When do you turn your central heating on? [UK ONLY]

[Weisass]

Had a baby on Thursday, so we boomeranged immediately to 24/7 tropical temperatures! Mr SLTD has noted that the baby could be wearing more clothes and the rest of us could be sweating less, so we are going to drop it by a degree a day until we think it's too cold for the baby. The issue is mainly that I need it to be hot enough in the big bedroom at night that I can have her in bed with me with the duvet round my waist and not be tempted to smother her with it draw it up any higher.

Been there! Winter babies have extra needs, in some ways. Congrats to you, snd best of luck with the sleep! With my four, the first few months were glorious, and also a walking dead sort of situation at times!

[TacheTastic]

I'll drag the topic back out of the cupboard then.

The office I worked at was turning the heating on today. My new thermostat that I just installed for my central heating currently says it is 17.5 degrees in my dining room, so the heating is definitely staying off here for a fair bit longer.

I have brought out the electric blanket for the bed and the big fleecy blanket for the sofa though. I can't find the hot water bottle or my SAD lamp. Will have to look harder.

[Affable Bear]

I have brought out the electric blanket for the bed and the big fleecy blanket for the sofa though. I can't find the hot water bottle or my SAD lamp. Will have to look harder.

I have only just discovered the wonders of an electric blanket (well a heated throw!), yes I may be a burly man but my feet still get cold!! Its almost not cold enough to use it even without it turned on, I managed to get them for £85 down from £110 and im pretty sure it will double our money over the next 4 months.

Our heating turns on for an hour a day to heat up the hot water only (still have a tank) which costs me around £0.60p a day, we have no other gas appliances so the gas bill should hopefully stay relatively low. I'm going to see how long we last with our heated blankets, I will post here if (or when) we cave and put it on.

[MisterA]

I have only just discovered the wonders of an electric blanket (well a heated throw!), yes I may be a burly man but my feet still get cold!! Its almost not cold enough to use it even without it turned on, I managed to get them for £85 down from £110 and im pretty sure it will double our money over the next 4 months.

I bought my Mrs one last year, as she works from home. She thinks it's brilliant, and works with it wrapped around her. Ours was about £35 from Aldi, rated at 180 watts I think - but it has a thermostat and a timer.

Our heating is still off, although the girlies are making rumblings (and a colder few days ahead).

[TacheTastic]

My electric blanket is actually a pet-therapy blanket, so it's literally just big enough to warm my feet up in bed, but it makes so much difference. Then the cat can sit on it when I move in bed or during the day. It's 15W and gets up to about 39 degrees C, cat body temperature.

Room temperature down to 15.5. Heating still off. I feel OK in a woolly dress and a hoody, but I do need a blanket if I sit for long enough to watch TV. Also, located the hot water bottle, so that's a good thing.

[Affable Bear]

I bought my Mrs one last year, as she works from home. She thinks it's brilliant, and works with it wrapped around her. Ours was about £35 from Aldi, rated at 180 watts I think - but it has a thermostat and a timer.

Our heating is still off, although the girlies are making rumblings (and a colder few days ahead).

My electric blanket is actually a pet-therapy blanket, so it's literally just big enough to warm my feet up in bed, but it makes so much difference. Then the cat can sit on it when I move in bed or during the day. It's 15W and gets up to about 39 degrees C, cat body temperature.

Room temperature down to 15.5. Heating still off. I feel OK in a woolly dress and a hoody, but I do need a blanket if I sit for long enough to watch TV. Also, located the hot water bottle, so that's a good thing.

I think anything heated is amazing especially if your using a throw on top as well, I never considered it before and I kind of got carried away buying expensive ones! But me and wifey have agreed to try and make it back from the gas, its just two of us with no kids to be worried about (yet) so its a bit easier but there has been a few cold mornings this week.

[force majeure]

Ive gone off-grid, and never turn on the heat, unless its my stove.. only burn pallets, sourced for free.
What is this energy crisis that you speak of?
I just bought a base layer... Smartwool, 260 weight... its super warm.
I was spending 20 per week on food, now its 22... big deal.

[Affable Bear]

Still not had the heating on, so far it looks to be a milder winter, lets hope it continues!

[Manchester]

Ours has been on quite a bit (a boost every evening and another in the morning + we use Hive to keep babies' room at a constant temp through the night).  We want to keep our 5-month-old warm.

