I tend to turn on the heat only in rooms I use and only when I am home,
except for some minimum amount in the area with the washer and sinks when
I'm scared about the pipes freezing. I don't go by temperature as such,
but I think I like things a lot cooler than most people (going by the way
public places are heated) and would consider 20 C (68 F) a daytime
maximum, and too warm for nights when I'm snug under the blankets. So
when I *do* turn on a thermostat, it's 20C in the day, and back to 0C at
night. I wear sweaters or sweatshirts if needed, and the cats have their
own genuine fur coats. They've always slept near or on me, but they hate
being covered up by blankets for warmth, so I don't think they mind the
temperatures. In fact, Betsy has taken to protesting if I dare to try to
share *my* bed; she'd clearly prefer to sleep alone, stretched out across
it, rather than share my warmth and her space.

I wouldn't be surprised if your weight loss was related to you feeling
colder, but I've always heard that you don't catch cold because it is
cold. It's because in cold weather you tend to spend more time in enclosed
spaces with other people, many of whom have colds that you can then catch.
The one thing I have done which reduced the number of colds I catch it to
change my job from a high-stress one involving dealing with scores or even  
hundreds of people a day to a low-stress one dealing with a much smaller
number of people every day.

When I get cold inside the house. The cats wished I turned it on sooner
though...

  Last week, when night temps fell into the mid-40's.  Keeping it at
68, probably till next May.

   Jeanne

Myself, I don't have central heating as such, but I light my fires when I
feel cold.  I don't think it's necessary to wait for a certain temperature -
and why would you?  If you feel cold, put your central heating on.  That's
my advice, anyway ;-)   Don't be cold.  It definitely can compromise your
immune system and you'll get colds and chest infections.
So put your heating on tonight, please.  Promise?  To h*ll with the expense.

Tweed

We let it get down to 65 inside at night and keep it at 72 during the day.
The cats have a higher body temperature and would prefer it warmer.  In fact
sleeping close to the dog starts to look like a good option to them.

My health isn't good and I just don't find it worthwhile to be too
uncomfortable.  When the central heat is on a lot I do have to make sure the
humidity doesn't go too low.  But that isn't a problem most places.

Jo

Well, I don't have central heating, I have space heaters in each room,
which has both advantages and drawbacks. The advantage is that I only need
to heat the room I'm in, rather than spending the money to heat the entire
apartment. At night, I close the bedroom door most of the way, putting a
doorstop under the door to keep it open just wide enough to allow feline
ingress and egress. The downside is that the heaters have no thermostat,
so they just keep on pumping out hot air no matter how hot the room gets.
So if it's cold at night, but warm in the morning, the room can get very
hot. On the other hand, with the bedroom being the only warm place in the
house, I'm guaranteed to have 3 fluffy bodies sharing the bed with me.

I don't know why you lost weight - I hope it wasn't because you've been
ill. (Though if it is from illness, that might explain why you're catching
a lot of colds.) My own experience with weight loss - usually voluntary -
is that I would catch a *lot* of colds while dieting. I think the sudden
deprivation is a shock to the body, and can compromise your immune system
a bit.

Joyce

I never turn my heat off. When it gets warm in the spring it just doesn't
run any more. I know the past few weeks the heat has come on overnight as
the radiators are warm in the morning. You need to think about your comfort.
If you are cold in your home it is time to turn the heat on.
Ann

Is there a set "rule"?  I'd say if you're cold, it's time
for the heat!  Most central heating is regulated by a
thermostat, so it won't come on when it's warmer than you've
set it for.  Individual preferences vary, so IMO it's
entirely up to you.

I turn it on when the indoor temp drops below about 65 by morning. That's no
set time, just whenver I get cold.

Actually, when the fall cold days when it's wet. That's when the cold really
slices through me, and I'm glad for the furnace.

At what temperature do people start to turn on their central heating?
I normally wait til end of October when the daytime temp indoors is
around 55 degrees. Now it is around 57 degrees indoors in the
morning.Very cold. Catching colds constantly. I thought of turning it
on a week ago when my cat would constanty climb on top of me because I
was the best source of heat.  I'm a walking elecrric blanket to
her.Feels colder now than in the past since I lost about 40 pounds
since last May.

This is the recommendation of our local electric company (though
according to them this is for energy efficiency while still keeping it
at a comfortable temperature for most people):

The best temperature for your heater's thermostat is 68°F or below.
Before bedtime, turn it down to 55°F or lower (or even off) for more
savings. And if you don't want to wake up to a cold house, let a setback
thermostat turn the heat up an hour before you plan to wake up. If you
have a heat pump, raising and lowering the thermostat could cause the
electric heating strips to come on, significantly increasing your
heating costs.

Finally, thermostats should never be turned up high to heat a home in a
hurry. It won't heat your home any faster.

We don't have central heating, just one big fat gas heater in the lounge
room. Now keep inmind I'm in Australia where our idea of "cold" is probably
a fair bit different to other folks, but I'd probably put the heater on if
its less that 16C (~60F) during the day. It gets turned off at night,
regardless of what temperature it is outside - the coldest it gets in the
house in the dead of winter is probably about 10C (~50F). Mind you, the gas
heater does a marvellous job at heating the whole house adequately (its
always colder the further you go from it though - we have an open plan house
unfortunately) ans with the insualtion we got last winter, the second &
third doona (feather comforter, eiderdown, duvet) wasn't necessary.

The air-con (yes! We finally have air-con!) gets put on when the room
temperature gets above about 30C (86F), for the sake of the Yowlet more than
us. Its "portable" air conditioning, and doesn't work well inthe open plan
area, so we generally retreat to the master bedroom where it works nicely
(before we got the gas heater we spent the first 2 winters in the house with
a small electric bar heater in that bedroom)

Its spring here - we're currently having the sort of weather when you run
the heater one day and the air con the next, and have to keep both summer
and winter stuff out. Today its quite chilly and I had to find my cardigan
and fleecy tracksuit pants again - four days ago it hit 38C (100F) and I was
desperate to find my shorts and sandals!

Yowie

Well, we live in an old, remodeled homestead house on the plains of
Colorado. It was originally built to withstand the strong prairie
winds and resultant wind chill. The addition of modern insulation and
silicon sealing around windows, etc. improved resistance to heat loss.
We don't have a thermostat; we have a wood-burning stove; just a
double thermometer. (inside/outside)  

I prefer cooler temps; but my son is the fire-starter. He likes warmer
temps. I tell him to put on more clothes. But, we start a fire
according to the weather. Once the house gets warm, it holds the heat
a long time. We let the fire die out at night. But if we are having a
flat-out blizzard, or below zero temps, then he banks the fire with
some of our hoarded oak wood so it will last all night.

A lot of times the evening temp is good enough to last until bedtime
so we don't bother with a fire. But sometimes When I come home after a
hard day I seem to feel the cold more than usual. Then he will build a
fire just for me to warm up. I think generally we light a fire when it
is below freezing outside and below sixty inside. Depending on
windchill and moisture. Of course the cats would like the stove going
all the time; with the resultant shedding of fur.

--
CATherine

I am *SO* jealous!  It was in the high 80s here today with the humidity at
close to 100%!

Hugs,

CatNipped

Here at the Shirk manse, the heat goes on when it gets cold enough that
we all feel the need.  Usually the outside ambient temp is in the high
forties/low fifties.  However, today I arranged to buy  the cord of wood
I get at the beginning of November every year.

Pam S.