Heating !

Onthemoors, your post was fascinating to read. I can't imagine that the authorities would place a baby in a foster home without a good heating system or a bathroom nowadays!
I too grew up in an unheated house. There was a coal-fired Aga but my mother couldn't wait to get rid of it because my father had to bring in coal (or was it anthracite?) and riddle it every day.
Now, my dual fuel bill is £187 pcm in 4-bed fairly modern house, but I expect to come out of winter in credit, which I will reclaim. I could move, but DD and family live hundreds of miles away and have to stay when they visit.

Where I live (in the south of Denmark) the heating is on all day and night, which costs the equivalent of £180 a month and includes hot water from all the taps.

The house is in total about 350 square metres, but 50 of these are unheated as they are a workshop and passage leading to it and used as a storeroom.

I know my heating bills are higher than some of the neighbours, but I save on electricity and water rather than on heating, don't run a car, shop as economically as possible and do my own housework.

I am not sure we really can compare heating bills, as the cost depends on many factors, especially the state of ones health and whether you can stand being cold or not. (I can't stand the cold.)

Also we are fortunate in having district heating and the company is run by some hard-headed business men and women who had driven a very hard bargain with their suppliers just before Russia invaded Ukraine. The bargain stipulated that the price of heat was to remain stable for the coming three years, and as there was no force majeure clause the supplier can do nothing about it!

If the temparature downstairs drops below 20 degrees (I prefer about 22) I begin to feel miserable but I dont like a warm bedroom.

DH puts the heating on at about 7.30 for 3 hours but keeps putting it back throughout the day. It gets too warm for me and I tell him to put on more clothes. Dread to think what it costs, we have oil CH and I note that oil has already gone up in price due to the Yemen situation.
Like pce612 we live in an old cottage and no hope of installing more insulation without ripping the house apart. And it's listed, so have only managed to get double glazing in a few windows at the back of the house. Keep hoping the govt will issue an edict to local planners to stop being so restrictive.

I pay £133 a month to Octopus, dual fuel. Last year at their suggestion I recouped some of my credit. I am still in credit but it's going down. In December I was charged £205. The CH is programmed for 2 hours in the morning and 4-5 hours in the evening but sometimes I advance it. I try to manage on about 17degrees. I'm usually out for some of the morning and aim to have a walk of an hour or so in the afternoons so I come back warm from that. When DH was alive we often ran it all day on about 17degrees. My 1938/39 semi has double glazing, cavity wall insulation but it's draughty and the airbricks in the front room bay window that faces due north with the wind sweeping up the terraced street opposite doesn't help. There are airbricks in the kitchen (freezing in there), pantry and bathroom. It's 57 degrees in here at the moment. The electric convector built into the 'fake' fireplace soon warms the room if necessary.

4 bed detached 15 year old house. Supposedly built to high insulation standards. Goodness know what it would be like if it hadn't been. Hit water on only for an hour in the morning and heating phased for 2 hours morning, 2 afternoon and 4 evening kept at 20°. I have radiators in bedrooms low and ones in bathrooms and living area at middle level. Last bill was £203 but rather think with the outside temp now at 3° regularly the next bill will be higher and of course the increased charges won't help.

My heating goes on at 8am and off at 10pm or earlier if I go to bed early. Only really heating the kitchen to a livable temperature (around 21 degs) as the living room isn't usable at the moment, thermostatic valves on all radiators.
I have oil heating and water, pay £100 a month to the oil company, covers all oil used and boiler servicing for the year. Electricity costs £75/month, taken a £200 refund recently and still currently in healthy credit.
Next week I am having a log burner installed, which I hope will help in warming the whole cottage if I leave the living room door open. I will be buying kiln dried logs, so another £400 a year.
Old stone 2 bed cottage with no hope of insulating the walls and the ceiling coombs, or underfloor unless the existing floors are ripped up. Not going to happen.

When I was very young, my parents became foster parents, looking after tiny babies for roughly 3 months each baby. We had an outside toilet & no bathroom & no central heating. Every night, my Mum would lay up a tray with the baby milk & hot water etc, in a flask. The baby would be swaddled warmly & wore a knitted bonnet which my Mum had made. And yes, ice on the insides of windows. In all, they looked after 50 babies (one at a time) and our old, cold cottage didn't do any harm to any of them.

Mine comes on at 6.30 in the morning and goes on and off till 10.30 at night. Set at 21.
We have a 2bed semi bungalow with a sun room going across the back of the bungalow ( central heated)
£77 per month.
The bungalow is insulated up to the hilt. We put 4” insulation boards on every external wall.

Mine is on from 8.30 - 9.30, then 5.00 - 8.30 in the evening. Max temp 18. Gas and electricity costs me £120 a month - two bedroom terrace.