[sea_saw]

Mine has stayed off. I'm in a flat so I'm insulated by other dwellings below me, but even the houses near me I don't think have much/any heating on at the moment. It's 18 degrees here, and tomorrow it will be 20. TWENTY!! with a low of 12.

I wish I could be happy about it but honestly it feels a bit apocalyptic for being a couple of days away from November.

[Affable Bear]

Food for thought really, global warming is truly here to stay :(

[Dicey]

I'm happy we will be able to get to November without turning on the heat. It's been 64 (18C) in the house all week. I'd hold out for longer, but we have houseguest coming midweek, so we shall see...

[TacheTastic]

Mine is now officially on. I had boosted for the odd hour to dry laundry, but it was getting down to 14.5 degrees frequently, so now it's on and set to 18 degrees in the morning and evening.

[sea_saw]

Yeah I spent today unconsciously avoiding work because I didn't want to take my fingers out of my warm fuzzy sleeves out from under the heated throw. It's time.

Not looking forward to seeing it on the smart meter though. Just watching the hot water go vroom is frustrating enough.

[Affable Bear]

Not looking forward to seeing it on the smart meter though. Just watching the hot water go vroom is frustrating enough.

Like watching the £'s fall out of the tap!

[Dicey]

We had houseguests, so DH set the thermostat for 62. It kicked on this morning. At least we made it into November.

[former player]

Mine went on last night in the snug, which is where I'm spending time indoors.  One day after my electricity company allowed me to put my direct debit down to £1.  The fools!

[bill1827]

That amounts to paying them £67 a month for the next 5 months, so they're not that foolish.

Our heating is never turned off except when we go away, we have these odd things called thermostats and timers.  The first day this year that it called for heat was 17th of September. Try to keep room temperatures low, but there's a certain amount of resistance to that.

Thinking of changing to a heat pump, so I've been reducing the boiler temperature to heat pump compatible temperatures (35C mean temperature), but that means the heating has to run for longer and 2 rooms that weren't heated normally have had to have the radiators enabled in order to get enough flow in the system to reduce boiler short cycling. It will be interesting to compare gas consumption after a few days.

[PhilB]

In an effort to delay it a bit longer we've just invested in a heated throw to sit under.  Seems to do the job very nicely.

[sea_saw]

The heated throws are great, we love ours.

Definitely didn't enjoy waking up this morning to £4.53 on the meter before I'd even done anything, just from the hot water cylinder and heaters. Flat is really quite warm though so I clearly turned the dial a bit too far for these not yet freezing days.

I have electric storage heaters and electricity costs per kwh are double that of gas. Hard to believe when I moved in here my electricity bill was £60/month and now it's close to £200 (before the rebate). This winter is going to be horrible for so many people. On other forums I'm in, we're getting lots of unsafe suggestions like making fireplaces inside your home.

[former player]

The heated throws are great, we love ours.

Definitely didn't enjoy waking up this morning to £4.53 on the meter before I'd even done anything, just from the hot water cylinder and heaters. Flat is really quite warm though so I clearly turned the dial a bit too far for these not yet freezing days.

I have electric storage heaters and electricity costs per kwh are double that of gas. Hard to believe when I moved in here my electricity bill was £60/month and now it's close to £200 (before the rebate). This winter is going to be horrible for so many people. On other forums I'm in, we're getting lots of unsafe suggestions like making fireplaces inside your home.

I'm on a renewables tariff for my electricity and all my heating is either storage heaters or a wood-burning stove (all wood from my garden).  Paying more to heat my home renewably than I would if I were burning fossil fuels is galling, and just another symptom of what is wrong with government policy.

[PhilB]

Today.  Last night I had to wear a hat in bed.

[shelivesthedream]

It just wouldn't be autumn without this thread, so I've popped on to say we turned ours on on Friday. Hall thermostat set at 10 degrees, boiler set to lowest possible temperature, overnight only. The boiler is in the garage and there is a fair bit of pipework in there before it gets to the actual moderately insulated house, so we are concerned about pipes freezing.

We have yet to buy an electric blanket because we would have to buy three, and baby wouldn't have one so we'd have to heat her room anyway. But it could happen. We have, however, ALL got full-body thermal underwear (even the not-for-much-longer-because-it's-her-birthday-this-Friday) baby and I have wool-rich tights and I'll wear a hat indoors until March if I have to, dammit. The 4.5yo and 2.5yo still aren't wearing their thermals during the day and have spurned my offers of hot water bottles at night. *shrug*

As long as it's sunny, we get a huge amount of solar gain in the sitting room, kitchen and baby's bedroom, so it's actually not been too bad unless we get multiple cloudy days in a row. Like, uh, today.

