MegaSack DRAW - 6pm Christmas Eve - LIVE on our YouTube Channel
After a hike of £50 per month for our heating need to set the temp on the CH so we do not use as much, We have a log burner which kicks out the heat but need a ambient temp for the rest of the house.
So what is a normal temp for the winter months so the rest of the family do not moan 😕
One degree lower, whatever it is.
1deg is about 10% more/less energy.
I stuck mine on at 18 which is warm enough as long as you're wearing long sleves and slippers.
There is absolutely no truth in the idea that having it on all day is more efficient than having it on for a couple of hours in the morning/evening.
A lot depends on where the thermostat is situated. Just lower it by a degree every few days until someone whinges that it's to cold.
about 6 logs and a pile of coal...
I'm here in my undies and bloody roasting.
my house is cold even when the thermostat is on 25
18 works for me
There is absolutely no truth in the idea that having it on all day is more efficient than having it on for a couple of hours in the morning/evening.
While that may be true for the "average" house, There are lots of factors involved in this, building construction, insulation, air tightness, ventilation, thermal mass, heating type etc.
In some houses, turning on the heating for a couple of hours in the evening would make virtually no difference at all to the room temperature. In others the whole house would come to the desired temperature in half an hour.
thisisnotaspoon been trying to tell her that for years but falls on death ears!
There is absolutely no truth in the idea that having it on all day is more efficient than having it on for a couple of hours in the morning/evening
Really not sure what to think on this one...
I guess "efficient" can be separately defined in terms of "cost efficiency" and "heating efficiency".
For our house, a couple of hrs am and pm, and the heating never really warms the fabric of the building - the boiler is going full chat for 4-5 hours and not really making a lot of difference...
... it then goes off and the air rapidly cools down again
Whereas full-time on a lower thermostat setting provides a stable and comfortable settting
17 this year. It's kind of cool-ish but not exactly uncomfortable
Having said that I went round a mate's house the other night his mrs has the temperature set to a Summer's Day On Venus and the blast of heat when he opened the front door nearly took my eyebrows off
There is absolutely no truth in the idea that having it on all day is more efficient than having it on for a couple of hours in the morning/evening.
My retired FIL who has plenty of time to thoroughly investigate and test things like this has assured me in no uncertain terms that his extensive research has revealed that putting the heating on when required is far more economical.
14.5, but that's because I have a wood pellet boiler and it doesn't seem to work brilliantly ATM.
Might be a silly question but isn't setting the thermostat to 18 in the Winter achieving exactly the same temperature as setting it to 18 in the Summer.
Lift toilet seat, is water frozen?
yes - turn thermostat up 1 degree
no - turn thermostat down 1 degree
Might be a silly question but isn't setting the thermostat to 18 in the Winter achieving exactly the same temperature as setting it to 18 in the Summer.
In mid summer 18 would seem very cool, but in winter 18 seems much warmer. It's relative to expectations / daytime out door temp etc.
my thermostat is set to have the house at 18 degrees in the evenings, 12 degrees overnight and during weekdays and 16 degrees during the weekend days. If we go away, I tell it, and it keeps the house about 8 degrees.
I let it decide when the heating will be on because IT IS A THERMOSTAT, THAT IS IT'S JOB!
I never understand why people discuss when they've turned their heating on for winter. My heating controls itself, that is why I have a thermostat!
Dave
when its 5 degres in the house it comes on and warms it to 11 degrees
getting closer as it was 6.5 when i got up today
If i am cold I wear more clothes
I do own a house coat mind but i pay less than £300 for gas per annum and most of that will be cooking and hot water I assume
EDIT: I do have a fire in the living room so one room is not cold
You boys may as well just sleep outside in a tent for all the use your heating is 🙂
I'd rather pay more and be toasite 🙂
exactly the same as for the rest of the year.
you want your house to be your favourite temperature all year round.
Just because its colder outside doesn't mean you want the temperature hotter inside than you would have it in Spring, Summer and Autumn.
what alfabus said!
