Heating

tanith I have my heating on 24/7 , lowish during the day and turned down a bit more when I go to bed.
I was told by a heating engineer that it's the boiler coming on full blast twice a day to bring the temperature up, that makes it more expensive.
When it's already on, the boiler doesn't use as much fuel.

Works for me.

Same here Lona and our heating engineer said the same thing.

We have a woodburner in the sitting room but don't often need to light it as keeping the CH at a constant temperature doesn't make "warm-ups" necessary. It's on at 20 during the day and 18 at night. Seldom need to push it up higher but as I suffer with aching joints when I get cold, I do need to keep the place warm.

I really feel the cold these days. I worked in a very cold environment for several years and never seemed to get over that; the only thing that warmed me up when I got home was a scalding hot bath and I used to dread going to work each day. My thermostat is on between 18-21 and the heating is on all the time. I wear lots of clothes and have a duvet to snuggle under on the sofa. The £200 allowance stops me worrying about the bills to much. I did used to like a cold house at night but I get up for the loo so many times these days that I hate getting out of bed into a cold room; on top of that the dog has started barking to go out in the early hours of the morning as well . I don't even like going out for a walk in winter any more, and I used to be very much a winter person. Not sure why I've changed so much [?]. I love going to the sauna twice a week and cooking myself. Maybe it's because of my arthritic'y joints?

Thanks for that Lona I know some people swear that its more economical so each to their own plan I guess.. if it works for you .

21 degrees!
I get migraines, and if my head gets cold, I can get a migraine.

We have oil, and I have tried both ways. We got through twice as much oil when we had the heating on full-time. Maybe it depends on your house and your fuel.

Different people do have different internal thermostats, that's why we expect different temps. to feel comfortable. I have not done a scientific experiment to come to this conclusion! x

We have ours on about 18 but the thermostat is in the hall which is probably the coldest place in the house. We have thermostats on all radiators too.

We used to keep our heating on 24 hours a day through the winter and our bills did go down. Our house is built of 9" granite but with some single glazing and a slate roof. We had to stop leaving the heating on as we kept forgetting to turn the thermostat down and, consequently, frazzled in bed.

We are thinking of getting a new thermostat fitted - anyone have any suggestions?

I do keep the curtains and blinds closed most of the time to keep the heat in. I think I really do need to hibernate from October to March. Trouble is, if I wear my thermals I get TOO hot . And I wear a hat most of the time, even indoors [like a baglady]. I sometimes think it's cause my hair is so thin and I lose heat from my head .

Kitty what you need is a good programming timer. Ours is quite easy to use and you can set times for temperature changes. have it high just before you get up, then lower during the day, then back up to say 21 at 5pm, then back down to 15 during the night.

Thermostat set at 18.5 and the heating is on 6.00 - 9.30am and 4.00 to 10.30pm. When the temperature outside falls below about 7 degrees C we light the wood stove and keep it going all day. Occasionally we advance the heating and have it on all day.

Our house is large and very old but we have been steadily improving the insulation since we moved in. The house is listed so double glazing is a non starter but we have fitted secondary double glazing to some windows and plan to do more. We also have a well insulated roof, including all the nooks and crannies houses like ours have. We have had been able to dry line and insulate the internal walls of three of the four bedrooms and we have efficient CH boilers. We continue to add little bits and pieces of insulation and have halved our energy consumption over 15 years.

I dislike a very warm house. I prefer to put on an extra sweater or a pair of socks if I feel cold.

No heating in our bedroom, and is hovering in winter at 15/16- the only family member with a radiator on is Pudding, the elderly cat. From April to October, we sleep with the window opened. In winter, we put a blanket on top of the duvet (each got our own, these days, much easier to change and we don't have to fight for it anymore ;)

Downstairs, about 19. Can never understand why people don't accept that in winter you put warmer socks on and an extra layer or 2- rather than crank the thermostat up.

Tegan, you couldn't be suffering from an underactive thyroid if you are feeling the cold more than you were, could you? It's the sort of thing that creeps up on you but is easily diagnosed (or excluded) with a simple blood test, and if it is a problem, is easily treated.

