Thought it would be of some interest to track the inception of members' switching on of their central heating systems as we speed towards the winter portion of the year.  A date will suffice but often some comment is also of interest.

Personally I aim to try and hold out until November but depends on that weather stuff!

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Two years ago I got through the whole winter without putting it on at all....
Last year it was on about half a dozen times at most. Fire was lit a couple of times but very little use of central heating.
I don't generally feel the cold but even so we have saved a lot in heating bills the last two winters.

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Had our heating on for an hour earlier. The shorter days, wind and rain have quite a marked impact on inside temperatures.

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I am staggered.  You must live in a very well insulated house.  Amazing!

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Yep it is extremely well insulated to be honest and a lot of the heat I get is from our fireplace and the heat tended to distribute around the house so rarely need to use central heating.

2013-14 was exceptional though and we did not use the heating at all.

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I live in a cold house. Solid walls no cavity - built over 200 years ago. I put my heating on last week on September 29th.

I'm envious of those with modern places and excellent insulation.

 

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Mrs Combs has it on all year round if I'm not there to police it...

Mine's been on for a week or two but with the thermostat set low, so it hasn't actually kicked in much, not even on the couple of frosty mornings we've had. 

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We had it on for an hour early in the morning for a few days during that cooler and unsettled spell back in September. My house is your typical 3 bedroom 1930's semi detached. Built to last but not the best for insulation. 

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Started putting it on for short blasts in the last few days. Before that the fire has been on in the living room for on cold evenings since the middle of September.

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Exactly the same as that , the log burner dominates which is nice

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We've had ours on since late August, when it really was nippy here.

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I think the last time I switched mine on before Christmas was 2010 .....   Which was also the last time I had my bedroom window shut!

But it rarely gets cold down here.

 

 

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Had a brand new combi boiler installed a couple of months ago and apart from the initial "testing one two three" thing, I've not used it for heating just yet. However, lately my elderly mother has been flitting with the living room's electric wall heater which is quite effective in heating up that room in particular while I've been relying on any solar input to warm up my west-facing hobby room.

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What is this "central heating" of which you speak? A few notes about life in an end-of-terrace about 200 or 300 years old.

Along with a couple of rarely-used storage heaters upstairs, I have a cast-iron wood burner as usually the sole heat source, and when that gets lit it stays lit until the spring. Lighting these things on odd evenings and then letting them go out is a waste of fuel. The proper cast-iron ones have a high thermal mass, and take an age to get hot, but when they do, then just a glowing layer of charcoal fuelled by the tiniest amount of oxygen can keep them emitting heat for hours, as long as you don't let the embers completely die. But if you do let them go out, then you have to start shovelling in the wood to start the process all over again.

Similarly the walls here are solid and the best part of a couple of feet thick, so the same principle of high thermal mass applies: in the summer the walls retain so much heat that you put on clothes when you enter the house and take them off to leave. In the autumn the walls gradually disperse daytime heat during the evenings, until the tipping point eventually arrives, and the wood burner gets lit. Last year the magic date didn't arrive until November, following that extraordinary 2014 Halloween.

The key point about the walls is to keep them dry, since dampness conducts heat away (it's the same effect as wearing damp clothes). So every room has one window ajar all year round, draughts are encouraged and the walls are limed rather than cemented or gypsumed. I hate insulation in general. When I bought the place, the attic was lined with layers of sheep wool that were soaking wet with condensation dripping from the cold roof. A couple of filthy days removing that ensured that the attic never now gets cold enough to allow condensation to form and the bedrooms underneath feel drier and warmer. As a bonus the bedrooms are cool and comfortable in summer, while the attic is like an oven, as it should be, drying out any winter dampness. And the rafters are no longer covered in mould.

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I usually have it on for a couple of days in September to make sure everything is working nicely before the real cold kicks in.

Not so this year. Still waiting for the house to cool down enough otherwise the kids complain it's too warm to go to sleep. Although, have had the gas fire on a couple of evenings in the cool September spell, with a glass of wine of course.

We live in a 60's semi and had free cavity wall insulation 3 years ago and it's so much warmer in the cooler months. Well worth getting it done.

I can't see it going on for at least a couple of weeks yet. Although, I will enjoy the posts of those that sit at their open back door, supping their tea in their shorts in January whilst enjoy the views 🙂

Off and on-able since September.   Now set to come on each morning if below 20c. Indoors.

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Not yet, except for a brief spell to test it after (horrendously expensive) boiler repair. At least that's my excuse.

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The living area of our house faces north and gets cold quite quickly. To be honest the summer in NI, being the coldest in 22 years we never really had it off. We needed if for an hour most evenings late July/August. September was better with more in the way of sunshine helping to warm things up a bit. So to answer the question we put our central heating on in late September 2014 and its never really been properly off.

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Had it on three mornings last week for an hour before we got up - temps were down to 4/5c.

At the weekend, I quietly switched it back off.

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Not had ours on yet and hopefully won't need to for a while longer, I simply just tell everyone to go and put on a jumper/cardigan for now 

 

Not the greatest look in the world but wearing a onesie in the house works till someone knocks on the door and you have to answer it 

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Had the log burner going a few times since last week of September. We don't have central heating as such, but I turned up the underfloor heating around the equinox just to take the chill off.

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Way too early yet for here. Usual switch it on now and again around mid-November. Indoor temp still hovering between a warm 16-18c despite min temps outside frequently reaching between 1-3c over the last couple of weeks.

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The main source of heating here is the wood burner situated in the living room - that has been lit quite often for a few hours in the evenings since September 3rd - the missus likes the warmth and the sight of a real fire! We always leave the living room door open for the heat to spread around the house and, in mild winters, this is usually sufficient to not need the gas central heating on at all - tho' just every now and again we may use the central heating to keep any damp at bay in the bedrooms if the weather is very damp or quite cool. In harder winters we'll have the central heating on for short periods of time to add to the warmth from the wood burner - we've not had to do that very often in the 3 years we've had the wood burner installed.  

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Still 20 C in my top floor flat so no heating required yet!

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