Have You Turned Your Heating On Yet ?

[Nights King]

I don't feel the cold much to be honest (always last one to put his coat on!) especially when moving around. If you think I feel the cold god knows what you'd think of my ex colleague!

But sitting for long periods on the computer in the evening at 16c or lower - even with a coat on - results in cold hands & feet. You can't put gloves on and still type see If I'm cooking, doing house work etc then I'll not heat but you can't sit at those temps for too long.

Also if I don't heat the house it fills with condensation from showers/cooking/air which results in mould forming, especially in the bedroom.

The missus has asthma so keeping her in a cold & mould filled house would not be a good plan.

And finally how do you dry your washing in a cold house? If I leave mine when the house is cold it just sits there wet eventually stinking like a damp dog. Have to heat so I can spend half the weekend rotating & spreading it across the various radiators - vary labourious in comparison to the easy days of summer when it can go outside for a couple of hours.

I can understand where your coming from about hands and feet! I often end up putting shoes back on to help. The washing is an interesting problem which we also have, we tend to do the washing early evening and get things that dry fast onto radiators while they are on and then things like jumpers/jeans all go into the airing cubourd because its always warm in there from the boiler because we don't turn the hot water off.

I have asthma also but I find hot and stuffy sets mine off rather than cold and I have no carpets in the hallways or bedroom as its the dust that kills me. I sometimes use a dehumidifier in bedroom also.

[UV-RAY]

I'm still in shorts, though I've now resorted to wearing a long sleeve top. Roll on some cool weather.

[Bottesford]

I can understand where your coming from about hands and feet! I often end up putting shoes back on to help. The washing is an interesting problem which we also have, we tend to do the washing early evening and get things that dry fast onto radiators while they are on and then things like jumpers/jeans all go into the airing cubourd because its always warm in there from the boiler because we don't turn the hot water off.

I have asthma also but I find hot and stuffy sets mine off rather than cold and I have no carpets in the hallways or bedroom as its the dust that kills me. I sometimes use a dehumidifier in bedroom also.

I'm always in thick slippers and even then they can end up ice blocks!

We only heat water for washing up so it isn't often then warm in our spider/dust/junk filled airing cupboard so no room there...

Washing tends to be done over weekends otherwise the rush rush of the week results in it never getting put away - and of course the problem of it not drying in the daytime when the house gets cold. I'd put it in a sunny spot like on days like today but we don't have any sunny spots

[greybing]

Heating has been on since august.Both blow heaters are on full whack;I really should get better heating i really do freeze in winter.

[jethro]

Mine's never turned off, the thermostat is set at 20 and it comes on as and when the temperature drops - so far it's come on a couple of times.

When it comes to drying washing in the house, wouldn't it be better to get a tumble dyer? Less condensation and mould problems, plus all that extra moisture in the air means it takes more energy to warm the house - a dryer atmosphere would heat up quicker and save on heating costs, probably off setting the cost of the dryer.

[Bottesford]

Mine's never turned off, the thermostat is set at 20 and it comes on as and when the temperature drops - so far it's come on a couple of times.

When it comes to drying washing in the house, wouldn't it be better to get a tumble dyer? Less condensation and mould problems, plus all that extra moisture in the air means it takes more energy to warm the house - a dryer atmosphere would heat up quicker and save on heating costs, probably off setting the cost of the dryer.

I do have a tumble dryer but it wrecks clothes with everything becoming all bobbly and tired looking ever so fast so only use it when I have to - if nothing else because it uses a lot of energy.

True the dryer air would heat faster but means new clothes more often! Anyway a bit of moisture prevents the sore throats/dried out contact lenses that result from central heating.

I don't think it was primarily the clothes that caused the mould anyway - the main culprit was showers on cold winter mornings. I used to not heat the bedroom as it isn't nice waking up to an overheated dry room (radiator is very hard to control to prevent becoming super hot) which meant the steamy air from the bathroom drifted in and hit the icy cold walls & skylight forming condensation. The bathroom and especially the bedroom were the mould locations.

I now heat the bedroom a little by trial and error over many days with the tap so it warms it a tiny bit but doesn't get too hot. Since then the mould hasn't come back. Well so far anyway.

At the end of the day you do what you can in winter to keeps things as comfortable as possible but in an old and cold house like mine you really really long for the easy & vastly cheaper life summer brings.

[Jack's Dad]

My heating is still not on yet, but I think it will be on for most of the day, come the end of next week!

[AWD]

I salute anyone who doesn't turn their heating on by next Sunday!

[SteveB]

I was have a chat with my gas engineer the other day while he was around servicing my boiler, I add, he is an independent engineer with no ties to any major gas supplier, just a family run business who I trust implicitly.

He was saying the cheapest way to keep your house warm & your bills down is to keep the house heated between 15-20c. This way the warmth builds and stays in the house rather than letting it drop to 10-12c and keep heating it up.

