Keeping warm

I agree with a lot of what has been said about warner clothes instead of turning the heating up, but, what you also have to bear in mind is the producers and sellers of heating to you.

After all, it is your "money" they are after.

I believe experiments have been done to try to establish whether, in the long run, it’s cheaper to keep the central heating on low all night rather than it going off at bedtime.

The thinking is that, particularly during a very cold spell, the house gets so cold at night if the heating is off, that a lot of energy is needed to warm it up again.

By leaving it on very low at night the thinking goes, the whole fabric of the house remains reasonably warm so it’s not starting each day from a low temperature.

I am not sure what the findings were but I do have friends who do this to make the inevitable night time loo visit a bit less of a shock temperature-wise!

No 2 son used to have the heating up at tropical level. Now with his own large house and family, his home is kept at a very cool temperature. If we stay there in winter, we have to sneak in fan heater for our bedroom. And he’s in a very good financial situation.

Our boiler broke last winter and we were without CH for a month. I can assure anyone that an unheated house overnight with temperatures of minus 15-17 outside and a foot of the snow on the ground is deeply unpleasant.

I am having to put on extra clothing as I have severe financial problems. You are lucky if the rise in heating bills does not bother you. Only trouble is if you keep your central heating off all the time your pipes will freeze and you will get a burst. Can't win when you are poor like me.

I actually don’t find ‘ layering up’, makes any difference. Never has. I am hot most of the time now anyway. Interestingly enough, it’s my husband who feels the cold more now.

However, if the house is cold...it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing. I just can feel chilled. It’s also not good for the house to get cold and damp. Can cause other problems.

We find the heating around 20 degrees seems to be the magic number when really cold out. Suits us both.

A blanket and a hot water bottle for me in the evening. Perfect

I feel it’s more healthy not to have too much heat indoors - would always rather put another layer on before turning the heating up.

On a separate note, does anyone use/recommend heated throws? Adult child living in a beautiful but cold flat in London; louvre windows in kitchen (remember those?), draughty old sash windows in.the high ceilinged living room.

When we bought our first home, we had Economy 7 heating, which was incredibly expensive, so after our first, massive Winter fuel bill, we learned our lesson and went back to wrapping up in more clothes throughout winter as I'd always done at home, to save on the bills. As our finances improved, we slipped into the habit of wearing T-shirts around the house even in the really cold weather, because we could simply pop the heating on. However, then we bought a house in Spain which we visited at various times of year, and realised on our first winter visit that the Spanish all wear polo neck sweaters with their jeans, and thick padded fleece jackets. Come the evenings we realised why - the temperature drops really quickly out there, and with most homes having tiled floors, and no central heating, you really do NEED to put on extra layers. So after our first night of being freezing cold, we went out the next day and invested in warm sweaters, at which point I suddenly realised that I hadn't worn a polo neck sweater for years, because I simply didn't need to at home. Then the penny dropped that for years I'd been throwing away money, by heating the house rather than my body. I now suffer from a disability which is made much worse by my getting cold, so not only do I wrap up warm when necessary, I have a hot water bottle at my back, then as that cools, and it is replaced, the cooler one gets relegated to my feet helping to keep them cosy too. I also spend a lot of time stuck in bed with my disability, so don't ever need the heating on until early evening, and then it's just on for long enough to take the chill off, before snuggling down to sleep.

I do wear warm cardigans and jumpers but have the heating in the low twenties if needed. I don’t like the feel of blankets.

I always wear a cardigan or jumper in the house rather than turn the heating up
I feel suffocated with the heating on too high
I also always turn it off at night and out extra blankets on if need be
My daughter is 20 she hates staying at her BFs parents house as they have the heating in all night snd she’s not used to it
I live in a stone built house too so it’s quite cold

If any of you have dehumidifiers use it instead of a tumble dryer to dry your clothes. Much cheaper. Both my son and daughter use their's for this, it's the only way they dry their washing. It's surprising how much heat they throw out too.

I find if you wear a vest tucked in, under your jumpers and a scarf or snood around your neck, also helps to keep you warm.

I have a few of those waffle, light weight throws from Wilko. I buy them when they have a sale £8 reduced from £16. I even use one as a top sheet in bed.

JenniferEccles

I believe experiments have been done to try to establish whether, in the long run, it’s cheaper to keep the central heating on low all night rather than it going off at bedtime.

The thinking is that, particularly during a very cold spell, the house gets so cold at night if the heating is off, that a lot of energy is needed to warm it up again.

By leaving it on very low at night the thinking goes, the whole fabric of the house remains reasonably warm so it’s not starting each day from a low temperature.

