously had been off since early May. WAS hoping to get to November this year in view of the earlier BBC forecasts..............some hope!!

As our old thermostat is in the entrance hall we can't control the temps. on it properly -if its set at ~22 , the lounge,dining room and kitchen get far too hot before the heating shuts down.

Andy_WSM

Pincher wrote: »

Let me guess, a short hose was leaking. My guy told me it was happening a lot, and Glow worm had a replacement part ready because the factory original was failing.

Oh no Have I got that one to come? Mine was the secondary heat exchanger leaking. Glowworm must have foreseen these issues as they've very cleverly put the circuit boards in a waterproof enclosure! The old Biasi had replacement board after replacement board!

Andy_WSM

Meant to say too - my boiler is installed on the apex wall in the loft.

It seemed like a good thing to do at the time, but be warned - the first you know something is wrong is either because it doesn't come on or because water starts running through the kitchen ceiling below.