When are you putting the heating on this year and what temperature and general heating advice

MuckChucker

I grew up in a cold house so I don't really feel it now in my middle age. My wife on the other hand...

Anyway, 1970s 4 bed semi, cavity walls and attic all done before we bought, in fairness it holds the heat well. The heat will start going on when I get moaned at, hopefully not until October-ish. 18 degrees will do, as it has done previous years. With the old 30+ Yr old boiler, we just did 1 hour in mornings and evenings - water had to be done at same time so was annoyingly inefficient. New boiler in last Jan and it's remarkably more efficient, 2 hour evening heat is only a fraction of the previous boilers 1 hour, we'll keep that setting for this year.

The main bugbear of this house however is that it doesn't have a hallway as such but instead a massive livingroom which is where the stairs also lives so a lot of heat will float up to the landing. It also has a gas fire (never used) which to me is just a hole in the house. That's going on Thursday in place of a spanking new wood burner. I don't really care about the cost effectiveness of it as opposed to CH but there's an aesthetic element and it'll keep herself happy when the temp properly drops - also there's a tree out the back that needs to go so should eventually provide fuel for a few years.

So anyway, a long post to answer a simple question, 18 degrees.

darrensurrey

17C when I need it, 9C when I'm out and at night when I'm in bed. As I've done for the last 10 years.
I WfH and just do exercise when I get cold plus wear several layers including a bodywarmer, hat and scarf indoors when I'm sat at my desk. (I take the hat off for Zoom calls.)

Plasticman

Last year the heating was mostly set to 18C during the day (off at night) so we'll be doing the same this year. No fixed date to turn it on - just when it gets cold.

We have a log burner in the living room and burn scavenged wood which helps. The house is occupied all day which pushes up the cost for us. 

artyboy

northernstar007 said:

looking at the 1st few pages people are saying heating set 16-20... 
am i the only 1 that likes the house hot, ive got mine normally about 21-23 gas usage low 9500kw year on a low cost fix
i work it a freezing cold warehouse , and in the winter its the same as working outside, its not fun
so 30 mins before i finish work i set the heating away with hive, from 14c to 20c by the time i get in
and on from 5.45am till 7 on work days mon-fri
when u been freezing ya nuts off all day all you want to do is get home in the warmth 

Last year ours was typically set at 21-22. This year will be a bit of an experiment to see what's tolerably comfortable. Given Mrs Arty and I both work from home most of the time, the heating will be on a lot...

I think an issue we have, and may be the reason why our gas usage is about 45000kWh annually, is that we have a real mish mash of old and new CH pipework, including pipes that have been extended due to rerouting, and some seriously thick non standard pipes, including one crazy horizontal one that widens out to about 10 inches diameter - apparently it's an old fashioned equivalent to a rad, or so I was told!

But what that means is that I'm guessing we have a LOT more water than is standard in the CH system, and so more gas is needed to get it hot, especially when it's been off overnight. So I'm making an educated guess that turning the thermostats down 2-3 degrees could have a huge impact in reducing our gas usage...

schnegge_london

45000 kWH annually? That was already very much on the old prices, but on the new ones ....
Did you never tried to bring it down before?

I have electric heating, so I don't really have a central heating, we put every single radiator off or on as we don't have storage heaters. I aim for mid to late October, at least when watching the telly in the evening, let's see how long it is still ok during the day. Jumpers, thermo leggings and thick socks are my best friend since last year anyway... 

I work from home 3 days a week, thinking about moving into the living room as this is significantly warmer than the small office I usually work in. Should already reduce usage annually as I worked from home fully over the last winter (started going back 2 days a week in March) - so this should already give me a buffer over last year. 

Actually read an interesting article yesterday about WFH vs. going into the office: 
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-09-01/have-soaring-energy-bills-made-working-from-home-more-expensive-than-the-office

I think it depends a lot on how expensive your commute is. I have to spend 4.30 one way to go to the office (so 8,60 per day) as I live in London Zone 4 and travel to Zone 1. 

rnj

maybe offices would prefer you wfh so they dont have to pay the heating also

wild666

Mstty said:

We are going to wait for the first mention if a cold snap and I will spend a couple of hours with a cup of tea in front of the air source heat pump control panel.

For us we are just popping it down a degree this year to 20oC. We have a very efficient house and being ASHP the baseline of 20oC and 17-18oC overnight should yield some good energy saving over our first year here and me tinkering every other day before I was made aware of weather compensation curves.

The purpose of this thread is for people to share what they are going to do and hopefully help people cut back but not necessarily having to turn off their heating entirely as a base temperature or efficient schedule for this out of the house could save hundreds for those people that just think turning off central heating is the only option.

Not until the daughter is due around to clean for me then most days I will be using a hot water bottle.

Mstty

wild666 said:

Mstty said:

We are going to wait for the first mention if a cold snap and I will spend a couple of hours with a cup of tea in front of the air source heat pump control panel.

For us we are just popping it down a degree this year to 20oC. We have a very efficient house and being ASHP the baseline of 20oC and 17-18oC overnight should yield some good energy saving over our first year here and me tinkering every other day before I was made aware of weather compensation curves.

The purpose of this thread is for people to share what they are going to do and hopefully help people cut back but not necessarily having to turn off their heating entirely as a base temperature or efficient schedule for this out of the house could save hundreds for those people that just think turning off central heating is the only option.

Not until the daughter is due around to clean for me then most days I will be using a hot water bottle.

Why, are you trying to hide your frugalness from family?

I ask as I do worry about my nan doing the same and only turning the heating on when family are due round then trunking it off when they leave.

artyboy

schnegge_london said:

45000 kWH annually? That was already very much on the old prices, but on the new ones ....
Did you never tried to bring it down before?

I have electric heating, so I don't really have a central heating, we put every single radiator off or on as we don't have storage heaters. I aim for mid to late October, at least when watching the telly in the evening, let's see how long it is still ok during the day. Jumpers, thermo leggings and thick socks are my best friend since last year anyway... 

I work from home 3 days a week, thinking about moving into the living room as this is significantly warmer than the small office I usually work in. Should already reduce usage annually as I worked from home fully over the last winter (started going back 2 days a week in March) - so this should already give me a buffer over last year. 

Actually read an interesting article yesterday about WFH vs. going into the office: 
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-09-01/have-soaring-energy-bills-made-working-from-home-more-expensive-than-the-office

I think it depends a lot on how expensive your commute is. I have to spend 4.30 one way to go to the office (so 8,60 per day) as I live in London Zone 4 and travel to Zone 1. 

Yeah.... well for starters unless both Mrs Arty and I go into the office on the same day, then there's no benefit as regards cutting the heating off. And our combined commute would be close to £50, so the economics don't work. In fact it was much more appealing to go in over the summer and take advantage of the aircon!

Simple answer on the 45000kWh question is that until a couple of years ago I didn't have much perspective on whether it was a lot or not. This is the first big detached house I've ever lived in and when gas was about 2p/kWh, our combined energy bill was about £150-200/month, which didn't seem too bad.

Fortunately I have this winter to tinker and get things cut down as much as reasonably possible, so that we have a proper plan for winter 2023. I fully recognise that not everyone is as fortunate...

onomatopoeia99

19C daytime like always, 15C overnight like always. 

The heating is always "on" as it's thermostat controlled so comes on when it's cold enough.  I don't have a special "turning the heating on" ceremony in October like turning on the town Christmas lights .

EPC of B in my 1951 bungalow.