FWIW - our house is a 1919 3 bed terrace, with an mildly insulated loft and no double glazing so not exactly great at keeping the heat in, definitely cheaper to warm up for a few hours here and there than run at the same temp all day.
heating controls set as follows
6am - 8:30am - 17deg (to warm up for us getting up)
8:30am - 5pm - 14deg
5pm - 7pm - 18deg (to warm up for us getting in)
7pm - 11pm - 16deg
11pm -6am - 14deg
If we are cold we generally wear more clothes or use the woodburner (now I've finally had the chimney swept!). Sometimes we might bump it up a couple of degrees during the day but its rare.
I like the temp to be warm summers day in the Sinai, thats about 44C, which is just enough to stop the paint from melting off the skirting boards.
No slippers here, barefoot and boardshorts all year round.
Suggest you do the same.
death ears!
?? 😆
Do people seriously have the heating on overnight? I can't sleep with the heating on AT ALL. It was -5 here last night and, like every other night of the year, the heating went off about 10pm and we slept with the window open.
What is the right temp to set the central heating during the winter months?
No thermostat so ours is on or off.
I try and keep the house comfortable if you are wearing proper clothes (jumper, slippers). If you need to put on a woolly hat it is too cold, if you can get away with just a T shirt then it is too warm.
4 bed three floor victorian terrace with minimal insulation so to keep it at 22°C like my current office would be stupidly expensive. It is probably closer to 16°C. Adjusted the radiators so the lounge is warmer as I'm in there in the evenings.
Do people seriously have the heating on overnight? I can't sleep with the heating on AT ALL
heating off and window open. Close the window if it drops blow -10 outside.
Do people seriously have the heating on overnight?
Nope the heating goes off at 9:30 no matter how cold it is 🙂
Just for comparison:
3 bedroom bungalow, no insulation other than old double glazing, central heating set to maintain somwhere between 20-22oC (no thermostat, it's all done off the boiler panel) and on 24/7, costs us about £70/month in gas.
Do people seriously have the heating on overnight?
As mentioned before, we have this amazing device called a THERMOSTAT. So yes, we have our heating on (it is always on), but it only produces heat when needed. We choose the temperature, and the magic thermostat does the rest.
What this means effectively, is that our heating is not doing any heating over night, as the house has enough warmth to get through the night without topping up.
Dave
I love threads like this.
Would you believe it, some people like warmer houses than others. Some like it warmer at night than others. Some are tighter than others. Some thermostats may not actually regulate to the temperature on the device and some people I wonder how they actually manage to get out of bed and hit the floor with both feet with such complete inability to make a decision!
My heating controls itself, that is why I have a thermostat!
Well, that's up to you but in my house I control the thermostat. Sometimes I want it warmer, like when I'm sitting on my bum watching a film, sometimes i want it cooler because I'm beavering about doing housework or DIY or whatever. Leaving the thermostat at the same setting all the time regardless makes no sense.
What transapp said ^^
For the record, 23 degrees daytime, 21 at night according to the thermostat in the downstairs hall - and we have radiator thingy's. Qualifications are:
a) We have a small baby (baby monitor never goes over 20)
b) Mrs Kryton has caribbean blood and is home all day (maternity)
c) I too like wandering around in bare feet and board shorts in my own home, and don't see any comfort sitting on the sofa with 3 jumpers
Nope the heating goes off at 9:30 no matter how cold it is
Then I suspect your house isn't getting that cold. As when mine drops below 7 degrees, shivering wakes you up.
Thermostat?
Have a look at this little beauty: http://www.nest.com/
I emailed the manufacturers in the US and they told me they have no plans for the moment to bring it to the UK. If you watch the video you'll understand why converting it will be quite a big job.
For the record, 23 degrees daytime, 21 at night according to the thermostat in the downstairs hall - and we have radiator thingy's. Qualifications are:a) We have a small baby (baby monitor never goes over 20)
How much is your heating bill?
My thermostat is set at 16 or so, no-one complains - not even the baby though he's a toddler now. Tough little chap I suppose. Mind you, in the 70s how many had central heating? We didn't, woke up in the winter with ice on the inside of the windows. It's what you're used to so don't get used to hot temperatures I say.
How much is your heating bill?
Hard to tell, we moved here in May so have been through an annual cycle / enough to change the Bill yet, and the boiler is a super efficient 2yo Valiant (so I'm told). But in the old house no thermostat/10yo boiler is was £69 a month (gas)so I'm hoping it'll come down a bit.
