How Many Hours a Day Should Heating Be On In The UK? (All The Time!?)

Given the ongoing cost of living crisis, many households are keen on keeping their energy costs down.

Therefore, you could benefit financially from knowing how long you should keep your heating on to the point of keeping warm and healthy without spending more than necessary.

So, let’s get right to it!

How Long Should I Keep My Heating On?

Note: A key factor for considering how long you should keep the heating on (and what temperature it should be set to - more on that later) would depend on whether you have any vulnerable individuals in your home such as a baby, an elderly person or someone who is unwell.

The same logic would apply if you were anticipating any visitors who are vulnerable to low temperatures.

Of course, there is one single answer to this question as it will depend on factors such as how efficient your heating system is, how well-insulated your home is and how often you are at home. 

Average Heating Timespans

For example, if everyone in your household is out during the day (at work or/and school), your heating needs would be less than if one or more of the household’s occupants stay at home during the day such as to work remotely.

Many households will keep their heating on for longer, while others will use it less.

Also, as a side note, we’ll discuss the ideal heating temperature in more detail in the next section.

Depending on the nature of your property and your heating needs, you’d probably end up turning your heating on for somewhere between four and eight hours per day in the winter.

In the spring and autumn, there would be days when you wouldn’t need your heating at all, and it would be a rare case that you’d need to turn the heating on in the summer. 

With that said, you should still turn the heating on at least occasionally in the spring, summer and autumn to prevent any boiler components from seizing up from a lack of use.

Roughly Working Out How Long to Keep the Heating On

Ultimately, the number of hours you should heat your home will depend on a wide range of factors (as already touched on).

Therefore, it’s best to make a broad calculation to determine how many hours your heating should be on in a given day while taking various caveats into account.

All in all, by paying attention to how often you need to heat your home during the day and how well your property maintains that heat once your boiler turns off, you’ll get a sense of how often and for how long, you should turn your heating on.

However, we’ll now break things down in more detail based on usage at different times of the day.

Heating Use Throughout the Day in More Detail

Firstly, you’ll want to consider what your absolute heating requirements are.

In other words, you’ll want to figure out when your heating should be on during a cold day (most likely in the winter but also possibly in the spring, autumn and occasionally even in the summer).

For example, it generally makes sense to turn the heating on for a while in the morning. 

You might want to set it to heat your home up for 30-60 minutes, depending on the duration of time between the time you get out of bed and when you leave the home.

If some household occupants will be staying at home for longer, you’d probably want to stick with an hour or longer on a particularly cold morning.

As touched on, a key factor to consider when it comes to how long your heating should stay on is whether there are any vulnerable individuals on your property.

But in general, if there are no vulnerable individuals in your household, you shouldn’t need to keep it on for as long as might otherwise be the case.

If you or any other member(s) of your household tend to stay at home throughout the day, you’ll want to consider how long to keep your heating on from morning through the afternoon.

Unless you have vulnerable individuals at home, we don’t recommend using it constantly. 

After all, if you were to, you could end up with the heating on for 8-12 hours a day or more which would be very expensive (even with current government schemes like the Energy Price Guarantee).

If your home is left unoccupied during the day, you’ll want to turn the heating on once you get home.

Alternatively, you could use your boiler’s timer or a smart thermostat to ensure that your home starts heating up shortly before you or other household members are on their way back.

Some smart thermostats would also enable you to turn your heating on or off via a heating device when you’re out and about.

What is the Ideal Room Temperature?

Aside from the length of time, you should keep your heating on, you’ll also want to consider what the ideal temperature is.

If the room temperature goes above or below this range, it can at the very least result in discomfort, but it can also result in health risks. 

Of course, just as ensuring the heating is on for the right amount of time is important for vulnerable individuals, the same applies to the ideal room temperature.

For more information, check out our ideal room temperature guide.

There we discuss the ideal room temperature for young and healthy individuals, the elderly, those who are unwell and babies.

As a brief overview, here is what different temperature ranges mean:

Again, the table provided above is a broad overview. Do check out our guide on the ideal room temperature if you have any health concerns for you or other members of/visitors to your property.