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It's that time again when everyone gets to show how hard as nails they are with their heating set to -5 with the windows open.
I have not set mine up yet, still off, but thinking an hour in the morning might not go amiss soon. Although I seem to have got in competition with myself to see how long I can go before it gets fired up. I should add, this is not for masochistic reasons, more financial.
Unlike most of STW, no fire/woodburner to use as well.
Some fun facts:
What is a healthy room temperature?
The basic level of warmth required for a healthy and well-dressed person is 18°C. This standard is recognized by the World Health Organization and is the minimum standard in the latest UK cold weather plan.Here are some basic benchmarks for indoor temperatures:
> 24°C - cardiovascular risk
18-21°C - comfortable temperature
18°C - minimum for comfort
12-16°C - respiratory risk
<12°C - cardiovascular risk
What is a typical thermostat setting?
The average thermostat setting in the UK is 20.1°C Perhaps it’s a simple number to remember, or perhaps it just feels about right, but by far the most popular setting in a recent survey of homes was 20°C. In fact, looking at the distribution of set points below it seems clear we like round numbers, as both 15°C and 25°C seem to slightly buck the quite natural look bell curve. 30°C is also a remarkable outlier.
In the last 40 years, the average room temperature in the UK has risen considerably, largely due to the wide dispersion of central heating and improving insulation standards. Back in 1970, the average internal temperature of a home in the UK in the winter months was 12°C. Decades later this has risen to 18°C.
- https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/average-room-temperature.html
18deg here. Set to come on in the morning and evening. Set to hold 15deg when vacant through the day and 12deg at night.
I like 19C (average age of the combat soldier in Vietnam I've heard)
Other half likes 20C
It's probably set to 20C
20deg between 6.30am - 10.30am and 4.30pm - 10.30pm
18deg through the day and 16deg at night.
Leave it like this all year, if it gets cold the boiler comes on.
Back in 1970, the average internal temperature of a home in the UK in the winter months was 12°C
When I was a kid in the 70s it wasn't uncommon for me to have ice on the inside of my bedroom window.
Bah! Windows? We would dream of having windows.
We were lucky if we had a hole cut into our cardboard box and we were grateful for it.
Gets set to 19C although thanks to the site edition wood burner I've resisted turning it on yet.... Getting close now though.
#funsponge
#funsponge
Slightly ironic.
21C in air heating with 1C drop for night, 18C to 21C in rooms with thermostats (wet underfloor hesting) and fairly conservative temperature slope setting in geotherm / heating center.
The heating is back on the timer already for an hour in the morning and 90mins in the evening, although if it feels warm in the day, ill skip the evening part manually.
Couldn't say what temperature as since having smart meters installed the wireless stat doesn't work and the receiver box under the boiler just has a red light illuminated all the time...
It's autumn.
Heating is still mainly off but if necessary it goes on at 19C.
Couldn't say what temperature as since having smart meters installed the wireless stat doesn't work and the receiver box under the boiler just has a red light illuminated all the time...
What make? Ours (Drayton) has a red light when it loses signal, might need pairing up again.
Impossible to say but about 19-20... ours are weird storage type heaters that sort of work, sort of don't, getting them to give out the temps at the actual time of day you want is next to impossible.
The Rads themselves say 20-21...
Target temp is 18, all year. Every year.
Unfortunately, once the outdoor temp drops below -15 the efficiency of the geothermal goes through the floor, so we end up with 15-16 and the heating going almost all day.
Glad we have a couple of fires in the house, and triple glazing.
Back in 1970, the average internal temperature of a home in the UK in the winter months was 12°C.
Whaat?!?!
I do, as a kid, remember pretty much running from my bedroom to the shower because it was cold in the winter. 12° though! Average!!
have the hall rad on max with the thermostat(nest) at 18. then drop this to 15 during the night / while out.
then limit the heat in each room with a trv. most on 4/5 so unlikly to trip out as thats anywhere between 17 and 25 degc afaik?
I live in a house with two foot thick stone walls and virtually no insulation.
