Heating

I have just worked out partly what may have been happening to me for the last few years.
Partly through having a good think about things having reading the links from crun.

I have been getting hotflushes for 5 years [I am going through a bad patch of them lately]. And my feeling cold in bed has been going on for a few years [bad lately]
I think the two of them are connected!
I am getting both overheated, and too cold. My internal thermostat may be working wrongly both ways.
[Just thought I would share this in case it helps anyone else].

I sleep with the window open whatever the weather. I get quite warm at night and regulate body temperature by sticking my legs out of the duvet and pulling them back in when I am better temperature ! I'd bake if I had a heated blanket!

my husband got hotter than he liked

Have you been at 50 Shades??

I have got an all-night electic blanket and haved used it in the past. I cant quite remember why I stopped using it.
It might have been because even when my side was on low, my husband got hotter than he liked.
But thank you for reminding me. I think I should get it down again from the loft.

Have you tried an all-night electric blanket?

I've just had a shufty on Livestrong and Wiki Soon, metabolism does slow down during the night, but whether that's why anyone feels colder after getting into bed is another matter.

Metabolic rate. I will have a read up about that.

I am a small person.
I could try eating more, later in the evening. That might help? It is worth a try. Or having a late evening warm drink, which I dont have.
Thanks.

I have a fan thing! It's brilliant, it makes the stove act a bit like a fan heater. I did a test first, we had taken all our downstairs doors minus two off when we moved here, but the kitchen was quite cold as we took out the huge radiator so as not to heat up the cupboards above it. It was always 3 or 4 degrees lower than the sitting room and I spend a lot of time in there. Now it's maybe 1 degree lower. They aren't cheap though, as you have probably realised. I bought mine on Amazon. I have to remember to blow the dust off it though - and you need a flat top to stand it on top of the stove, as it works by the heat going up through its base.

I agree with crun, and I feel colder if I'm tired too.

We haven't, but if we open the sitting room door ( we frequently do because the heat is too much!) the thermostat in the hall goes off. The heat then wafts round the house. x

Have any of you who have woodburners or multifuel stoves tried those fan things? Several people in the village have got them and say it really does cut down the number of times the oil central heating kicks in.

"Any ideas why that is crun?"

Isn't it because your metabolic rate drops whilst you're asleep? I keep my bedroom cool, otherwise I have to get up and put on more bedclothes in the small hours after the heating has been off long enough for the room to cool.

I wonder whether those who feel colder as the day wears on are eating enough, feeling cold often tells me when I'm getting hungry before my sense of hunger does.

Our heating hovers between 18 and 21 (by the time we settle down to watch telly after supper). It is on all the time in winter and automatically switches off when it reaches a certain temperature and comes back on when it drops below a certain temperature.

The best thing we did a few years ago when we were on holiday in Devon was stop at a farm that had a sign up saying "Sheepskins for Sale" - I bought a sheepskin for every seat and husband was not keen at first (till he spotted a "rare breed" one) and now he's a total convert for the warmth and comfort. So we have sheepskins on our sofas to curl up on - cosy and warm, no throws required. I put them away in summer.

21.5 at the moment and down to 15 when we go to bed.
This is a draughty old place though.

I feel exactly the same as Tegan.

Also, the bedroom can feel warm when I go in it.
But after I have lay down for 5 minutes, it suddenly doesnt feel warm enough, and I have to up the radiator in the room, so that it is warm enough for me to actually sleep in.
Any ideas why that is crun?

Radiant sunshine for the last few days has been wonderful- I could open all the windows and give the place a good airing- and the rooms quickly warmed up with the sunlight afterwards.

Hurrah.

Radiant heat coming in from the sun (not that there's been much) can make a big difference to the temperature during the day. x

I was going to say that Flickety but didn't quite know how to explain it. Sometimes I'll look at the temperature, thinking that it's really cold only to find that it's 18 degrees. Other times, same temperature and yet I'm not cold. And it doesn't seem to depend on whether I've, say, had a hot bath or been for a walk etc. The temperature can be the same and yet the air around me has a chill in it .

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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