What's is yours set at?

I have lived in my sheltered flat for just over 6 years and in all that time I have never put any heating on, we have naff storage heaters anyway which I find useless. I am on the 1st floor so have other flats all around me, in the past few days I have felt a little chilly so have taken to wearing a big cardi. saves on electric bills too

I switch my heating on about 7am when I wake and will wait an hour before I crawl out of bed. The heating is set at 18.5 but I usually turn it off at 10.30 and as I work at home I tend to put on thick jumpers and a huge blanket snuggly top that comes down to my knees, which my Son bought me for Xmas. It is so warm although I look huge! The heating goes back on at 4.30 ish and set at 20 degrees. This then goes off at 9.30. If it is really cold we do have an open fire but I then get too hot. OH loves the heat and would have it on high all day.

Notspaghetti the advice was given by our local council healthwatch and endorsed by the NHS. As I said it was a few years ago and I don't think it differs too much from the advice you have quoted. The majority of people in the room were well over 65 and most have ongoing medical conditions. Both advise that over 18° degrees may be beneficial in these cases, although mine is a bit stronger than advice. However, at night your quoted advice is that 18° may be beneficial to the over 65s or those with pre existing conditions. So as its only "may" I guess you don't need to swelter. I guess I was just a bit irritated by risks people were taking by being in a too cold home.

We turn it up a degree or two and leave on all day.As a child l lived in a house where my parents had it on 2 hours of an evening the house was constantly freezing.l vowed never to live in a house like that.

Bedroom radiators have the thermostat turned to one, bathrooms and other rooms set at medium with the room thermostat control set at 20°.

My overall thermostat is set at 22° in the rather cold and draughty hall. However I have rather cunning radio controlled individual valve and remote programmable thermostat sets on my room radiators, so different parts of the house get heated to different temperatures different times of the day. The thermostats have an override feature so they're normally for an operating temperature at the low end of what I want and then I click them up a degree or two if I feel chilly. Works well for me!

I think it spends on your house. We have our thermostat set higher than most people on here but the house is still cold. It never actually reaches that temperature but if it went off when the hall reached 19 we would all get frostbite in the lounge. And yes, new extended the room and it needs another radiator but we didn’t think of it at the time.

I have storage heaters so no stable room temperature, if I open the vents up too early in the day Ive hardly any heat at all by the evening. So I open them up a little about 10am then open them up fully around 3pm, I top the heat up with a fan heater when needed. I had the one in the bedroom removed as when its on it was like being in a toaster over night, so I bought a convecter heater to have on when needed. Im all electric and in council sheltered housing so cant change the heating and theres no gas supply.

If mine was on 18* at night I wouldn’t sleep can’t abide a stuffy room.

Mine is set to come on at 7am and go off at 9am and then again at 5pm until 8pm. Temperature is set at 20C.
But I am having to put it on during the day as well these days as it's cold and, as I'm disabled, I don't do much activity during the day so I feel the cold.

That's interesting Gymstergran - I've just tried to find out the source of this info and can't so would you mind having a look please?

All the studies I can find ard also a few years old. I did find a research review though (a study of 20 papers) where the conclusion is:

Heating homes to at least 18°C (65F) in winter poses minimal risk to the health of a sedentary person, wearing suitable clothing.

Daytime recommendations
The 18°C (65F) threshold is particularly important for people over 65yrs or with pre-existing medical conditions. Having temperatures slightly above this threshold may be beneficial for health.
The 18°C (65F) threshold also applies to healthy people (1 – 64)*. If they are wearing appropriate clothing and are active, they may wish to heat their homes to slightly less than 18°C (65F)
Overnight recommendations
Maintaining the 18°C (65F) threshold overnight may be beneficial to protect the health of those over 65yrs or with pre-existing medical conditions. They should continue to use sufficient bedding, clothing and thermal blankets or heating aids as appropriate.

I have to admit 18° would be too warm for me in the winter overnight. I'd rather have decent bedding and a cooler room. I'd like to see the evidence before I have to sweat it out overnight!

18. I put extra clothes on, if I'm feeling cold.

Usually at fifteen or sixteen. This house is very well insulated. Having said that, it didn’t come on at all this morning. Cue panic. Had to turn it off at the mains switch and turn it back on again for it to fire.

I'm guessing, from reading all the previous posts, that my point of view is opposite to most. A few years ago I was present at a session designed for older people to keep well. I was given a card with a thermometer on entitled keep warm keep well. The recommendation is that homes should have central heating on at 21° day and night. This is to help in preventing strokes and heart attacks caused by getting too cold. 18° is below ideal and 16° is too cold and could be a danger to your health. With the extra pressure on the NHS currently I feel we have a higher responsibility to keep ourselves as well as possible. After all most of us will have benefited from the winter fuel allowance to help with costs.

usually dont have it on during the day except when my OH is home then its as high as it goes.I dont feel the cold but it wa minus 7 here this morning and the cats weren't happy so it went on around half six for them.Iturned it to 22 ,OH turned it right up when he passed it 20 minutes later and its been that all day.It is very cold tonight ,I've heard Loch Lomond is freezing and that doesn't happen often

WOODMOUSE49 we have also been 14° in the mornings. Brrr.
Pleased to have central heating now to be honest but glad the radiators have thermostats as don't like being too hot.

Ours comes on in the morning if the temperature is below 16° then I turn it up to 18 when up and about.
In the evening I turn it up again as our sitting room is cold without a fire.

We sleep with windows open and the heating off.

Set at 18, though I have radiators with thermostats. On 6.30am off at 8am then on at 4.30pm till 10pm. If I’ve been for a walk in the afternoon and it’s really cold, I’ll override it so it comes on earlier. Can’t cope with it on overnight, even though it’s a pain if I can’t sleep and get up to make a drink.

When I lived in the tropics the air conditioning was set to 21C.
Here in Scotland it is set to 21C.
It actually costs more to keep cool than it does to keep warm.

This house is old and draughty. There are thermal curtains everywhere - even one across the living room door - to compensate.

The rooms that I don't use (most of them) have the radiators turned down, but full heat is on in the living room and loo. The shower room has a heated floor - pure luxury, yet an essential for my next place.

There's an open fire, but I really do long for a log burner. It's just a different kind of heat (radiant, rather than convection) and cheering on a chilly day.

Our house faces east and is quite cold. I have the thermostat set at 18° during the day. I turn it down to about 13° at night, we don't like warm bedrooms and cannot turn the radiators down.
We have a log burner in the living room when we need extra heat.

18.5c; 6.00 - 9.30am; 4.00 - 10.30pm. In cold weather like the present will put it back on when the temperature inside falls below 17c.

DH is just out of hospital and still very weak so currently it is on all day at 20.0c

Same here, I loved those patterns - but not the freezing bedroom lino! Still, now I find most houses too warm and stuffy.

I grew up with one coal fire to heat a whole house and shivered in bed with ice forming on the inside of windows throughout the winter.

Same here annsixty and weren't there pretty icy fern patterns on windows!

On at 5:30am and off at 11pm set at 20 degrees.
When it was very cold last week we had it on 24/7 but turned it down to 16 degrees overnight.
My own bedroom is regulated to be cooler by the thermostat but all others are set to maximum.
I grew up with one coal fire to heat a whole house and shivered in bed with ice forming on the inside of windows throughout the winter.
I so appreciate the fact that I don’t have to now.