It was obvious through the autumn this house retains its heat more as the thermostat never displayed less than 19 until about the beginning of November.
As far as thermostats go, that 'nest' is very nice indeed. 
As far as thermostats go, that 'nest' is very nice indeed.
Aimed at US systems with 24v DC control... add a relay and it could be adapted for UK systems.
"Then I suspect your house isn't getting that cold. As when mine drops below 7 degrees, shivering wakes you up. "
winter duvet much ?
my heating is only on at 4.30 am to get the house warm to get up to and to warm up my cycling kit for the ride in.
Its set to keep it above 14 all day - but it rarely drops below that.
winter duvet much ?
Yep
When your house drops below 8 its pretty cold and not that pleasant to sleep in, unless you have a sleeping bag. If your house is at 14, at its lowest that's pretty toasty!
We don't have a thermostat, downstairs is electric storage heaters and upstairs is just electric (not fan) heaters. According to my clocks with thermometers in them (so highly accurate.... or not) downstairs during the day is usually about 18 and the bedroom is around 13 or 14 overnight. We're currently using the storage heaters and I'm considering turning on the heater in the bedroom as 13 degrees is not conducive to getting out of bed and going to work...
insulation is king. mines noticably warmer now with the blinds fitted. the rooms yet to have them put up are noticably cooler when you walk into them.
ive yet to see the heating come on of its own accord to keep it at 14degrees - the thermostat lives in the living room though, sunniest room in the house during the day and then the fire is on in the house at night. - the other rooms could be cooler , i like a cool bedroom , its a constant fight between me and the mrs to try and make the bedroom warmer.
some snow on the roof will make a good insulator im sure - our bedrooms in the roof !
Three bed semi here and our stat is in the hallway and set to 15 degrees. I don't bother with the timer as our life's don't run to a schedule. It kicks in and out about three or four times a day for an hour or so whilst its frosty outside. We've old thin double glazing, 9" solid walls with no cavity, and a little loft insulation but the arched ceilings mean that it's impossible to insulate about 25% of the loft. 15 degrees in the hall gives us about 18/19 in the lounge. If my wife's cold, she just pops the gas fire on for a while. Our gas usage averages out to about £35 a month.
I did just make a significant improvement to the heat retention by draft proofing the hallway. The gap between the floorboards and skirting boards was letting a real cold draft up from under the suspended floors. We lifted the carpet and caulked all the gaps, including a few around old pipe runs and broken floor board tongs. Relayed some thick cloud 9 underlay too. The difference has exceeded all expectation.
Mine's at 24c day and 18c overnight (although the bedroom radiator stays off permanently). I prefer sitting around in shorts and t-shirt rather than wearing jackets and stuff indoors like they did in ye olde days...
Mine's at 24c day and 18c overnight (although the bedroom radiator stays off permanently). I prefer sitting around in shorts and t-shirt rather than wearing jackets and stuff indoors like they did in ye olde days..
24c 😯
But if you're wearing shorts and T shirts inside, doesn't that mean you have to put trousers/etc on just to go outside?
If you're cold, put a thick jumper on. If you're still cold, turn the heating up. Simples.
Mine's at 24c day
We have office wars, I get uncomfortable if the room goes above 23c; wonder if I should wear short sleeves but that seems silly in the winter. Heating off between 9:30pm and 8:00am, no idea how cold it gets then, if cold at night then just add a blanket - or even a hot water bottle.
You know what this thread needs? A North / South indicator. I'm willing to put money on there being a familiar trend....
im scottish - there fore im statistically going to be the "most grippit" - more so than you shandy drinking folk from north of england :d
21 at night according to the thermostat in the downstairs hall
Blimey. I'd just lie awake sweating all night at that temperature. 🙂
So this prompted some studying on my part. I managed to work out by timing the on off cycle of the Boiler and a few other numbers, that our heating bill is about £3.12 per day.
I also found out Mrs Kryton (who complains the Kitched is cold, and that there are cold spots on the house) has been fiddling with the TRV's, leaving the Rad next to her end of the sofa on full.
Having wandered around the house re-setting the TRV's to approx the same as our bedroom (which with the baby monitor was showing 20), AND setting the Thermostat down a degree (20 at night, 22 daytime) we've woken to a much more even temperature around the house.
