I know - most random question of the day award.
Just wondering if I keep my house too cold after going round to a mates and it been like the tropics in temperature and what he was wearing!
What temp do you set yours to??
20c when we are in, and 15c when we are out or at night
But its not that easy, and depends more on where it is, how it is set up and the boiler/rads etc.
Between 18C and 20C normally.
Have been known to pump it up a wee bit higher when it gets nippy in the winter.
Our thermostat is out in the hall not in a room though.
19.5 and 14 overnight - got a clever digital wireless thermostat its ace.
Yeah, I've got a wireless thermostat timer thing. Mine is normally set to about 19 so sounds like I'm normal.
21, oh yeah baby.
17-18. if it get too cold I'll throw a log on the wood burner. tight as they come, me.
every ones way too hot .
I work in a different house nearly every day and 99% of them are set over 25 degrees with the efing windows open .
Our house is only warm when Mrs T decides she is cold and as she is some sort of cold bloodied creature its only when her sister visits that the heating goes into overdrive and we get to 20 degrees.
Who remembers having Ice on the inside of their windows
or having a bath in a tin bath in front of the fire but being the youngest haveing to wait till every one else had used the water .
got it set to 18 here .... only its AC run off a diesel generator for me ....
keeps the falcipean malaria carrying mozzies outside !
its 25 outside at 10 at night - and with no ac inside it quickly gets up to 45/50 inside during the day - and outside 37/38
16 degrees here (well, 62 fahrenheit), though I suspect the old thermostat is a bit inaccurate.
Maybe the reason we've all got good bikes is cos we're tight...
Maximum of 20 degrees here, usually about 19... I hate spending money on gas to heat the place when an extra jumper or a bit of exercise is fine... That said, went through the winter before last with no heating except for a log burner... Got warm chopping the wood, then kept the fire going all night each day too! Couldn't afford the heating bills as none of us living there had a job at the time...
And like trout says, most people seem to have theirs about 25 or more. My mate will sit there in his house in just his boxers sweating his nuts off, but his missus (who always wins) will still be freezing!
Most houses I'm working in at the moment seem to have theirs set at 25, it's like backdraft when they open the front door, takes yer eyebrows off! ours only comes on enough to melt the ice, I hate overly hot houses.
Haven't bothered setting it this year as still warm enough that we don't need the heating on.
For winter I'll get one of those wireless temperature control units so it can be the temperature of where the baby is that controls the boiler, then set that in her bedroom to 15 degrees at night, and have it with us during the day at 18 degrees in the lounge / kitchen.
Edited to ask: Darn Trail Rat, where are you? Those are ferocious temperatures!
Got mine set to 13 deg. Don't see the point in having it hotter than a cool winter's evening.
Zero use the log burner only. Need a new holier fitted anyway but when it is probably about 17 or 18 if it gets really cold. That's for the kids though more then anything.
Work in lots of houses too and varies from fridge like to super nova. Age and certain illnesses contribute to what people will have it set at a lot of the time. My parents is super no a due to my Dads recent heart problems. But that's from a log burner too.
low. It's nearly as old as me, a back-burner behind a gas fire; it doesn't do them fancy degree things.
When it gets [i]really[/i] cold I'll let her put the fire on too, but I pretty soon end up in a bit of a sweat. Hate being too hot.
When Mrs Ming's in charge of the 'stat and the log burners not burning downa rain forest I sometimes wonder if I should drain the water from the rad's and run a liquid sodium based system.
Got mine set to 13 deg
WTF! Do you do a good line in treble thickness woolly jumpers ?
You have your aircon set to 18 when it's hot out? That sounds freezing cold.
Our thermostat is set to 18, but it's on the ground floor so it's warmer than that upstairs. It goes off altogether at night. Agree about other people's houses tho.
20 deg
I'd happily have it cooler and wear a jumper but Lady von Drais is keen on high temp and less clothes.
Room stat set to 16C with TRV's in the other rooms varying from 13 - 16C. But if the G/F comes round then I'll turn it up otherwise she won't take her coat off.
About 18 here, the heating only comes on for about 3 hours between 6am and 9am and again between 4pm and 7pm.
errr... still not got the heating on, and open the window some nights.
No idea. but everyone reckons our house is "roasting".
Think we're missing Oz? 🙂
I'm always amazed at people wearing t-shirts at home in Winter. What's wrong with an extra layer, particularly in view of today's news about more hikes from gas suppliers.
But I do have the bedroom window open every night ... I like to hear the wildlife. 8)
it is mr grips BUT its from the safety boy at work that says 18 - stops the bugs in mozzies getting to you or some shite ....
