The Great British "not put my heating on yet" brag

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Heating is off, no puffed out chest just can't afford it right now.

debitcardmayhem

B0bbyEwing said:

debitcardmayhem said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Interesting what other folks comfort levels are. 
I used to set mine to 18c before prices went crazy.
Have since dropped that to 17c & find it acceptable for us. Radiators all got turned down a notch too.

Why turn all the rads down? I would be pleased if someone else could answer that one too.

Why would someone else answering help as to why >I've< turned them down?

Anyway, to answer your question - because the masses at MSE said so & you lot seem to know more than I do about it all anyway so I trusted your advice.

I had them all up at 5, full whack. 

Now some are 3, some are 2.

Perhaps the question should be why “one” would turn them all down not >you< hence the someone else part of the q, it is a general question, oh and which masses said turn down all the rads?

Chrysalis

For those curious I did order one of those hot feet tub's, and will use my spare TP110 to gauge hourly power draw.

Thank you @Swipe as well, bodes well.

ArbitraryRandom

debitcardmayhem said:

B0bbyEwing said:

debitcardmayhem said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Interesting what other folks comfort levels are. 
I used to set mine to 18c before prices went crazy.
Have since dropped that to 17c & find it acceptable for us. Radiators all got turned down a notch too.

Why turn all the rads down? I would be pleased if someone else could answer that one too.

Why would someone else answering help as to why >I've< turned them down?

Anyway, to answer your question - because the masses at MSE said so & you lot seem to know more than I do about it all anyway so I trusted your advice.

I had them all up at 5, full whack. 

Now some are 3, some are 2.

Perhaps the question should be why “one” would turn them all down not >you< hence the someone else part of the q, it is a general question, oh and which masses said turn down all the rads?

There's a few reasons... 

1. Turning down the temp of your rads means they can better manage heat distribution if you have set a low flow temp from your boiler - supporting the approach of heating your home slowly and most efficiently by allowing your boiler to recapture any excess heat before it escapes the property - a boiler set low and rads set high means the valves will never engage. 

2. Turning down or off the rads in rooms you don't use means not heating space you're not in to 'liveable' temps - keeping heating on in those rooms but minimal reduces heat loss from the rooms you are using, while not wasting excess heat (like an air gap). 

3. Adjusting the temps of the rads in the rooms you do use - up OR down - means you can actually set them to the temp you want the room to be (if you use a thermostat in the hall, by the time that hits temperature your lounge might be hotter or colder than you want). 

and probably something else I'm not thinking about. 

Scot_39

Bill Shock / Bravado

Despite media hype - to some extent I seem to remember a lot more sensationalist  price rise shock etc type headlines and articles - and very few good - heres all the help so heres the real net cost change reality - -as the govt help made a massive difference to many last winter.

The combination of £400 ebss for low users and extra payments like the enhanced wfp for pensioners  - actually combined with epg caps --mixed to give many - especially lower users in case of the absolute payments - relatively affordable heating despite the much higher wholesale rates.

A couple of my neighbours are very elderly.  One was scared but sensibly  realised needed to heat as and when even if not quite to normal levels.  The other driven completely by fear of cost due to media sensationalism wouldnt turn hers on for weeks after last Oct Ofgem cap rates kicked in.  She wouldn't listen to even her own family initially - as was so scared.

EOn Next didn't help when it sent the first epg period monthly bills to some if not all with an annual cost estimate based on non discounted Oct Ofgem rates - without all those c17/18p discounts - which really addup at annual levels.

Her forecast went up iirc over £800 cf the energy price summary sent weeks earlier - over the then 4200kWh tdcv at epg discount c17p+vat missing from total - once again triggering another  affordability panic - that statement being sent in Oct.

And for me - at Jul rates as a relatively low - but all electric user - I estimated my net cost this year would be nearly £300 more than last.  As electric only dropped c9%. And Oct cheaper than July rates are not forecast to last.

As to mould issues - any consistently damp space  not het - according to many articles - to a minimum of 14C - are prone to that humidity / dampness turning to black mould.

And that can easily form behind any large furniture etc placed hard against a cold external wall if no circulation even in higher room temps.

Dampness is sometimes structural, and even higher temps only at best disguise minor structural issues.

But in reality a lot of dampness in homes comes from normal human activity - cooking, bathing/ showering, airing damp laundry indoors over winter, on top of 1/2-1 pint plus per adult / person (exhalation and perspiration etc) 

Ventillation to avoid in deep winter comes with low external temperatures and so higher heating bills - which many may therefore have cut down on. 

Some here report good success using just a conventional fan to keep air circulating reduce damp spots etc even at lower internal temps.

I like many have swapped away from tumble drying, but am now running a dehumidifier after heavy wash days - cottons - towels sheets etc especially.