We have our heating set at Auto all the time, which means that it comes on when the kitchen/living room temperature falls too low, but we also have room thermostats so that the bedroom is about 17-18º, the sitting room is about 20º and the spare bedroom is 15º unless someone we like comes to stay . We did try having it on timed, but it kept coming on when it wanted to anyway, so it's been cheaper to leave it to do what it wants. We tried leaving it on all the time as well, but were boiling so stopped that one very quickly.

granjura, I agree - what's the point in doing all that knitting if you never wear your winter jumpers? I hate the way shops put their staff into light-weight clothes all year round and then turn up the heat so that customers who are dressed for the cold outside feel uncomfortable when they come in. I have complained several times, usually in M&S, that I am too hot to think about buying anything, but to no avail.

We just have controls on our radiators, rather than a room thermostat.

We have heating on 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. - 2 on full in our (quite big) sitting room, one radiator on low in our (smallish) back room, and kitchen and hall radiators on full.

Upstairs, we have the bathroom radiator on full but don't put on the bedroom radiators unless it is especially cold - and only in the day.

I don't think so When; I've had thyroid tests done in the past in the hope that it was the reason for my thinning hair. I was so cold at work that I just hated the very thought of being cold.

I have a lot of hair [on my head!], and I get a cold head.
And cant get to sleep, and stay asleep if the air is cold in the bedroom.

Sorry to hear that, soon. Have you thought about sleeping in a beanie hat?

Legs from the knees down (see legs thread) get cold. We have solid floors on concrete foundations which, in the winter, become like a block of ice, also not helped by solid clay underneath. Good underlay and carpets do help but on especially cold evenings I sit with my feet up under a throw (trendy word for blanket!) or lurk upstairs (where I am now). Thermostat set anywhere from 20 -24 deg depending on whether the sun shines, lounge is west-facing, or even switched off if having a cleaning fix!
Sorry Atqui..... no real help

Oh WhenI I've just googled under active thyroid, and I think I'll go,for a blood test.

Old Grey Mare .....you sound a girl after my own heart where the heat is concerned !

Thanks annodomini.
I sleep in normal nightclothes. Plus an old cardi as I find if I keep my shoulders warm it seems to help control some migraines. Plus I have a beanie by the side of the bed in case I need that as well.
I look a sight!
I do have arthritis in my neck which ironically is not much of a problem. But a GP suggested it was this that causes my migraines.

We keep our heating on 24/7 as it takes less energy to warm up the house. Living room is kept at 22.5 as it is a large room and feels chilly when sitting. Bedrooms are warm too but we sleep with a summer duvet on the bed all year round.

When I was cycling up until about four years ago, I could still wear shorts and T shirt down as low as 17C, nowadays I'm in a jumper with the heating between 19C and 20C.

It's never cheaper to leave the heating on 24/7, but the cost doesn't go up in proportion to the increase in heating time. So, for example if you switch on for 24 hours instead of 16, you may expect to pay half as much again, but in practice the cost increase won't be as much as that.

The economics depend on how you react with the thermostat too. When the heating comes on it takes a long while to warm up, but if it stays on there is no warm up period. That means if you just put the heating on constant without readjusting the stats your average temperature will actually go up. Alternatively you can compensate for this increase in temperature by reducing the stats until the average temperature returns back to where it had been.

Obviously the costings will depend on which you choose. In my case, if I leave the heating on overnight that amounts to a 41% increase in hours. Leaving the stats as they are, it will cost an extra 18% on the bill, but if I reduce the stats to bring the mean temperature back down the cost penalty comes down to about 5%.

I leave my heating on if the temperature goes below freezing, otherwise it goes off.

Measuring air temperature can be misleading, as about two thirds of your body's heat loss is by radiation not convection. Since the walls have much more thermal inertia than the air your perception of the temperature can change a lot more slowly than the temperature measured with a thermometer. For this reason radiant heating is more efficient than convectors. (Think about standing in front of a bonfire on a cold Guy Fawkes night, you're as warm as toast even though the air you're surrounded by is freezing. A thermometer here wouldn't tell you anything very useful about how warm you feel.)

We don`t have a thermostat to set, don`t have central heating, just a gas fire, and just lately it`s spent a lot of time on the highest setting.

I find how hot or cold I feel seems to vary during the day. No matter what the temperature I always feel far colder in the afternoon and evening than I do in the morning.