Hello ming 🙂
Ours is at 16, no night setting as the hot water/heating is only on 1hr in the morning and 4hrs in the evening. Upstairs rads are almost off. The stat isn't clicking until I turn it up to 19 and thats in the front room with a draughty poorly fitting front door, which is a bit strange.
Hmm when the inlaws are round or the wood burner has not been lit (and its chilly) then around 20-22 but generally just under 15 the rest of the time.
Set @ 18 through the day and 15 @ night, so far the heating only really comes on in the morning and if there are 2 people in the living room the thermostat normally shows 20-21. Not done a proper winter in this house yet tho....
I'm with CG on this. We have the bedroom window open 365 days of the year, no matter how cold it gets.
19.5 and 14 overnight - got a clever digital wireless thermostat its ace.
Heating should be set to turn off overnight. It's not needed. Ours goes off about 10.00pm. I don't think it's on for more than about 5-6 hours a day, total.
Aircons set to 25C in summer, outside temps at 30C-40C. Heating occasionally to 18C on a winter morning to take the edge off.
Constantly berating local staff for setting their office aircon to 16C (lowest setting) in summer and 30C (highest setting) in winter...
trail_rat: sounds like cobblers to me, I reckon it is more to do with airflow so the buggers feel like a Cessna in a hurricane. And if it is that high-risk you should have a net!
05:15 - 06:00 18 degrees
06:00 - 04:30 15 degrees
04:30 - 09:30 20 degrees
09:30 - 10:30 18 degrees
10:30 - 05:15 15 degrees (but hasnt come on yet)
If we use the stove in the evening the heating doesnt come on.
Wireless thermostats are the way forward, allow you to vary the temp and can save a fortune!
my other half insists on 21 degrees but I would happily have it lower..
Who remembers having Ice on the inside of their windows
I do.... for the last 12 years..
Only been on for 2 very short periods at '18' since it turned cold (it got too hot after 1/2 hour) and even at its coldest have left it off overnight. I've never needed to turn it on at all in the afternoon when on nightshift.
I have a feeling my next door neighbour (semi-detached house) has hers cranked right up as her two young kids never seem to be in more than shorts and t-shirts and my house is heated through the party wall !
Not got our heating on yet, planning on keeping it off till December. We've got storage heaters as were in an apartment, if it drops below 14 I've told the missis she can choose one to put on for half an hour. I'm happy in my Primark tiger suit, best £9.99 I spent.
Heating comes on for about 1hr at 7:00am (17 degs) then off until 17:00 when it comes on until 22:00 and is set at either 17 or 18 degs.
BUT we now have a clearview stove in the snug (connected to the kitchen and has a door that leads upstairs) which can be isolated from the rest of the house. The stove is lit pretty much every night now and the temp in the snug is over 20 degs with the snug>kitchen and snug>upstairs doors left open.
We are def using less oil than before but are getting through some wood! Frankly I'm amazed at how good stoves are. They light quickly, put out a massive amount of heat and are way cleaner than an open fire. I would like to put one in our dining room/hall which is right in the middle of the house but will have to wait until I make some money 🙁
I'm just trying to figure out how to get more of the heat from the snug upstairs 😕
17C - we had to turn it up from 16 as some rooms were getting damp. Folk do look at us like we weird though when they come round & we're sitting wearing woolly hats.
When I am in the house/near it, about 17-18 degrees. Unfortunately, I have to leave the house for work, so when I get back I usually find that it is up at about 23 degrees.
Luckily my wife is back to work next week, so it should stay where I leave it from now on.
About 18 here, the heating only comes on for about 3 hours between 6am and 9am and again between 4pm and 7pm.
Quick question, We have it set like the above too.
would it work out cheaper having the heating on all the time but set to lower lower heat setting say to 15 during the day, then up it to 18c for thee 2x3hrs when we want the heat
Rather than having it on for just 2x3hrs a day at 18c, would we waste more energy getting the property back up to 18c temp?
Does that make sence? 😯
19.5 and 14 overnight - got a clever digital wireless thermostat its ace.
Ours is similar, but something like 18 in the morning, 14 during the day, 18 in the evening then 13 overnight.
Heating should be set to turn off overnight. It's not needed. Ours goes off about 10.00pm. I don't think it's on for more than about 5-6 hours a day, total.
Disagree - the more the house cools down, the more energy is needed to warm it back up. Better to keep a regulated temperature IMO.
15 deg all the time, can wear T-shirts in the house. Based in Yorkshire.
can wear T-shirts in the house.
Do you get cold though? 😉
I'm amazed at how hot some people have their houses! I'm afraid we are a generation of utter utter softies.