We have to keep the heating on pretty much constantly from October to March. 19 degrees for an hour in the morning and from 4 till 10 at night, 14 degrees the rest of the time to maintain the heat in the massive thermal mass of the walls. If you turn the heating off when it's cold it takes hours to get the house back up to temperature again.
I have two completely seperate central heating systems, one upstairs and one downstairs to feed a shitload of radiators. Having two boilers actually makes the house easier to heat as you can zone the occupied parts of the house and heat them at different times
You would not want to pay my gas bill.
Back in 1970, the average internal temperature of a home in the UK in the winter months was 12°C.
Yep, Can easily believe that.
My parents 1950's council house, for most of my childhood, had no heating other than a gas fire in the living room, no insulation in the walls and single glazed Crittal windows. We used to always wake up in the winter mornings with ice ferns on the windows.
No thermostat for me, cos like weeksy I still have storage heaters which are currently set to 5.75(whatever that may mean).
If I ever join the civilised world of central heating, it'll probably be set to 22.5°C
19C, 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening, TRV's are mostly turned off upstairs. Well insulated 1980's house & gas fired boiler only.
Grew up in large unheated houses with an Aga & open fire as only source of heat so not surprised about 12C average
Whaat?!?!I do, as a kid, remember pretty much running from my bedroom to the shower because it was cold in the winter. 12° though! Average!!
Shower!
We just washed in a bucket of ice!
If we were lucky we had some gravel for soap.
Gravel? Bah we would dream of gravel, we had to use broken glass.
We used to dream of 12°CBack in 1970, the average internal temperature of a home in the UK in the winter months was 12°C.
Quite often woke up with the curtains frozen to the windows
When I was a kid in the 70s it wasn't uncommon for me to have ice on the inside of my bedroom window.
This
19C but radiators only on downstairs and two towel rails upstairs. Mid terrace house so tends to keep warm during the day. If the woodburner goes on during the day as we are at home, the heating doesn't normally kick in on an evening.
My childhood home, was an old Victorian terrace, no heating at all upstairs.
Single glazing. Solid walls, no cavity.
Ice on the bedroom window was routine.
Haven't had the heating on once yet this winter. Probably been off since March. Hoping to make it to at least December before I have to put it on.
The thermostat is set at 16C but whether that's the actual temperature throughout the house is another matter. It's certainly colder than either my sister-in-law or mother-in-law are used to. Then again their houses feel like tropical hot houses to us. Heating comes on at 0600, off at 0730 then on again at 1630 until 2100. If we've been in through the day and had the heating on constant and forgotten to switch it back then we struggle to sleep.
The house I grew up in didn't have central heating until I was in my mid 20s. My bedroom faced north and on cold nights there'd be ice on the inside of the (single glazed) window.
My new build house doesn't drop below about 16.5 degrees with the heating off during the day (according to Hive). Its currently 16.8 and the heating hasn't been on since 10.30 last night. Its about 8 degrees outside.
Just had a new boiler and new radiators throughout the house. Generally set to 19 degrees morning 6:30-8:30 and evening 5:30 - 10pm then 10 or 12(?) in between times.
We have a single heat pump heating up 2 open plan floors of ca.100m2
it's set at 21 C at the moment
also have a wood burner for the evenings
and the other floor with the bedrooms and bathroom is heated by underfloor heatng
this is Norway btw so electricity is fairly cheap and renewable and wood burning is not a fashion accessory.
Quite often woke up with the curtains frozen to the windows
I used to wake up entombed in a block of ice.
morning and evening mine's set to target base temps of 18C lounge, 19C Kitchen and 16C bedrooms, Think all at 14c during night. little landing rad just comes on whenever boiler is on.
The Rayburn only used to go on when the milk looked like this:
[img] https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-827d17c3cd9e777982b2901e03167d11-c [/img]
Nowadays it's a constant battle with the wife... I like 18°, she likes 22°.
The new house will have a Wave thermostat so I might not be able to connect her phone to it 😈
thread reminded me to modify mine. netatmo smart thermostat so I've just done it from my desk at work and turned it down during the day.