Our electricity company jacked our direct debit up to £213 a month way back in April, so we are comfortably in credit and I don't expect to see another major change, but it does mean we have been slightly out of sync in experiencing energy price rises because ours was already raised in anticipation, so despite the doom-mongering headlines everywhere it hasn't gone up again this autumn. We had a brief panic that it was going to double to £500 a month before we realised what had happened!

[MarcherLady]

Squeee. How lovely to see you @shelivesthedream. I hope you and all the family are doing well.

[never give up]

Phew yes what a relief shelivesthedream!

[sea_saw]

Aw SLTD I always think of you when I see this thread, so nice that this time it was because you actually dipped in in person!

After declaring earlier in this thread that I'd turned the heating on I actually turned it back off a couple of days later. But it's back on as of yesterday, still only one heater in the living room and on the lowest setting. The electric blanket has helped a huge deal in making my work station (which is by a large single glazed window) cosy during the day and keeping the sofa snuggly in the evenings. Cooking also adds a surprising amount of heat to the room in the evening. 

[Dicey]

Nice to hear from you, @shelivesthedream!

Alas, I'm here to report two fails. My beloved (and very old) XL heating pad seems to have developed a short, so it's time to Let It Go, sob.  We bought MIL a heated throw some years back. Now that she's in the land of Never Cold and doesn't need it, we may start using that. We only used the heating pad to warm the bed before climbing into it, not through the night, so we're not sure we'll like it, but it's worth a try.

We turned our heater on to a steady 64 degrees, but it's been mysteriously cranking up to 68 in the middle of the night, roasting us. DH figured out that it's some weird preset in the thermostat that he can't clear. Happily, a friend just told him our utility is offering Nest thermostats for $25/net cost, so we'll chase that down today.

.

[Manchester]

Don't know how relevant it is for this thread.  But I read a story in the BBC this morning that NHS trials have seen great results from prescribing 'heating'.  They offer free heating to people who suffer from things like arthritis and found it really helped.  They also found it saved the NHS resources/money because it lead to reduced 'care'. 

It's only a small scale trial, but they're doing a larger trial now.   Could lead to a change in government/NHS policy further down the line.

[PhilB]

Good to hear from you SLTD.  Happy Birthday to the baby for Friday and may all your days be sunny ones.

[Dicey]

Don't know how relevant it is for this thread.  But I read a story in the BBC this morning that NHS trials have seen great results from prescribing 'heating'.  They offer free heating to people who suffer from things like arthritis and found it really helped.  They also found it saved the NHS resources/money because it lead to reduced 'care'. 

It's only a small scale trial, but they're doing a larger trial now.   Could lead to a change in government/NHS policy further down the line.

We have something like this now. We both use C-paps. Our utility gives us a larger allotment of the lowest tier pricing because of the medical devices. It helps   

Nice to hear from you, @shelivesthedream!
...My beloved (and very old) XL heating pad seems to have developed a short, so it's time to Let It Go, sob.  We bought MIL a heated throw some years back. Now that she's in the land of Never Cold and doesn't need it, we may start using that. We only used the heating pad to warm the bed before climbing into it, not through the night, so we're not sure we'll like it, but it's worth a try.

Update: I found the heated throw. I put it on and warmed the sheets before we went to bed, then turned it off. It worked pretty well.

Update to the Update: The throw is glorious!  We run it on High for a few minutes before bedtime, then we turn it to Low. It shuts off automatically after three hours. We have dropped the thermostat to 62 degrees 24/7.

[cerat0n1a]

Another yay for the brief return of SLTD.

Our heating is an oil-fired burner supplemented from time to time by a couple of wood-burning stoves. I'd like to not be burning stuff but don't see an obvious fix. Problem with a heat pump would seem to be that they don't cope well with power cuts, and we get those reasonably often.

A very warm autumn - no proper frost even here, high up in the dales, until late November. I reckon we've used ~£150 of oil in the last couple of months though.

[Dicey]

Update: The heated throw arrangement is working out well. We keep the house at 62 and use the throw to warm the bed at night. We just got our first utility bill since we figured this out. Um...I just got a notification that the next bill is projected to be...$369. Happily (snirt) our gas usage is way down (furnace is gas), but our electricity consumption is up just a touch and rates are higher overall. Thank Dog we don't need the A/C in the summer.