My heating goes on at 7am and goes off at 10.30pm every day. Thermostat is st at 22 as we both feel the cold. 3 bedroom house. We are £200 a month for electricity and gas with Ovo energy

Our central heating is on 16 hours each day. Turn it down if we go out. Dual bill is £107 per month. Semi 1930's build. We are with SS.

With individual programmable thermostats on all our radiators, we only heat the rooms we use. Generally the downstairs rooms are heated to 21° in the morning and evening, and 18° during the day; our bedroom is at 21° from 6-9 in the morning and 9-11 at night. The other two bedrooms are used for storage and guests and are kept at 15° most of the time. We're pretty disciplined about shutting doors to make sure we don't lose heat up the stairs.

We spent a lot of money insulating this house before we moved in (walls and roof), and it keeps our bills at about £225 pcm in winter. Not ready for a heat pump yet as nowhere to put it ☹️ and would need all our central heating pipework replaced.

The other problem with not putting heating on is cold and condensation breeds mould which is bad for your property, but even worse for your lungs. Of course it’s the case that houses were not well heated when we were children, but remember, on average people died much younger.

I’m in a well insulated 3 bed terrace and am paying £137 for gas/electric combined. That’s for two is us. Now another son has moved back home I’m anticipating a rise but he will be paying the difference.

My thermostat is set at 18c overnight. I put it up to 19.5c during the day. When the house is warm, the heating goes off for several hours at a time, as presumably due to insulation, it holds the heat. I had it on much less last year, but I’m done with being cold. I do sit under a blanket and sometimes, I turn that on (it has a heat element), but I’m no longer willing to be in a cold room. It makes me sluggish, disinterested in doing much and it’s a miserable situation. Since the cost household fuel increased again this month, my bill is now £260. I am especially pissed-off by the standing charge which is just daylight robbery.

A quick tip for those who can't stand washing hands in cold water (final straw for me!). I use a pyrex bowl of water heated in the microwave for 30secs to a minute. I have no idea how much electric it uses, but it works for me!

biglouis I normally find that I dont need any heating on upstairs except in the bathroom as the downstairs radiators warm the whole house.

Our home is similar.

The upstairs bedrooms, bath, storage have no heat source, nor need, as heat rises. Other bedrooms, at the end of the only hall have no heat source either, not needed, as heat flows down the hall from the fireplace.

Our heat is quite old (my grandparents installed near their end of life), has quit, is not repairable. Fine we now know, fires are cosy.

My heating is on permanently as I do feel the cold badly. It is one thing I will not economise on because I am arthritic. I pay via direct debit at £158 a month and I am currently over £1000 in credit. Last year I asked for (and got) a refund of £600 but I am waiting until the end of winter to apply again.

I have a small detached house with "2 bedrooms and a boxroom". One bedroom is my stockroom and the boxroom is my home office so I can offset a % of my heating costs against tax. I normally find that I dont need any heating on upstairs except in the bathroom as the downstairs radiators warm the whole house.

Central heating is on in the mornings for couple of hours now that the weather is colder. And might put it on again late afternoon. Also have electric heater in the living room which is on now and again when I need it.

We have oil, a wood burner and liquid gas for cooking. Central heating is on for 2 hours every morning and then we put it on whenever there is need. In this cold weather we light the wood burner about 10 in the morning. By leaving doors ajar the heat gets into the hall and upstairs. We use about £400 wood a year. We have an air source pump to heat the conservatory. We put it on about 10 minutes before we go in and by then , our fairly large conservatory is warm. Oil costs us about £8-900 a year.

3 bed semi detached 1950's bungalow here with no central heating. [Kiln dried wood only]. Cavity wall insulation and good insulation in the roof space.

I light my wood burner for 5-6 hours in the evenings and it's lovely...and it raises the temperature throughout enough for me not to need heating in the mornings. I'm busy and moving around and out for a while each morning anyway.

When I'm in I heat the room I'm in with an oil-free radiator and it's comfortable heat. Electric bill is £45 per month. Wood is £350ish per year.

I have no need to change the arrangement as I'm fine and been doing this for 13 years without a problem even when it's as cold as it is now. [I'm sitting in the dining/kitchen no heating on at all at the moment, wearing a vest, wool jumper and wool cardigan...cosy].

I doubt it from what I read on GN.

Have people put their winter fuel allowance from the government towards fuel costs?

The heating portion of my bill is £75 for gas, that runs 13 radiators , but I keep them on low and only warm the rooms I'm in. I close the blinds throughout at twilight and all the doors upstairs, this makes a huge difference to the comfort level downstairs.
That and a nice warm curly dog, but he actually costs far too much to run!