10pm-6.30am: 17 deg
6.30-9am: 18.5 deg
9am-3pm: 17.5 deg
3pm-10pm: 18.5 deg
and a different schedule for the weekends.
17 or 18 usually. And from 0630-1000 and 1500-2000. We also have a woodburning stove, I work from home, hence the longish run times on the central heating. If it's cold I usually light the stove about 11/12ish as that's when the residual heat from the morning's heating has gone.
I recently got a nest fitted. Its brilliant at making you aware of how much energy you are using and how much you can save by just reducing the temp by .5 of a degree.
Mine is set at 20 and 15 when out/night.
Looking at my history the heating runs for 2-3 hours a day during the week and 4-5 hours at weekends.
This is madness! Lol
19C to keep SWMBO happy.
This;
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Which yesterday resulted in this;
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Temps are set high at the moment as half the rads are currently removed for redecorating.
'kin' hell! I'd be kipping on a tiled floor with those nighttime temps. Just goes to show we're all different.
'kin' hell! I'd be kipping on a tiled floor with those nighttime temps. Just goes to show we're all different.
I reckon the quoted temps are way higher than the actual temp. I could set an offset in the software to calibrate it but the higher the numbers are the less likely my wife is to manually override it all the time to boost it!
19 with half the house being Edwardian albeit with decent windows and TRV rads and the other half a new extension with great insulation and predominantly UFH.
Mrs P bright as a button but for some reason still really struggles with the concept of target stat temp and why aren't the rads on....
I still don't know what is more efficient to have the heating bumbling along at say 17-18 during the hours we're not here or have it effectively off and then working hard late afternoon to get back up to temp.
A mate mentioned this weekend that his brother is buying a new house in Alaska that has a heated drive...made me a bit sad about the future of the world 🙁
We dont have a set temperature as we both are self employed working from home and it is very rare that at least one of us is not in the house ..constant twiddling ..but off completely at bedtime .
No tech data either on an oil fired central heating system .
18.5 6.00 to 7.30am. 15 till 5.30pm, then back 18.5 till 10pm, 12 over night.
18.5 7.30am till 10pm at weekends.
All year.
If it's cold is cold, regardless of it being July or January so why turn it off, surely that's the point of the thermostat?
Mine never goes off, its on all year round.
It's set to 22C come rain or shine or floods or freeze.. If it's cold I'll bump it to 24, but normally by 8pm I'm turning it down to 18 for overnight sleepy time...
@timmys - it does depend where the thermostat is located. Ultimately if you are comfortable with the environment it doesn't really matter what the numbers are.
@pedlad - heated driveway? Well remember that every year ten times the number of Americans die while shovelling snow from their yard/drive than from terrorism!
Redecorating and rad removal is a fabulous override for OH temperature demand. Although with a 9 week old at home I'm content to just set the heating to 19C constant instead of up and down on the timer as usual. The rad situation has worked to my frugal advantage and wood stove filled in well (hence Ch still off) but I'm monitoring temperature gauges all over the house and have kept the 2 Yo's bedroom (furthest room from stove, North facing, 3 outside walls, noticeably cooler than rest of house) between 18.5 and 16C. This has needed a floor fan to blow air about and spread the stove heat but worked. Fan kept stove location to 2yo bedroom temp difference to about 3C instead of about 4 or more without it.
This is a 1930s semi with solid walls. When I bought it 10 years back it had only 1 inch of old insulation in part of the loft and none elsewhere, plus a Ch system with blocked rads. It must have been freezing in winter!
With oh about to visit parents, with the kids, for a couple of weeks I am contemplating how long it'll be before I give in myself and turn the Ch on. Tbf I've come close the last couple of mornings
Recently refurbed, added extensions and insulated outside of house (well the large single skin NNE facing wall which was like a reverse radiator in the winter) as well as new heating system and mostly new radiators
20° from 06:30 to 08:00, then 18°, although partner works at home in a separately zoned office which is set to 21°
20° from 15:45 to 22:30
Haven't decided on an overnight temperature yet, was set to 14°, just lobbed it up to 16°.