Only when there is a chance of the house literally freezing would mine be on overnight, and then set to 10 degrees or so. Ditto throughout the day when no-one is in the house. Have it set to run for a couple of hours in the morning and about four in the evening. Thermostat is set to 15. It goes off completely when the kids go to bed at half-eight and then we have jumpers on and/or a fire.
We have absolutely zero chance of ever cutting carbon figures when our homes are so hot. We could probably get a hell of big cut just by re-setting everyone's heating. Energy is clearly not expensive enough.
We have absolutely zero chance of ever cutting carbon figures when our homes are so hot. We could probably get a hell of big cut just by re-setting everyone's heating. Energy is clearly not expensive enough.
Ahh well. I have a sand pit and fake palm trees and pretend I am in the tropics.
would it work out cheaper having the heating on all the time but set to lower lower heat setting say to 15 during the day, then up it to 18c for thee 2x3hrs when we want the heat
This gets asked quite a lot and the general concensus is that it's better to heat the house up when you need it rather than heating it all the time. Though factors in this may be how long you are out of the house, how much residual heat is held in the building. Either way I'm in the "turn it on only when you need it" camp.
The warmer your house, the more heat you lose to the outside. So if it's warm all the time, you're losing lots of heat all the time. If you let it get cold at night and in the daytime when you're out, it's not losing as much.
The warmer your house, the more heat you lose to the outside. So if it's warm all the time, you're losing lots of heat all the time. If you let it get cold at night and in the daytime when you're out, it's not losing as much.
Sound theory, but what about the thermal mass of surfaces throughout the house - if they keep getting very cold, they keep needing to be warmed up more to reach a comfortable temperature.
(we were told by our heating engineer to keep heating on all the time for the most efficient heating BTW). Although he may have meant to create a more comfortable environment rather than having colder periods. I can't say we have noticed an increase in heating costs since we started this last autumn (even with the very cold winter) but we did change boiler too.
"Thermostat is set to 15. It goes off completely when the kids go to bed at half-eight and then we have jumpers on and/or a fire."
Your fire will be far less efficient than a central heating boiler.
My fire runs on logs that I pick up from the woods.
If I didn't have a fire I would run the heating for a bit in the evening probably. But not at blimin' 20 degrees!
No thermostat, but storage heaters, so it's boiling hot at 5am, and freezing by 5pm 🙂
we haven't got one 🙁 Oil heating??
Oil heating still governed by thermostat. Mine is anyway!
We used to have electric storage heaters in an apartment we lived in, they should be banned IMO, horribly expensive and utter rubbish. Never ever turned 'em on after the first month or so of living there and bought a portable gas fire, much more efficient!
Mines off and I strut around in shorts still.
If I get cold I'll put on a jumper, if I get real cold I'll start wearing some of my winter down kit 😉
My wife is always cold, so we're at a toasty 22deg.
I live in shorts & t-shirt all year round.
Depends on where the stat is located though.
Ours is in the living room, and is set to a comfortable 20°C between 6-10pm this time of year. All rads are balanced & have TRV's.
Next-door neighbour (with same layout house) has the stat in the hallway, yet mocks that his house feels like a sauna when his is set to 16°C (it does, it's easily over 23°C in the main living areas), so must be better insulated etc.
Smug git doesn't seem to understand that the stat will only click on when it's ambient temp is at that specific level for the area it is in!
Our hallway is easily 3-4°C
the stat will only click on
With the electronic ones I understand they throttle the boiler so as it reaches the required temperature it keeps switching on and off (as opposed to blasting out at full power until the temperature is reached)
And just seen this on the Bosch website...
[i]When set up correctly, a programmable room thermostat prevents the system from having to heat the house from a ‘cold start’. The control always maintains a temperature within the property and this ensures that the boiler is only ever ‘topping up’ the temperature in the home. As a guideline, target temperatures should be set at 21 C for comfort temperature and 15 C for economy temperature.[/i]
With the electronic ones I understand they throttle the boiler so as it reaches the required temperature it keeps switching on and off
Maybe some do, our Honeywell electronic one (on a 2-wire setup) doesn't. Boiler runs at full tilt until the stat temp is reached, then clicks off. If it drops half a degree below that, then it fires again etc, whereas the old dial one dropped a good 2 degrees before clicking on again. It just maintains the desired temp better.
So, much like the old dial one it replaced but with a much smaller, whaddayacallit, hysteresis?
My central heating broke three years or more ago, the pump failed. I can't be arsed to fix it, I just sport a natty line in striped merino beanies over the winter, wear lots of layers and stoke the internal heater with lots of riding and running. Can't stand central heating, feels stifling and generally unhealthy. 😉
66F. Since I grew up in the metric system, and Canada is metric, I have no idea what that actually means.