The whole exercise is probably a bit geeky, but we may see some savings...
Wow that's like £90/month! How big is your house?
A North / South indicator.
Which are you then?
I need to fiddle with mine, not running my heating efficiently
Basically 15 degrees through the day when there's no one around, the for 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night it goes up to 22......and I have a wife who's motto seems to be "is the heating still on?"
You can calculate it if you like;
http://personal.cityu.edu.hk/~bsapplec/newpage315.htm
Note the inclusion of metabolic rate and clothing in the equation.
mudshark - Member
Wow that's like £90/month! How big is your house?A North / South indicator.
Which are you then?
Mudshark - that was during the day yesterday, and it was 1 degree outside also, I didn't take account of the lower nightime period (I've no desire to sit next to the boiler with a stopwatch at 3am). So the assumption was that it was running 24 minutes in the hour for 24hrs, so perhaps we can assume 2/3rds of that is more realistic.
The fact that I can afford to run my heating 24hrs and despise the thought of wearing jumpers should tell you I'm Southern.... 😀
Let me try Wreckers calculator.... hold on...
Three bed semi here and our stat is in the hallway and set to 15 degrees. I don't bother with the timer as our life's don't run to a schedule. It kicks in and out about three or four times a day for an hour or so whilst its frosty outside. We've old thin double glazing, 9" solid walls with no cavity, and a little loft insulation but the arched ceilings mean that it's impossible to insulate about 25% of the loft. 15 degrees in the hall gives us about 18/19 in the lounge. If my wife's cold, she just pops the gas fire on for a while. Our gas usage averages out to about £35 a month.
What am I doing wrong?
This is similar to me in every respect except my bill is double that.
Let me try Wreckers calculator.... hold on...
Actually forget that, I can't even read that level of maths. 😐
The fact that I can afford to run my heating 24hrs and despise the thought of wearing jumpers should tell you I'm Southern....
I'm a southerner too - just a hardy one?! The person I've lived with who wanted the house the hottest was my mate from Scotland. My wife's not too bad thought she's from China and when we went there one winter they don't do heating mostly. We were sitting there eating dinner in our coats - 6 degrees it was!
dangerousbeans - Member
Three bed semi here and our stat is in the hallway and set to 15 degrees. I don't bother with the timer as our life's don't run to a schedule. It kicks in and out about three or four times a day for an hour or so whilst its frosty outside. We've old thin double glazing, 9" solid walls with no cavity, and a little loft insulation but the arched ceilings mean that it's impossible to insulate about 25% of the loft. 15 degrees in the hall gives us about 18/19 in the lounge. If my wife's cold, she just pops the gas fire on for a while. Our gas usage averages out to about £35 a month.
What am I doing wrong?This is similar to me in every respect except my bill is double that.
Just double it!? We are similar (but use a log burner to boost things)and are paying £200 per month...
I have now turned it down to 5C during the day/night, and to 16 (=18/19 in living room) for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the evening. Will see if that gets the bill down 🙁
mudshark - MemberThe fact that I can afford to run my heating 24hrs and despise the thought of wearing jumpers should tell you I'm Southern....
I'm a southerner too - just a hardy one?! The person I've lived with who wanted the house the hottest was my mate from Scotland. My wife's not too bad thought she's from China and when we went there one winter they don't do heating mostly. We were sitting there eating dinner in our coats - 6 degrees it was!
There's the issue right there Mudshark - my wife has Bajan blood so anything below 28 degrees is cold to her!
Just double it!? We are similar (but use a log burner to boost things)a[b]nd are paying £200 per month[/b]...
Whoah!
Whoah! indeed
Whoah! indeed
The quarterly gas bill (heat/hot water/hob) doesn't quite get to that. Victorian terrace with poor insulation/windows.
Thermo set at anything between 15.5-17.5 between 2.30 and 10pm. Seems to be more efficient to have it on early at a low temp so boiler doesn't have to fire for a long time to warm rooms up for the evening.
Southerner who grew up with no central heating so most other people's houses feel baking hot to me.
I find the idea of having the heating on during the night slightly odd, I could understand it if you didn't own a duvet or liked sleeping with just a sheet.