Hmm. About 23c mostly. The missus is soft!
Tbh our rads won’t even come on till the thermostat is at least set to 21c but it certainly isn’t that in the house so not sure if we have an issue somewhere.
The house does hold its heat well though. Always turned off at night.
They come round every January and try to sell us heated drives.
I don't know *anyone* who has said yes. It's far cheaper to buy a snowblower and spend a whole 5 minutes clearing the drive. Or a shovel and 30 minutes.
Even the guy who sets his thermostat at 25 wasn't interested.
And on the subject of "when i were a lad".
I used to use the water in my hot water bottle to melt the water in the toilet most winter mornings in my first student digs. Either that or let the latent heat melt it....... Our digs were horrific.
Showering was done at the local pool (IIRC it was £12 a month for unlimited use of the pool and gym, i reckon i got through twice that just in hot water.)
It depends but usually set at 20° or 21° with an actual temp of about .3-.5° lower (I have a digital thermometer in the living room) the bedroom is unheated and I just leave the door open as I do in the bathroom but that has a timed towel warmer set to use off peak rate in the morning as I'm on economy7
When the GF is at mine it goes up to 23° I sit in a t-shirt and underpants when I go to hers.
My yearly bill is below £500 for heating/water/cooking which isn't bad considering I'm all electric and not freezing.
Impossible to say but about 19-20... ours are weird storage type heaters that sort of work, sort of don't, getting them to give out the temps at the actual time of day you want is next to impossible.
The Rads themselves say 20-21...
You need the dimplex quantum storage heaters, I had the old random pot luck boiling in the morning, freezing in the evening types before and these are so much better, controlled heat when you want it and lower bills.
Ive better things to do than worry about all this too much. 20 at night or out 22 otherwise, permanent all year. Send me the bill.
it would be interesting to know what peoples thermostats are. An old honeywell thats 15 year old might be set at 21 deg but only heats to 17...
@andybrad - as I noted above, ours is set to 16C but the actual temp could be anything. Doesn't really matter so long as it's comfortable for you/your family.
Ours is at least 16 years old as it's not been changed since we moved in.
I'm just about to set up my automation Pi to record room temps so it will be interesting to see what the real temps are.An old honeywell thats 15 year old might be set at 21 deg but only heats to 17...
it would be interesting to know what peoples thermostats are. An old honeywell thats 15 year old might be set at 21 deg but only heats to 17...
Ours is only a couple of years old but nothing fancy. Can’t remember name off top of head.
Tempted by the Tado stuff at the minute.
it would be interesting to know what peoples thermostats are. An old honeywell thats 15 year old might be set at 21 deg but only heats to 17...
Position in the room can make several degrees difference, we can have a 2-3 temp differential between opposite walls in the kitchen.
Ours is in hall with one small radiator with no trv. It’s a fairly big space to heat and by the time the thermostat switches back off every other room in the house is an oven so we end up just controlling everything manually rather than relying on the hall being up to temperature.
Hmm. About 23c mostly. The missus is soft!
More like melted 😀
22c all day and all night but the thermostat is against an inside wall and the house is poorly insulated so room temperature is closer to 20c.
I turn the heat down in my bedroom otherwise I can't sleep.
(house is brick skin, timber frame from 1969 so only insulation option for walls is external, which isn't going to happen).
Our boiler is so old it just has numbers 1-6. think we have the boiler on a 5 and most of the radiators on a 3-4. Don't have a clue what temps that is, does it keep the house warm, no. After nearly 5 years still haven't figured out how to keep the house warm optimally.
Really want a new boiler with an actual thermostat.
Unfortunately ours is on at 18c permanently at the moment. Newborn baby and Mrs Funk always checking the room temp. I’ve also just removed the Aga Rembrandt fireplace we had. New external doors being installed in December. That should help as current ones are homemade affairs done by super DIY enthusiast previous owner. We’ve had to install a curtain behind the front door as you can see around (and through it) in places, same with the back too 😐
Don't have a thermostat and can't be arsed with the timer so we turn it on around 7pm (if not using stove) and then off about 11pm. Or 12 if we forget.