[Jack's Dad]

I was have a chat with my gas engineer the other day while he was around servicing my boiler, I add, he is an independent engineer with no ties to any major gas supplier, just a family run business who I trust implicitly.

He was saying the cheapest way to keep your house warm & your bills down is to keep the house heated between 15-20c. This way the warmth builds and stays in the house rather than letting it drop to 10-12c and keep heating it up.

Surely, that depends upon the type and age of construction of the home, and the geographical location of that home. If I was to keep the heating on and try to maintain that sort of temperature I am convinced I would increase my gas usage by a huge amount over the year. Such is the variability of our weather in this fair land.

[laserguy]

I salute anyone who doesn't turn their heating on by next Sunday!

Still be October but even I might have succumbed by then. If I'm conspicuous because of my absence this time next week, it'll be because the missus and kid have left me and I'll have matters of higher importance to deal with than noodling around on here.

[SteveB]

Surely, that depends upon the type and age of construction of the home, and the geographical location of that home. If I was to keep the heating on and try to maintain that sort of temperature I am convinced I would increase my gas usage by a huge amount over the year. Such is the variability of our weather in this fair land.

This is only done in the Autumn winter months when the temp can drop a huge amount once the heating is switched off.

[Bottesford]

I was have a chat with my gas engineer the other day while he was around servicing my boiler, I add, he is an independent engineer with no ties to any major gas supplier, just a family run business who I trust implicitly.

He was saying the cheapest way to keep your house warm & your bills down is to keep the house heated between 15-20c. This way the warmth builds and stays in the house rather than letting it drop to 10-12c and keep heating it up.

Yes letting the house fabric cool right down does mean a huge amount of energy is needed to bring it back up.

I now avoid letting the house cool too much partly for this reason and partly since it can take 5-6 hours to get it up to anything decent if it has really dropped.

In a proper cold easterly (the worst wind direction for heat stealing here) it can easily fall to 11c or lower during the working day - not nice to come home to! So now it stays on all day in colder weather but with the thermostat down at 15-16c which can then be turned up on getting home.

[SteveB]

Yes letting the house fabric cool right down does mean a huge amount of energy is needed to bring it back up.

I now avoid letting the house cool too much partly for this reason and partly since it can take 5-6 hours to get it up to anything decent if it has really dropped.

In a proper cold easterly (the worst wind direction for heat stealing here) it can easily fall to 11c or lower during the working day - not nice to come home to! So now it stays on all day in colder weather but with the thermostat down at 15-16c which can then be turned up on getting home.

I think that's the best way to do it.

[Village]

I do have a tumble dryer but it wrecks clothes with everything becoming all bobbly and tired looking ever so fast so only use it when I have to - if nothing else because it uses a lot of energy.

True the dryer air would heat faster but means new clothes more often! Anyway a bit of moisture prevents the sore throats/dried out contact lenses that result from central heating.

I don't think it was primarily the clothes that caused the mould anyway - the main culprit was showers on cold winter mornings. I used to not heat the bedroom as it isn't nice waking up to an overheated dry room (radiator is very hard to control to prevent becoming super hot) which meant the steamy air from the bathroom drifted in and hit the icy cold walls & skylight forming condensation. The bathroom and especially the bedroom were the mould locations.

I now heat the bedroom a little by trial and error over many days with the tap so it warms it a tiny bit but doesn't get too hot. Since then the mould hasn't come back. Well so far anyway.

At the end of the day you do what you can in winter to keeps things as comfortable as possible but in an old and cold house like mine you really really long for the easy & vastly cheaper life summer brings.

Hi Bottesford,

There are too very easy ways to stop the condensation that you complain of.

Firstly, you need an extractor fan in your kitchen and in your bathroom / shower room. The extractor should be vented to the outside whenever you ar cooking, showering or running a bath. These can be timed to switch off aftre say fifteen minutes so that they cant be left running.

Secondly, dont have clothes stored against northerly external walls. If you do then you can line the inside of the wall with foil or thin sheets of polystyrene.

However, the best thing you can do is to purchase a dehumidifier which start at as little as £25. If you run the dehumidifier in the spot where you are having problems it will heat and dry out the room. The fresh water that it extracts as a by-product can be used in your steam iron so you dont have lime scale issues and you can use it as a battery electrode top up for the car.

I have air conditioning throughout my home and so I dont get the problem and its much cheaper to run than boilers and radiators.

I have air sourced heat pumps which are inverters and are super efficient taking heat from outside and pumping it indoors and in the summer they revers to cool the house and pump the heat out.

Next time somebody tries to sell you a new boiler, tell them where to go and get yourself a heat pump. They are so efficient that they qualify for 5% VAT only. I cant even hear mine running its that quiet.

That will also totally eliminate your damp problems in an instant.

Vill

Edited October 22, 2012 by Village

[noggin]

I'll second the suggestion of a dehumidifier.

They are excellent at keeping moisture levels down in the home. Just one decent one, centrally situated, will deal with an average sized 3 bed house very well, as long as you leave your internal doors open.