Set ours to 15 degrees but not used it yet this winter - have had a few log fires though. When it does get cold an hour or 2 in the morning and a few more in the evening is all it'll be on. When it gets cold at night I'll put some pyjamas on but it doesn't get that cold in Surrey.
Not had ours on yet. Relying on the flat underneath to heat ours, they run theirs flat out so I'm sitting here with the window open at the moment. 🙂
The inlaws have theirs set at 25c+ and it is always roasting when we are down there.
That must be their temperature though as when they see us they complain that we keep our house too cold.
I was under the impression that a fair to well insulated house was cheaper to heat by just turning on the heating as required, but if you were in a big old stone built house that you should leave the heating on as it takes so long to heat the structure up. Our house seems to heat up very quickly when needed so we leave the heating off when we are out.
I do wonder if we would be better replacing our standard stat with a wireless gizmo that will keep the house at say 12 degrees when we are out and overnight, bumping up to 16-18 when we are in, rather than now when if we get up in the early hours during winter you can see your breath 🙂
No thermostat, we have a choice of on or off.
I don't see the point in being cold when I don't have to be. I don't mind wearing a jumper in the winter, i'm less keen on wearing a down jacket indoors.
The funny thing is, colleagues who like to spout off about 'just put a jumper on' etc. have huge gas bills in comparison to ours which is ~20 quid a month (Cooking, heating, hot water).
It was even lower when we lived somewhere with a fancy thermostat, heating 'on' 18 hours a day but set to turn on at 12 degrees during the day when we weren't in and 18/19 degrees at night.
Absolutely no idea. Don't even know where the thermostat is.
If it's cold I put on a fleece. If it's a bit colder I turn the heating on manually. It is NEVER on in the morning before work. Don't see the point. In Winter the heating may be on for about 3 hrs in the evening, and turned off as soon as the kids are in bed.
Heating on overnight? WTF?
Way too many people have their heating up too high.
An observation - All our outdoor, mtbing type friends have their heating on at a fairly low temp. Whereas all my other friends have it far too high.
Ours is about 17c except the lounge which is quite warm with the woodburner.
In winter I have been known to wear 3 fleeces, a hat and scarf indoors. Ooh and have a hot water bottle for the bed.
it's set to "off" at the mo, just wear loads of clothes, cos I'm a tight/poor bastard. Got no central heating, just a couple of oil filled radiiators, that, gawd bless 'em, give off loads of heat. The thermostat goes up to 9, float around 3-6 when it's cold, 9 is PROPER cold. I've no idea what temperature it ever is, just a number between 3 and 9!
Thermostat is at the top of the stairs. TRV's on all radiators...
Stat is set at 13-14 degrees...
Log burner in the keeps the lounge (and the room above, our bedroom, toasty!)
tween 15 18 ish. Except when i come in from work & find in on 100!
15 deg all the time, can wear T-shirts in the house. Based in Yorkshire.
Only on STW can a discussion about thermostat settings turn into willy-waving...
I'm amazed at how hot some people have their houses! I'm afraid we are a generation of utter utter softies.
No; we just have different levels of comfort, and some need more heat than others. Speshly older people.
Just have it on to the temp you feel comfortable at.
No; we just have different levels of comfort, and some need more heat than others.
We get used to different levels of comfort. Some like more heat than others. We certainly don't *need* it. It's only relatively recently that central heating has given us the option of unseasonally warm or cool temperatures.
I have low blood pressure. I feel the cold more than others. I don't see why I should sit feeling cold and uncomfortable just because other people feel comfortable in cooler temperatures.
Sound theory, but what about the thermal mass of surfaces throughout the house - if they keep getting very cold, they keep needing to be warmed up more to reach a comfortable temperature.
The only place the energy is lost is across the wall/roof/window boundaries. While you may heat up the contents of the house, and it take slightly longer to heat up as you heat up your thermal masses, it also takes longer for them to cool down and keeps the room warmer on the cool-down, meaning you can turn your heating off earlier and the room is still comfy for longer - i.e. energy in = energy out so no net loss.
That's the theory, and I've tested it in practice and it holds true as I expected. My heating is 19 from 5pm to 10pm, then 14 overnight, then 17 at 6:30 for getting up, and then back off at 8am to 14 during the day. My current bills for an old 3 bed semi in scotland are about 20 quid a month (gas).
marsdenman - Member
Thermostat is at the top of the stairs. TRV's on all radiators...
Stat is set at 13-14 degrees...Log burner in the keeps the lounge (and the room above, our bedroom, toasty!)
Don't be so smug as a lot of the heat from that log burner goes straight up your flume/chimney 😉
^
no it doesn't.
Stoves = more heat into the room and less up the chimney.
Plus your not burning fossil fuels and not heating rooms you're not using.