Really need to get some of that stuff that blocks the drafts between floorboards - hoping that will make a difference. When I get around to it...
Our old oil fired boiler is the same - the 1-5 numbers are probably just the water temperature in the rads.Really want a new boiler with an actual thermostat.
AFAIK there's absolutely no reason why you can't add a programmer with wireless thermostat to control the whole thing.
But IANAP.
Currently it is off because the boiler is broken 🙁
Last night my room was 12c and I was cold, wife and babies room have an electric rad at around 17c. Broken boiler and reading comments make me realise how cold our place is.
When it was working, set to 19c for 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours at night. There can be a 5c difference in temp between the thermostat in the lounge and the babies room. I've bought a little thermal tester thing and it would seem the walls of the bays are several degrees colder and probably where I am losing most of the heat. Added to the (long) list of stuff to sort.
Ice on the windows is a nice boast (and I remember it myself) but with single glazing and thick curtains it doesn't actually tell you much about internal room temperature.
Through the winters in Japan the bedroom was regularly down to 4C at night. I wore a thick fleece hoody to bed (on top of full weight winter PJs and woolly socks) and had the electric blanket on all night. House was basically a thin plywood shell with no insulation and huge drafty single-glazed french windows all round.
My grandmother's big stone single-glazed house in Edinburgh with no central heating was cold but not that cold!
5-15am - 8am 18.5 deg
8am - 3pm 15 deg
3pm - 10pm 19 deg
10pm - 5.15am 12 deg
Thats monday - fridays when school/work etc, weekends different depends what we are doing
22 - 23C??? Do you guys have glass in the windows?
We've had our heating on about 3 times so far for an hour or so.
Joys of an Aga - even though it doesn't power the heating as such it does provide a level of background heating so even on the coldest days the temperature hasn't dropped below 19c
When we do power it up then it's set to 22c until the house is warm and then goes off again and it then holds the heat very well.
19.5 on the stat. No idea what that equates to in reality as the old stat was set to 18 and subjectively it feels the same.
I don't have a thermostat. I do have a thermometer though. If the lounge drops below 12C I put the heating on. I turn it off when it gets to around 14/15C.
My thermostat is on 22 although I don’t think it’s correct
Central heating is on constant as Im off sick.
Nest is set to 20 degrees. Been at home the past 2 days and it’s used 7 3/4 hours of heating yesterday.
I assume there are some baby robins dying somewhere because of this? 😥
jonny rocky mountain - Member
5-15am - 8am 18.5 deg
8am - 3pm 15 deg
3pm - 10pm 19 deg
10pm - 5.15am 12 deg
No wonder you sell some much in the classifieds, you must have a need for loads of jumpers and blankets.
it would be interesting to know what peoples thermostats are. An old honeywell thats 15 year old might be set at 21 deg but only heats to 17...
Honeywell Evohome is very accurate, however the thermostats are stationed right by the radiators 😕 despite this it still seems to work well heating the whole room to that temp. you can also bind remote wireless room sensor and place it elsewhere in the room, if you want it.
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my Hive app says it's currently set at 21 and house is at 20.9. Suspect the Boss will turn it up to 22 before I get home from work...
House won't go below 18. If I'm feeling a bit chilling I'll stick it on 'party mode' which just means it'll stay set to where ever I put it till midnight. Usually 20 I set that at.
Whatever MrsT needs.... she has arthritis and a few other medical conditions
Have it come on to 18.5 for a hour before getting up time to make climbing out of bed easier. Set to 14 as a minimum but very rare the house drops below 16 with heating off in day or overnight. On manual from about 4.30 till 10.30 between 19 and 20 depending on whether moving about doing chores or lying watching TV. Stays off if we fire up the wood burning though and living room will be around 23 with that on and the rest of the house 18ish. Bedrooms all have thermostatic rads so lower temps up there.
Just checked with a thermometer. The thermostat is set at 16C, average room temp is 17C downstairs, 18C upstairs