When are you putting the heating on?

Energy bills are rising again this winter and that means the typical bill is up by £35 a year as of 1 October – but will it put Brits off putting their heating on?

That’s the question we put to people on the streets in the south west of England. The price of heating a home has made turning up the heat a difficult choice while some households on low incomes are put in the impossible position of deciding whether to pay for food or energy.

Here’s when people told us they’d be turning up their thermostats as temperatures drop this winter.

Sheila: Goodness knows. I’m going to have to leave it as long as possible and put an extra jumper on. I’ve just bought a fleece throw.

I think it’s terrible [the rising cost of living]. I really do. I wouldn’t mind if people – when I say people I mean the government, politicians – didn’t make promises and didn’t keep them. I’d rather someone didn’t make a promise.

Rosa: As late as possible. I’ll layer up because of the cost of living, [I’ll put the heating on] as late as I possibly can without, like, freezing.

I’m surviving, as everyone does. I think especially younger people are struggling at the moment. You know, there’s not much you can do rather than just try your best.

Chidinma: In January when it’s really, really cold. I think my blankets will do for now. I’m a student, so the cost of living is a bit hard with food and all that stuff. But I’m hoping it goes down at some point because it keeps going up and up and it’s a bit alarming. Food is really expensive. I think that’s the main thing.

Seren: Probably later than usual, but I’m too sure. It’s nice and sunny today, so that’s what I’m trying to focus on.

Chris:I live in a shared house so we can’t just turn the heating on without my landlord’s permission. We struggle to be heated. We’re struggling with the cost of living. My landlord pushes rent up every three months and it’s crippling.

Ryan:I’m in student accommodation at the moment and all the bills are paid for. So probably as soon as I can. But if I was paying for myself, I wouldn’t be touching it. At home with my family when you’ve got to pay for the bills, we literally don’t put it on at all, we just live with it, put a jumper on.

I would say I’m a fresher at uni as well so we’ve just got around to how expensive actually doing shopping and everything is. Then obviously just living off my student loan and stuff. I’m paying £200 a week for accommodation. By the time I’ve paid that and my books are bought, I’ve got nothing left to actually buy food with. No money left to do enrichment activities, like going out, even sports and stuff still cost money.

Leander: I considered it recently, but thankfully it got hot again. Because I’m disabled, I have to have the heating on. This is why I’m wearing a fleece today. I’m probably looking at the end of the month, next month if I can help it. I’ll be wearing a jumper until that point because it is so bloody expensive. And I don’t get help with it any more.

I broke my back many, many years ago while I was at work, so I get PIP and that sort of thing. I used to get help with winter heating, and I don’t get that anymore, but I do get help from the council, so it does make it a little bit more bearable.

I don’t have a bad life… I just have to be a little bit more careful when it comes to putting the heating on. It was a luxury before, I could have it on more often. Now I have to think about what I’m wearing. Well, I can’t be sitting around the house in a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of the winter. I have to sit there in a jumper and trousers, but that’s just me being lazy before. As I say, I’m a lot better off than most. So I can survive, as it were.

Read more:

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• Most households paying £750 a year more for energy bills than before cost of living crisis
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Harrison: Probably as soon as I can. I live in a house with four people, and we have sort of fair use policy, so we can’t really crank it all the way up, so to speak. Just whenever it gets really cold.

The cost of living has not been a massive hit. I’ve been quite fortunate. I’ve had student finances. I’ve only just finished university, so I’ve had grants to cover that.

Stephen: End of October. Being a pensioner, I have a small pension, plus a state one, but I still have to watch the pennies. I still have to take account each month of spending. It’s impacted for sure. There’s good news that the government has reinstated the winter fuel allowance. I think that affected a lot of people, taking that away. I was impacted to a small degree. Not as much as some people with less income. But, I think it was, politically, a bad move because there was so much fuss that came back at the government. They had to reinstate it.

David: I’m lucky enough I’m in a well insulated flat, so I won’t actually put my heating on most probably. I say that now, but it could be a cold one as well as which we have had. So maybe December. It depends.

Ottilie: I’m in a rented property, so it’s up to the landlord but I kinda just keep warm because I don’t want to spend my money on the energy bills. I didn’t know that they were going up, so now I have to be even more careful. 

When will you be putting your heating on this winter? Get in touch and let us know.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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