I am not sure what the findings were but I do have friends who do this to make the inevitable night time loo visit a bit less of a shock temperature-wise!

Yes, we have often wondered this.

We dislike a warm bedroom and as the heat rises this is enough. Unused bedrooms are regulated by a thermostat on low with doors closed so they don't get really chilly.

A couple of years ago we had trouble with our gas supply and 20 houses in our village were without gas dor over a week, with several shorter outages.

Fortunately we have a wood burning stove in a huge brick chimney stack (it is a very old house). After about 4 days the whole chimney stack warmed through and acted like a huge storage radiator. It kept the whole downstairs warm and because the stack ran between the two main bedrooms, it kept them warm as well.

A couple of years ago we had trouble with our gas supply and 20 houses in our village were without gas dor over a week, with several shorter outages.

Fortunately we have a wood burning stove in a huge brick chimney stack (it is a very old house). After about 4 days the whole chimney stack warmed through and acted like a huge storage radiator. It kept the whole downstairs warm and because the stack ran between the two main bedrooms, it kept them warm as well.

my HA upgraded our houses 8 years ago, new radiators, boiler and windows, i have never had the radiators on and just use a halogen heater in my living room and electric blanket on the bed, i wear fluffy pjs, thick socks and have a throw for sitting on the couch, most of the residents are elderly and had electric bills of over a thousand pound last year for two months use, i don't have that sort of money so i will layer up, talking about heating, i just spent 3 weeks in hospital and my temp was down a few times..not because of my illness but because the heating was turned down on the ward, one 80 year old had 6 blankets on the bed, one wrapped around her head and shoulders and some heating packs, i used to lay in bed wishing for my mums old sheepskin coat that she used to put on my bed when i was young...lol

Re the argument re turning the heating off overnight. Years ago we lived in a bungalow with oil heating . We used to have to work away Monday to Friday. At first we turned the heating off whilst we were away and it took the weekend before the place was warm.. So we experimented by leaving the heating on low during the week and found we used less oil.

Jaibee007

‘Cashmere is the no 1 weapon to get you through an English winter - cashmere bedsocks, cashmere sweaters and scarf plus hat’

Cashmere is lovely, but may be a little pricey for some folk. Fleece is the best invention since Velcro and it’s also relatively cheap, easy to wash and dries quickly.
I’m also a fan of feather and down gilets, but they can be expensive.
I was reading an earlier post about Liberty bodices! I remember wearing those in the 50s/60s! I used to get dressed for school downstairs in front of an open coal fire, because the bedroom was so cold.
At least nowadays, radiators take the chill off bedrooms, but it’s supposed to be healthier to sleep in a cool room. My feet always tell me if I’m not warm enough!

Bijou I suspect that your bungalow was not insulated to modern standards. Keeping the heating on all the time at a low level was then a general recommendation for all homes because the temperature drop if it was off more than a few hours was so steep.

Now that most houses, even older ones, have much higher levels of insulation than they did in the past, the temperature in a house drops far more slowly than it did in the past and the old advice has been revised. You would now use more gas/oil if you had the heating on low all the time than if it cycled on and off.

We have a (very) old, but well insulated house. The heating is on for 3.5 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening and it is only on the coldest days that the indoors temperature drops by more than 2 degrees in the periods when the heating is off. Usually it is much less than that.

When the T is going to be minus overnight I keep the heating on very low so that the pipes do not burst. Much cheaper than a hefty plumber's bill.

My house, built in 1988 is well insulated so I am able to keep the T at a steady at 18C.

Pipes only burst if the indoor temperatures fall below 0 degrees for hours on end, which shouldn't happen in any house with CH, and would be highly unlikely in a house built as recently as 1988.

We live in a house built in 1467, which we have insulated as much as we can. We have a froststat setting on our CH which automatically turns the heating on if the internal temperature falls to 15 degrees. To the best of my knowledge, no matter how cold it is outside, the indoor temperature has never fallen that low, even though the heating is off for 8 hours overnight and 6.5 hours during the day.

Our night temperature is set at 15c

Shandy57, the 'pipes freezing' situation sounds familiar. Of course, there's only one pipe left in the loft now, since the boiler was changed - and no tanks either. The insulation is above the pipe (not below) so it will never freeze.

M0nica, old houses with their thick walls and hefty chimneys have so much thermal mass that they just don't suffer from rapid fluctuations in temperature.

Cool in heatwaves and warm in cold snaps - lovely. I'm making some old fashioned solid wooden shutters for the downstairs loo, as I know it's only chilly in there, at night, due to heat loss through the window.