[sea_saw]

Since I had to look it up - 62F is 17C.

After the ice inside the windows incident, I've totally caved and just cranked everything up, saving £3 a day just doesn't seem worth it. The bedroom is now set to maintain 15 degrees overnight. (The indoor icicle happened while it was set to 8 degrees in 'frost protect' mode - pah!!). I'll admit 15 degrees has made it a lot easier to get out of bed in the mornings, and actually also to stay asleep at night as we don't get blasted with cold air each time one of us turns around in bed creating a temporary freezing air gap.

No thermostat in the main living space so I can't tell you the temperature here, but I'm able to be Comfortably Warm while wearing thermals under normal indoor clothes (no hats, coats etc) and the heated throw takes it all the way to Ultra Cosy at my work desk during the day or on the sofa in the evenings.

Temperatures are meant to go firmly above freezing starting tomorrow, so that's good! And two days after that I'm running away to a hot country which is even better.

[former player]

Medical advice here in the UK is to keep the temperature to a minimum of 18C if you can, as this is apparently the temperature which stops bad things happening to the human circulation and so increasing the risks of heart attacks and strokes.

I'v definitely moved over to the camp of "just not worth it" and set the temperature in my kitchen diner to 18C.  Thermals and a jumper as well and I'm toasty.

[sea_saw]

That's interesting, I hadn't given it any thought from that angle. Normally the heat of two hot people in a really small room (and under a duvet) is more than enough and I've barely thought about heating the bedroom since S moved in. But a couple of nights there definitely showed there are limits to that and the heater exists for a reason!

The living room is much larger, has more external walls, and has a much larger and draftier window so it's the first to require heat and I haven't been particularly stingy with it. But I don't know what temperature it reached. Perhaps I should find out, as it's where we spend the most time by far. It doesn't feel cold though so hopefully we're good.

[bill1827]

AProblem with a heat pump would seem to be that they don't cope well with power cuts, and we get those reasonably often.

What gives you that idea? They should cope perfectly well with occasional power cuts. Rapid power cycling isn't likely to be very good for them, but that's not a power cut.

The issue with heat pumps is that the system has to be carefully designed to run with as low flow temperatures as you can and that doesn't seem to be the way a lot of installers operate. They aren't a drop in replacement for an oil or gas boiler.

I've been thinking about changing from a gas boiler to an ASHP and have done all the calculations and radiator resizing. I got a quote from an MCS registered installer - £17,000 before the £5,000 BUS handout. Materials would cost about £7-8,000.

[InterfaceLeader]

We keep ours at 16-18c to protect both people and house plants.
We did lose heating for a couple of days due to the boiler breaking, and it wasn't too bad -- it was down to 11c by day two. I really missed hot water though.

Really good to hear from you SLTD. Thanks for popping in.

[Manchester]

Although the freezing temps were nice and Christmassy.  I'm quite glad we're back up to double-digit temps here.

[cerat0n1a]

AProblem with a heat pump would seem to be that they don't cope well with power cuts, and we get those reasonably often.

What gives you that idea? They should cope perfectly well with occasional power cuts. Rapid power cycling isn't likely to be very good for them, but that's not a power cut.

I was told by a neighbour that they'd had a few problems with it simply freezing up when the power went off and it was very cold outside.

[Weisass]

We unfortunately were forced to turn our heat on early this year, but it wasn't our choice. We are doing some work on our house, and replaced the wood floor in our kitchen. The flooring guys told use we had to turn the heat on to make sure the wood they were going to use wouldn't get too cold before they installed it... something about acclimating to a higher temp to prevent warping. We didn't want to have to deal with the floors not sitting right, so we ended up having to turn the heat on at the beginning of November.

[former player]

I confess: the heating has gone on in my downstairs loo.

My excuse is that this is where my raincoats and the dog towels live and having the heating on is the only way to prevent mold from taking over.  I'm in the far west, next to the sea and it has been raining: I have run out of keeping the house aired being enough.

One of these evenings the woodstove is going to be lit too.  Sorry/not sorry.

[shelivesthedream]

It's that time of year again!

We've had our heating on for a couple of hours in the mornings for the past week to "take the chill off".

