How warm should your home be over winter?
Is your home too hot or too cold? What temperature is right? Should different people have different temperatures in their homes?
Does it really matter how warm your home is? Aside from hefty energy bills are there further consequences to having your home set at a too hot or too cold temperature?
What happens when my home is too warm?
Despite huge price rises in our energy bills British homes are getting warmer and warmer. Are we being to dependent on home comforts? A lot of people believe that this is due to advancements in home heating and energy usage such as cavity wall insulations, loft insulations and double, even triple glazing on our windows. These methods can greatly increase your home's temperature without greatly increasing your energy bills.
Experts believe that is also the activities we do when at home that affect our perception of our home temperature. If we spend our evenings being sedentary such as watching tv we will feel the cold much quicker than if we were doing something active.
What is the ideal temperature for a British home?
The World Health organization advises that homes should be heated to 18C for normal healthy people, however the average temperature of a British home is 23C. According to the Energy Saving Trust for each degree of extra warmth costs us £65 a year.
If you suffer with allergies and respiratory problems it is advised by WHO that your home should be heated to 16C and those who are elderly or very young should heat their homes to 20C.
According to research our bedrooms should only be heated to no more than 15C whilst we sleep, that sounds cold but with a duvet you should be wrapped up warm, but then again no one likes waking up to a cold house in winter.
What happens when my home is too cold?
It is when our homes are too cold that we run the risk to damaging our health. Housing expert, Richard Moore, claims that by allowing our homes to become too cold can increase the risk of ill health. If your home temperature is less than 9C you can risk hypothermia. between 9 -12C you can run the risk of having a heart attack or stroke, and having a home temperature of 12-16C can increase your risk of respiratory disease.
So, for most of us, maybe it's a good time to invest in a nice warm Christmas jumper over the next few months and snuggle up on the sofa with our loved ones.