It uses c1.2kWh for 2 x 2 hour off peak sessions on laundry night and following day - can take 1/2 to 1 pint of moisture out of air at a time in the spare room I use to air laundry in winter

I can see a big difference on windows by doing so, especially the single glazed panels on main front door.

Some will luckily still get a little help this winter, but many do face an ongoing struggle to pay bills, some likely more so than last.

The advice above about limitting wasted energy is therefore as timely for many as it was last year.

But unless you are really cash strapped,  please try to remember heat is often an essential requirement to a healthy life / existence.

littleteapot

We put the heating on in mid october. We don't have it very hot (sitting room maybe around 20, other rooms around 18). Our downstairs NSH's are '2nd generation' i.e. automatic electronic temperature control but only set by 'LED ladders' rather than rather than digital readout in deg C, so there is some variation. But upstairs we have two Elnur ecoHHR which are latest generation with fully programmable periods.

There is also a small, dumb storage heater in the bathroom but this only goes on in extremely cold weather as enough heat migrates from the bedrooms to the bathroom normally if the doors are left open.

We also have a Meaco Arete One 25L/day dehumidifier which remains upstairs to prevent mould in the bathroom and bedrooms. it does an excellent job at this and despite only being on for about 6 hours a day needs emptying every 2 days or so.

As we have two very young children I put keeping a warm, dry home above penny pinching. And obviously with two adults and two children to bathe we do get a lot of humidity upstairs.

Fortunately we are in the Eastern region, where EDF's E7 night rate is only 8.5p/kWh, which I chose to fix for 3 years to ensure security, as I wouldn't be able to afford this level of comfort if they decided to increase it in line with the other regions. The only downside of this is that the peak rate is very high at 44p/kWh but we do all the washing, and in winter tumble drying as well at the end of the off-peak period just before waking up. At 8.5p.kWh with a heat-pump dryer a typical load costs 8-10p, so its not worth the hassle of hanging clothes/bedding outside and hoping that they get dry in anything from 1 to 5 days!

Cooking is done with induction hobs which are quite efficient, and any roasting is done in a tabetop combination oven which is much smaller and more efficient (as well as quicker!) than the conventional oven. It took a while to learn the optimum settings and sometimes you have to fiddle shielding parts of the food with foil for part of the cooking time (e.g. the extremities of a whole chicken) but now I can cook a sunday roast to the same standard as I used to in the conventional oven but in almost half the time. We've not used the conventional oven for about 2 years now.

I do feel for those who genuinely cannot afford to heat their homes to a comfortable level. However as a minimum people could consider using a dehumidifier so at least even if it is cold, it is at least dry and reduce the risk of mould and respiratory problems.

However when I lived alone I was much more stingy with the heating. Sitting room about 18 in the evening/weekends when I was at home, no heating in other rooms except the master bedroom about 15c and the dehumidifier to prevent mould.

Swipe

I caved in and switched the bedroom storage heater on last night on a low setting. Went to bed at 11C and woke up to 14C and just those 3 degrees made a world of difference.

mac.d

My house feels cold when it drops below 17c, so when I'm home I set the heating to 18c and it's been switching on every morning since start of October.

Without the £400 gov money we got last year, the bills will probably be more expensive this year but I've built up a little extra credit ahead of winter so am determined to just keep the heating on and not to feel as cold as I did at times last year. 

Ally_E.

Heating went on late September when the temperature in the living room reached 18C. This year I've put the thermostat temp up from 18.3 to 19. Since the price of gas went down a bit, we can afford to have the house a bit warmer.

Like OP, I use multi-fuel woodburner sometimes and it doesn't heat the downstairs, just the living room. So when I have it on, I turn off the radiator in the living room and put the thermostat in another room and turn it down to 17. That way the rest of the house is still getting heated sufficiently, but living room is nice and toasty.

jennifernil

I cannot stand being cold, my circulation is poor.  Our heating  has been on since we returned from holiday on 10th October.

Sitting about needs 22 degrees in the living room.    We have a well insulated house, but it is  quite large, so we only seriously heat the rooms we are using.  

Having had  new boiler fitted in May 2022, we later fitted a tado control system, which works well.   We can heat  only the rooms we want, when we want.  All rooms are set to a minimum of 12 degrees,  but  very rarely go that low as we face south so plenty of solar gain on sunny days.

We heat the living room, kitchen, hallways and toilet during the day if necessary, when necessary, and our bathroom morning and night.    All other room doors are left open to allow some warm air to circulate, we never get mould.  It seems we have a very "dry" house, possibly because it is timber frame and has good insulation.

We do however have, and use, extractors in the kitchen and all bathrooms, and never dry clothes on radiators, we use the tumble dryer (vented)  and try to wash when the sun shines as we have solar panels.

Our  bills   are not low,  but neither are they huge.   We are fortunate to have savings we can use if necessary, so refuse to be cold.