Given the on-going controversy around the cost of energy and the obvious and immediate link to the weather across the UK I thought it would be of interest if posters could indiacte the date on which they have switched on their heating for the winter season.

Here I have thus far resisted though have had a few log fires in the lounge hearth.

Still no heating here. Got close today though. That wind was cold. Might be a struggle after tomorrow evening.

Both log burners on , thermo not touched .................yet

I live in a 1930's semi detached house. They are well built but mine is very airy, this is because we are on a gradient and the rear of the house has a large west facing void underneath it. The heating was used for a couple of days in mid September  and then more generally from Mid October onwards.

The inside temperature falls steadily (even with cavity and loft insulation) to meet the outside ambient temperature given some breeze.

If I switched my heating off now and stayed off I could guarentee that by 7am in the morning the temperature in my house will be between 16-17c..Far too chilly for sitting around in and trying to relax. 

Very similar to mine , we have high ceilings , the lounge has no sun after 10:00 and gets very chilly. The lounge log burner has been on for a coupleof weeks, the dining room one only at weekends ( last 3 ) .

Luckily logs are free

Same here with the wife but I can happily sit in a cool indoor temperatures of around 14-15C when she is away from home so I leave the heating off. Sure the hands and feet get a bit chilly when just sat around but if it saves some money why not? can spend it on more meaningful things it's like a victory over the money grabbing energy firms, I'm not going to die from a bit of cold as we possibly have worse cold to come yet.

It is just as well your logs are free!

Everyone and their dog are installing log burners around here.   The local builder is putting in several each week.  The obvious problem with that is the supply of logs isn't increasing to match (although there may be a short term "blip" upwards after the recent gales).

Ditto for here, so many people are now going over to burners, I work on a Industrial site slap in the middle of several acres of woodland, there are 3 x joiners work shops on site so I get all their off cuts , I also supply the owner of the site with all sorts from our business , I just had 5 cubic metres delivered FOC from him.

quite fortunate really

Have started fettling with the thermostat once in a while in the past week. I have the thermostat set at 17 C and it's yet to kick in on its own so I have to turn it round to 19 C to give it a bit of a heating boost for an hour or two in the morning. If I have all windows and doors shut, it is quite easy to heat up my little box-like terraced house (did have extra loft insulation and cavity wall insulation done about ten years ago).
  Better still if the sun is shining in from the south west of an afternoon, like it did today where it made it feel toasty warm in my hobby room and didn't even have the heating on!

This afternoon once the sun dropped I switched ours on for a few hours, only on 20*c just to take the edge off.

Finally succumbed and the heating went on yesterday for the first time this Autumn. Once the house is warm I can turn the main thermostat right down so it's just ticking over and all fourteen radiators have their own thermostats.

Wood burner on most evenings just to take any chill and damp feeling out.

I want to build a masonary heater usually (I believe) these are for colder climates, can be complex to build and expensive than a wood burner.

You light what they call a charge of wood for around 2hrs at high intensity and when fire has gone out, thats it for 24 hrs the fireplace becomes a heatbank radiating heat out and you have a full tank of hot water plus there's a bread oven above the main firebox (not that that matters I suppose)

I've been fancying one of these for years and they look good too.

Btw here's a gallery link They do look good

Central Heating ( gas ) has been on for 2 weeks, just a few hours in the evening. Coal fire lit twice. Kitchen underfloor heating has been on a week

Have had several grass frosts and our first air frost last night  - so chilly this morning and heating on 

Indoor Temp is 17.4c

2 foot thick sandstone brick house built around 1870.

I had my heating on for an hour last night with soon warmed the place up.

The heating doesn't really come on until it gets really cold for me.

My wife and I are both OAP's. My wife suffers from arthritis and has TWO false hips..I also have Cervical Sponalosis in the neck..Then we live in a bungalow on a hill crest. North, East winds blow across the valland fields. The westerlies are just as bad bringing the rain..  It has been damp so heating has been on and off  since 16th Ocober mainly beacause of the damp .  I checked on the Indoor Temperature Thread...

Blimey, has Brian now branched out into body-part replacement supply?

Oh, and our heating went on for a couple of days in Sept when it turned briefly colder, then for a few is early Oct, and it's been properly on now for a couple of weeks, an hour in the morning & evening.

It's a constant & unspoken battle in our house where I turn the main & the radiator thermostats down, the wife quietly turns them back up.

No heating on yet here

Thought about giving the log burners a blast to see if they are ok but why bother when we haven't even had a frost yet?

The skinflint in me hopes it remains just like that for as long as possible- the sunshine feels lovely today even if there is a keen breeze

We have no other form of heating apart from central heating so thermostat has been set to 19C and is clicking on and off as necessary. Hardly needed it to be honest though, nothing a sweater wouldn't cope with so far.

Regards,

Mark

I live in a 1 bed 1st floor flat, built in 2006, indoor temp has yet to fall below 21c, so no heating used yet, I usually wait until it falls to 19c before using the heating.