Also, if it's raining and I can't hang my washing out in the garden, I put it all on clothes horses in a room with the dehumidifier on, shut the door and it does the job a treat! Dry clothes and no condensation. Running costs are just a fraction of those of a tumble drier.

Anyway, I am delighted and thrilled that I now have a nice new central heating system and so, yes, I have turned my heating on (as of last Friday). Added bonus....I've get hot running water too! I'm having a bit of trouble getting to grips with the wireless thermostat thing though.

Edited October 22, 2012 by noggin

[Bottesford]

Hi Bottesford,

There are too very easy ways to stop the condensation that you complain of.

Firstly, you need an extractor fan in your kitchen and in your bathroom / shower room. The extractor should be vented to the outside whenever you ar cooking, showering or running a bath. These can be timed to switch off aftre say fifteen minutes so that they cant be left running.

Secondly, dont have clothes stored against northerly external walls. If you do then you can line the inside of the wall with foil or thin sheets of polystyrene.

However, the best thing you can do is to purchase a dehumidifier which start at as little as £25. If you run the dehumidifier in the spot where you are having problems it will heat and dry out the room. The fresh water that it extracts as a by-product can be used in your steam iron so you dont have lime scale issues and you can use it as a battery electrode top up for the car.

I have air conditioning throughout my home and so I dont get the problem and its much cheaper to run than boilers and radiators.

I have air sourced heat pumps which are inverters and are super efficient taking heat from outside and pumping it indoors and in the summer they revers to cool the house and pump the heat out.

Next time somebody tries to sell you a new boiler, tell them where to go and get yourself a heat pump. They are so efficient that they qualify for 5% VAT only. I cant even hear mine running its that quiet.

That will also totally eliminate your damp problems in an instant.

Vill

Thanks for the ideas - when I own my own home I will indeed be doing many of those things. As it stands I rent a house so I can't change all that much.

We have an extractor for the kitchen but none for the bathroom. I think the shape of the house would prevent it as the pitch of the roof forms the bathroom ceiling (hence having only skylights upstairs). The downstairs toilet has an extractor fan but then its hardly used in the winter as its too cold (and I don't bother to heat it).

My northerly external walls don't really exist as we are built into a hillside with the neighbours garden at a similar level to the upstairs. I have only windows facing south east with my only proper south/west facing window a small skylight in the upstairs hallway. This is partly why our house is so cold and dark (except sunny mornings) as we have no access to from south-west right round to the east. It makes a sunny autumn/winter/early spring day next to useless after about noon.

The dehumidifier is a good one though although I wouldn't want to run it in the bedroom at night as it'd be noisy no doubt.

Failing that we're going to move eventually... absolutely love the area (leafy quiet posh estate 5 min walk from city) and the house is nice and private. But it resides about 2000 miles too far north to be comfortable and struggles to get any natural light. When we moved here in 2008 I thought we had it cracked during hot weather but that's been rare as gnats teeth since 2006. No doubt if I move to a warm house we'll have a 35c heatwave!

[Bottesford]

Surely the heating is on for most people now?!

Certainly is here although at least with northerlies its the one direction we're well sheltered from (unlike easterlies) with the other side of the hill taking the brunt of it. Even still this place fell to 14c overnight having been heated to 21c at midnight and then heated again from 0730. Doesn't take long...

[philglossop]

Yup but only for an hour in the mornings and an hour in the evenings. Luckily we're in the middle of a terrace and clearly the two houses next to ours have the heating on more than we do, and if I touch the wall to the upside I can feel the heat coming through, which is a bonus! The downside wall is also warm- so our heating won't be on as much if this unexpected trend continues!!

[Rainy]

Has anyone posted this?

http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

[Bumpkin]

The heating is on early in the morning and again in the evening. I also lit the wood burner last night. We live in an old farm house basically surrounded by fields, only a barn to the east of our garden, so we are pretty exposed to the elements.

[Aaron]

Surely the heating is on for most people now?!

Certainly is here although at least with northerlies its the one direction we're well sheltered from (unlike easterlies) with the other side of the hill taking the brunt of it. Even still this place fell to 14c overnight having been heated to 21c at midnight and then heated again from 0730. Doesn't take long...

The max was below 7C yesterday, it is freezing in the morning now, so heating definitely going on. Poor pug last night was sleeping under my covers!

[sunny scunny]

My heating went on for the first time last night for a few hours. No need for it to be on today yet though, but maybe again later in the evening.

[Essan]

Surely the heating is on for most people now?!

No

And the washing's on the line, perfectly dry (until I forget to bring it in tonight and it gets wet once more tomorrow :lol: )

[Bottesford]

In contrast the washing is all over the radiators which have been working hard to keep it warm in here. It probably would dry outside actually as the air is very dry but the next load won't be done for an hour by which time it'll be getting dark - not that it makes much difference with zero sunlight in the yard anyway...