When should I put my heating on?

Generally, you should put the heating on when you start to feel cold. This is especially important if anyone in your home is:

• an older person
• someone with a medical condition

We asked our social media community when they usually start to turn on their heating. More than half (58%) people said they leave it as late as they can before they turn the heating on. And a third (33%) said they already had the heating on by mid-September.

You’ll often see it reported that people start heating their home once temperatures regularly drop to 15°C and below. According to the Met Office, this tends to be around October, but the occasional cold snap may have you reaching for that boiler switch sooner.

If you have your heating controls set properly then your boiler won’t fire up unless your home is cold enough to need it. This means you can turn the heating back on when you think it might get too cold. Your boiler will then only start when it needs to.

The main thing to get right is your room thermostat. Generally, you’ll want to set this somewhere between 18°C and 21°C, and this will make sure the heating doesn’t come on until you need it to. It also makes sure you’re not overheating your home over the winter.

In fact, turning your thermostat down from 22 to 21 degrees could save you £90 a year in Great Britain (GB) and £80 in Northern Ireland (NI)

It’s still worth turning the heating off altogether over the summer though. This way, you’re not wasting energy by keeping the boiler running.

Generally, it’s useful to have your heating come on around half an hour before you get up in the morning. Then, have turn it off again around half an hour before you go to bed.

If you’re planning on being out of the house, you can turn the heating off while nobody’s in.

If you have a boiler, then no – keeping your heating on all the time will use more energy and cost you more money.

It’s more energy efficient, and better for your bills, to have your boiler come on when you need it.

 But if you have a heat pump, then you can save money by leaving the heating on all day. Check out our advice on how to improve your heat pump’s efficiency.

Even if you’re holding out as long as possible before switching the heating on, it’s worth making sure your boiler is working properly.

If you’ve switched the boiler off over summer, turn it on for a bit now to make sure there are no problems with your boiler.

And if you haven’t done so already, book your annual boiler service. It’s better do it now rather than booking an emergency callout for a boiler breakdown. The closer it gets to winter, the more likely it is that you’ll have to wait longer for an available engineer.

To maximise your central heating efficiency, you can also:

• Lower your boiler’s flow temperature.
• Clear the area around your radiators so they heat the room better.
• Check your radiators and bleed them, if needed.
• Install radiator reflector panels, particularly if you don’t have wall insulation.

Before the cold weather really hits, now’s a good time to see how you can upgrade your central heating. These upgrades can make your home feel cosier and can reduce your heating bills:

Installing thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) lets you control how much hot water flows through your radiators. This is a great way of making sure that you’re only heating the rooms you use.

Lower the TRV setting in rooms that don’t need to be kept as warm as the rest of the house, like the hallway. For rooms like your living room or a child’s bedroom, you can increase the TRV setting to a comfortable temperature.

For more information, see our advice on using TRVs.

Smart heating controls are designed to learn your habits and adjust your central heating to keep you comfortable.

You can often set your own temperature schedules and control your heating remotely using a phone app. This lets you keep your heating off while you’re out and set it to come on when you’re on the way home.

Some smart thermostats also have features that improve your boiler’s efficiency by changing the boiler flow temperature depending on the indoor/outdoor temperature.

For more information, read our blog on smart energy devices in the home.

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