How warm do you keep your home?

During the last 3 winters we kept our home at a constant 19C.

Now with rising heating costs, we changed to:

  • 18C at night
  • 19C for a couple of hours when we get up;
  • 18.5 for the remainder.

Also turn off a couple of downstairs radiators at night.

I’m curious what others do.

We have set ours to 17 degrees for an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the evening and then 10 degrees for the rest of the time - we top up the temp in lounge with a log burner.

It is too expensive to get it warmer.

We don’t have central heating :smiley: We have an electric radiator that goes on in the bathroom in the morning and gets to 19.5 degrees (perhaps). Other than that, we light the woodburner in the evenings and stay relatively active during the day. When it goes below zero outside we rethink :thinking:

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Currently something like (need to check) :

21°C from 5:30am to 8am (also producing hot water)
18°C from 8am to 4:30pm
21°C from 4:30pm to 8pm (also producing hot water).
18°C from 8pm to 5:30 am

18° and 19° of artificial heat would seem uncomfortably hot to me, especially at night. 21° would feel quite suffocating. Do you go around in T shirts?
17° is the hottest I want during the day, and considerably lower at night.
I think it all depends on what you are used to. I find many people’s houses too hot whereas they evidently like it that way. Then when those people visit us I feel obliged to turn the heating up higher than I would like, for their benefit.

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I’m pretty much in a T-shirt all year long, and rarely put a jumper on inside.
The main reason it is set to 21°C when waking up and early evening is mainly for OH’s comfort, as she tends to feel the cold more than I do, especially when we aren’t moving around much, e.g. sitting on sofa, etc.

Gas CH (condensing boiler) set to 19°C from 08:00 to 22:00 just to keep the chill out.

Kitchen stays warm during the day and we fire up the living room log burner of an evening.

Due to the position of the CH thermostat, it soon turns the CH off when the log burner gets going which suits us just fine.

Lounge currently running at 16/18c … but no CH or logs yet.

Oil boiler on (Water setting not CH) for just 2 hours = hot water and bathroom rad gently warm as the hot water seeps through.
Showers/washing up… anything needing hot water is done during that spell…

Then windows open on the sunny side, capture the warmth of the sun and warming the whole house just that little bit. up to 21/22c some days.

Wearing lots of layers if there’s not enough sun…

Looking to light the first log fire later today… which will waft warmth up the stairs… oh such extravagance… (but certainly not hot…)

In the meantime, we’ve been wearing layers of clothing indoors…
and making the most of the sunshine (25c) outside… stripping off the layers as necessary, so lovely to feel the autumn sunshine, keeps us cheerful…

and definitely enjoying hotwater bottles at bedtime… mmm.

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We only have 2 log burners, no CH at all. We have been lighting the fire at night in the kitchen / living for a week or 2 now. Generally if it goes below 18 in the kitchen then we light it, probably considerably colder than that in other areas. Bedrooms are not heated but the warmth does go up. When it is freezing we can have both log burners going and the house gets toasty warm. When it isn’t too cold it is a case of just the small one in the living room on, the big one gets used when it is a bit colder as it heats the whole house and then 2 for freezing weather, not that often tbh!

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Something that I keep forgetting to do!

Try the Wim Hoff routine and maybe you wouldn’t need heating hahaha.
With the insulation our upstairs stays around 19c and up to 21 when the log burner is on. That heats upstairs as well and downstairs is about 20-21 but thats usually only in the evening but not there full time so I suppose I dont count.

Does anyone use a ‘Nest’ to control their gas heating?

This morning was the first time so far this year that the 19° CH has come on in the morning.

Another consequence of the CH thermostat being in the adjacent room (open plan-ish - no door) to the living room. The log burner heats the living room (50cm stone walls and reasonable double glazing/under floor insulation) and the heat is held in over night.

As our bedroom is on the same level, it doesn’t feel cold at night despite TLHB’s insistence of having a window ajar at night…

Not specifically Nest but another brand of smart thermostat yes in the UK as we havent a boiler in france. Set up a few for friends as well very useful for saving energy

Forgive my curiosity but cross referencing to the thread on Mint energie, how do you manage to use so much electricity if you use no electricity for heating?

I have 2 kids at home, we all have computers, hubby and I have them on pretty much all day. Part of our kitchen is underground so lights are on all day (all low use LED obviously), hot water heating is electric, dishwasher, large fridge plus big chest freezer (hungry boys and I like to only shop once a week), plus electric oven. I thought it wasn’t bad when I have looked at ‘normal’ consumption for a household our size. Would be different I’m sure if we both worked out of the house rather than from home.

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We live in the mountains, so it gets cold……so we tend to have to have the underfloor heat on at 19 degrees from November to March. Outside that we try to make do with log stove. And an electric blanket as upstairs radiators are at 14degrees…

Defaults chez nous 18° during the day 13° overnight.

Air to airs set to 22C in the daytime but off at night.

I don’t have central heating here either just electric radiators that I’ve never used…

House is all electric and my first year EDF set me up at €90 a month almost half of which was refunded and then my DD was €37 a month….I was still really wary of using too much electric and my DD shooting back up again so bought two paraffin heaters and now I also have 3 mobile butane gas heaters which I feel are the most economical and run for around 115 hours on the lowest setting…3 of them on one bar turned on as soon as I get up takes the chill off….

If it gets below zero I have them all on 2 bars for a couple of hours on and a couple of hours off….

I always have 3 bottles of butane gas connected and 3 spare in the barn and as soon as I have an empty one (or two) I reorder for delivery (€36 per bottle at the minute) which means I usually end up with next winter’s supply of butane bottles already prepaid :grinning:

I don’t really know what the temperature is inside my house in winter unless I turn on the fan assisted paraffin heaters which usually display around 8 degrees and whether my hands are either blue red or white at the fingertips :grinning:

I add layers of clothes as necessary and out with the Collies I no doubt look like the Michelin man…

My electric bill is currently just under €31 a month and EDF tell me I’m using around €1 electric per day….

(Wish I could find a way of keeping my hands warm outside in winter when handling wet leads and metal clips and when the wind bites…I’ve got all sorts of gloves and wrist warmers but none that seem practical for reynauds and collies that just don’t feel the cold :grinning:)