Mr SLTD has started his new job so we've moved to a new house. It's not THE new house, as that's still having some repairs done, but we're in a temporary house down the road since beginning of September probably until beginning of December. It's a ye olde farmhouse and is very lovely, and gets toasty warm in the front two rooms once the sun has started shining on it but overnight it gets absolutely nose-pinchingly, muscle-achingly freezing. So Mr SLTD the early riser turns it on when he gets up and I turn it off when I come down to breakfast.

I'm slightly shocked looking at my heating entry from last year. We were really trying to cut everything down to the bone. Now we suddenly have (what feels to us like) absolutely pots of money, so we can afford to not turn blue before breakfast! We still find we prefer to wear our base layers and have it on the cold side, though, which I'm secretly pleased about.

We are all very happy. We managed to make it through to Mr SLTD's new job starting without running out of money (i.e. dipping into the Official Stash as opposed to the cash emergency fund), although we did take money out of the stash to buy our first car - a used VW e-Golf. I am homeschooling our eldest and the other two are along for the ride. We're living in a delicious chocolate-boxy village where our postman asks after our health as a matter of course. We are currently spending all of Mr SLTD's new higher salary on things for the new house (curtains, furniture, etc) but still frugalling and DIYing it (my next job is making eight pairs of curtains, and eBay remains our friend) and we should be done with all that until Christmas and never need to replace any of it unless it breaks. We've gone for an austere Victorian National Trust (but without all the clutter and knickknacks!) vibe so that should be pretty perennial and never need an aesthetic update. (No trendy grey in sight!) There is also a great big garden that I plan to fill with fruit trees and fruit bushes and rhubarb and asparagus and strawberries (oh, and maybe a few flowers too... and hopefully a grape vine!)

After Christmas we are going to knuckle down and start saving again. We need to discuss what FOR (generic retirement, do we want to buy a house...) We're both still very taken with the idea of buying a house/barn/stable/whatever to renovate/convert as a fun project, or even to build a house in keeping with the local countryside aesthetic, but planning is Hard round here so maybe we should do the sensible thing and just keep it as index funds. Sigh...

My son and I are going to build a model village/model railway in our new garden. I got several books out of the library about it the other week and asked my parents for a bag of cement and some cement dye for my birthday.

I'm not working and have no plans to, homeschooling being my "job", but I did finish my novel and edited it and I think it's not bad actually, and have sent it to lots of agents but no bites yet despite one full manuscript request.

My grandmother had a stroke so will be coming to live with us in the new house, plus daily carers, and we are all looking forward to having her for whatever time we get with her before she dies. She's 96 though, and tough! She's made an amazing recovery so far from her stroke - almost all the movement back in her arm and hand. She's just a bit clumsy with that hand and had already been struggling to remember stuff and organise herself. So now we can organise her and she can just enjoy playing with the children.

And that's my life right now, and my heating :)

[former player]

That's a great update SLTD.  So many positives (sorry about your grandmother's stroke though).

[sea_saw]

Wonderful to hear from you SLTD. Congratulations on the everything!

I turned one of my storage heaters on to the lowest setting when we had a freezing snap about a week ago, but turned it off again as it seems to be around 8 degrees at night again. So far we're ok with just normal clothes (not thermals under them) and our heated throw when we're sat down. Disclaimer: we have two inhabited flats below us.

[MarcherLady]

Woot woot for a @shelivesthedream update!

You sound happy and busy, what a great combination.

[never give up]

That was the best central heating update ever!

[PhilB]

That was the best central heating update ever!

Definitely.  Lovely to hear from you and even better to know you are well and happy.  Go team SLTD.

[Dicey]

That was the best central heating update ever!

Agreed! Hurrah!

To stay on track: we haven't turned ours on yet. OTOH, we live in California, so that's not saying much. OTOOH, I hate being cold. I'd rather forgo A/C in the summer than cozy, delicious heat when it's cold.

[Kwill]

What a lovely update on the heating and everything else, SLTD!

My new place has heating controlled by the building management, so that has been on all the time for a couple weeks. I am running the air conditioners to balance it out; those also seem designed to be on all the time. There are dire warnings on the windows that discourage opening them--I'll attach a photo I took back in the summer. This is one area where I've had real reverse culture shock on going back to the US from the UK.

[InterfaceLeader]

Great to hear from you SLTD! What a fab update. (P.S We finally bought a mandolin! And haven't lost any fingers yet).

I'm sorry to say that my heating has been on for a while, our current house in the north west definitely runs colder (and damper, and mouldier) than our old house.