Central heating - when do you turn it on?

[Anne A]

We did without the heating till mid November last year, We change the timer each day when the heating goes on, so if we are going to have a lie in, its kept off, unless our lad has to get up for work, it goes on for a few hours each evening whilst we are wandering about, but is turned off once we settle into the living room as we have a log fire there, its a tall victorian house, with high ceilings and big hallways, its that time of year to put the thick curtains up, bring out the draft excluders and check for stray drafts, It should be warmer this year as we have finally carpeted the hall?

[Millymollymandy]

I have a new condensing boiler since yesterday and my radiators are actually working - as we never use them the last time we put them on just because we thought we ought to from time to time, they didn't work! Mind you I saw the colour of the water that came out of our system (after draining and refilling!) and it's all got to be cleaned out properly, not just drained. Some machine gets attached for 3 weeks or something to suck out the mud - part of the system is underfloor.

I can't take below 20C when I'm sitting still and even then I'm covered in blankets and the cat. It's different when I'm moving around and in the bedroom I don't care how cold it is any more as I've got my new(ish) electric blanket - my most prized possession!

What I don't like about underfloor is having the same temp everywhere - that means some rooms are too hot and some are too cold. I like cool everywhere (tho' that would be some people's hot ) and a nice hot living room with my log burner. Plus I can dry clothes and wet tea towels in front of the fire whereas what do you do with underfloor, put them on the floor to dry?

[Milims]

Oooh congrats on the new boiler MMM!

We've managed without the heating until yesterday, which is quite good as OH's condition means that his own thremostat doesn't work properly! However the weather has turned really wintry here so I've popped it on low. Up 'til now the sunshine has heated up the conservatory so the heat has travelled thru the house during the day and I've snuggled with blankets in the evening - but I added a hot water bottle last night

[Graye]

We don't have any here in France unless you could count the electric radiators in every room which have thermostats? What defines central heating? Controlled from one point? They do have an over-ride switch in the garage so I suppose it is a form of central heating. Anyway, we don't use them much as they click all the time. Pity really because French electricity is cheap, especially at night. We have a woodburning inset in the living room which has some weird and wonderful ducting system from a box concealed in the chimney breast which supposedly sends hot air into pipes in the loft (we're single storey) and through the rest of the house too. I can't see how that works either unless we install a pump, surely hot air will just stay near the ceiling? Anyway, it appears not to do much!

Hence, as soon as the weather starts getting cold here and we've had a week or so of enjoying burning logs we pack up and go back to cold and windy Whitby for the winter. Seems strange but we have a gas fire in the living room which keep the whole of the rest of the house toasty (still using summer weight duvets in mid winter), really good double glazing, lots of loft insulation (in fact we don't have access to the loft as it's packed tight) AND we are in a fisherman's cottage which is built directly on top of another one so we get their heat too. No other forms of heating at all.

Everyone thinks we are a bit odd going back to North Yorkshire for the winter but bearing in mind the rooms there are tiny and we have carpets compared to this place which is enormous with very high ceilings and tiled floors it really is the best thing to do. And Whitby is lovely in winter - no tourists!

[thesunflowergal]

I forgot to say that we have added cavity wall and more loft insulation this year, so hope we will feel the benefit of that.

[Annpan]

Oh goodness MMM 20ºC Much as I'd love to have a nice cosy house like that, it seems excessive. But great that you have a new boiler, I'm sure you'll notice it heating u much faster now...
Our kitchen rarely gets above 10ºC in the winter and that is with the use of the oven and portable heaters the living room gets to a nice cosy 18ºC with the woodburner on and Christmas week we stoke it right up to 21ºC so we can sit about doing nothing

Our house is a 2 jumpers and long-johns kind of a house.

Still waiting for news on when building work can start....

[Millymollymandy]

20C in the living room isn't cosy for me, it's the lowest I can bare! Bad circulation or something, I've always suffered from freezing cold hands and feet and legs since I was tiny. Probably cos I was born in a hot country! Everyone is different as to what they find a comfortable temperature and as I said before, it's different when you sit down for hours and don't rush around - even my husband, who always has warm hands even outside on a freezing day, get numb hands sitting at his computer in our office. Our wood burner heats the living room to a nice cosy 23C ish in winter but we wouldn't want that kind of heat in any other room where we are 'doing' stuff. I wear umpteen jumpers and long johns too!

However what I can't take is the ch at my inlaws cos she cranks it up to about 30c and it's so stuffy that I can't breathe. We don't get the dryness with our wood burner.

Oh and I get a humungous tax rebate of 40 or 50% of the boiler cost because condensing ones are eco friendly or summat.

[Millymollymandy]

I may have a new boiler but what I don't have is a properly insulated house! So don't be jealous because it isn't going to be any warmer with this boiler than the last one was - just a lot cheaper to run I hope!

The old boiler had been installed and connected by someone with the same plumbing and electricity knowledge of ...... ME i.e. everything was connected incorrectly, the boiler was only half the Kw it needed to be for a house this size (let alone having practically zero insulation) and fired up constantly to 70C when it only need to be pumping 20-30C into the underfloor heating for the ground floor, and didn't have the two different systems that it needs when running both rads and underfloor heating (as they work so differently).....After having filled the propane tank 3 times in 4 months the first winter at a cost of over €1,000 a time we bought the wood burner out of desperation and that will remain our principal form of heating. It's a 13kW one and very effective (and we got a rebate of 50% on that too from the nice govt ).

We only got the new boiler installed now cos every year the govt says they are going to stop the rebates for eco renovation stuff so we wanted to be on the safe side - it's something we've been umming and ahhing about for several years.

Hope your renovations go well Susie but at least you and Annpan can insulate. The only way we could would be to unrenovate an entire renovated house (which has modern internal walls built in front of the old stone ones with insufficient insulation in the air gaps) - rip it all back to bare stone walls and start all over again. You just can't do that when tiled floors have been laid and bathrooms installed, staircase, kitchen etc etc - not to mention the cost!:banghead:

P.S. Susie I bought myself a heated mouse last year and it's a godsend. You can also from the same company buy heated slippers that plug into your computer as well.

[mrsflibble]

We've got a condensing boiler, but it's fitted in such a wierd place that it's really no more economical on water than a normal one. cheaper on gas though ;)

I can't get too cold, if I do get too cold I can't warm up again and tend to fall asleep. ok if James is here, not ok if I'm on my own with sophie. it's linked to the thyroid problem.

right now I am sat here with a freezing cold nose, cold fingers and toes but a nice warm body due to a new knitted wide scarf/shawl thing (♥ my mummy!!! she didn't knit it, she found it in a charity shop but it's pure wool handknitted and lovely).

going to make a cuppa soon to warm my fingers!

our heating is on a timer, but if it gets too cold I override the timer.

[Thomzo]

I had my cavity walls insulated a couple of years ago and it's made a huge difference. It only cost me about 100 quid and I reckon it's saved that already. My house was really drafty as there were loads of holes in the walls (old house that's been knocked about a bit) and the insulation really helps.

I've got a thermostat which is also a timer. I set it to come up to about 18 in the evenings and when I'm getting dressed in the morning. Apart from that it sits at 10 to keep the chill off. It's really quite smart. The heating's been on a couple of times so far in the morning but not in the evening. As the thermostat's in the living room, I can easily knock it off by lighting the log burner.

Oh, and yes, I also have thermostats on all the rads.

Cheers
Zoe