I'm in UK (south east). I work in tech, working from home. I very rarely put the heating on. The best part of not putting the heating on is that I've had my garden doors open almost every day through the winter. I mostly work at my laptop, just inside sitting on a comfy sofa, right next to the outdoors.
In December I was mostly opening the doors about midday just for the afternoon, but since mid to late January I'm back to opening the doors mostly from about 9 in the morning again, right through to the end of the working day.
To do this and remain comfortable I have to put on extra layers. When I go out the extra layers come off.
Weirdly, this is the first winter in a long time I've not really felt cold at all. I think it's because previous winters I've been working in an office heated to 20C+, and this year I've acclimatised slowly from the summer.
When I have put the heating on, I get hot real quick unless I start taking layers off, and actually it's easier to turn the heating off.
I stopped heating out of necessity when I was a poor student and made the same discovery. It's funny how when you go outdoors with other people they are freezing and you feel super comfy. I seriously think that about 3/4 of Europeans could get by without any heating for about 3/4 of winter time. Well, as long as the gulf stream holds up anyways.
> I seriously think that about 3/4 of Europeans could get by without any heating for about 3/4 of winter time.
The temperatures in UK are stable during the day due to sea climate. In Central Europe we get +/- 10 degrees during the day. This is completely different story from temperature comfort/security perspective. That's why we overinsulate and overheat our houses and why we tend to have higher temperatures inside then Brits.
My Italian friend laughed that he immediately recognized Poles in Italy because in August they had blanklets and sweaters at hand. We just always expect temperatures to drop suddenly by 10 degrees.
Even on British Airways planes temperatures are lower then on other airlines...
In continental Europe (Germany, specifically is where I have experience), most apartments are so well insulated that they don't even get significantly cold without the heat on. I often travel in winter, and have come back home, say, mid-February after a month away, and my apartments have never been lower than 15º C (about 60º F) inside. (Admittedly, it'd be colder if everyone in the building had their heat off.) That's very easy to deal with with no heating. Though, like most schmucks, I do use my heating to get it up to more normal inside temperatures.
Yes, I have heating in every room in my apartment in Berlin. But I only use the one in my living room. I never heat my two bed rooms or the bathroom. The rest of the apartment is a bit cooler but stays warm thanks to the neighbors below me heating their apartment. I actually prefer sleeping in a cold bed room so I never use the heating in there. I just toss on an extra blanket when it gets really cold outside. I generally have the window open there throughout the year. Even when it gets well below freezing temperatures.
Nothing worse than a stuffy warm room for sleeping for me. It's one of my annoyances with hotels actually. I hate it when I can't open the window. Generally the first thing I do is remove most of the blankets, turn of whatever heating is there, and if possible open the windows. For me the ultimate in stupidity is a hotel room with the AC on where people use blankets to stay warm where you can't even open the windows.
It's not like I have a choice here. Besides, the building charges an aggregate heating cost per year that I can't really influence with my behavior other than not turning on the heat when I don't need it. With my downstairs neighbors, I end up having to open the window as well to get the temperature in my bedroom to reasonably low levels.
Man, I have a similar problem whenever I visit my parents: my mother is after a heart attack, her blood flow is impaired so she's always cold, even when there's like 27 Celsius degrees in the room. The first thing I do when I the house is to shut down the heater in my bedroom. The whole house feels like a sauna.
With a sufficiently insulated apartment, you actually stay at reasonable temperatures from other sources of heat: bodies, bathing, appliances, cooking, computers, etc. A normal apartment uses a couple kilowatts of power, which generates as much heat as a couple space heaters running all the time.
Of course having more effective insulation is a good thing, but that's not the case we're talking about here: were talking about "staying at reasonable temperatures" thanks to your neighbors.
If everyone is content with a lower temperature, they still end up heating less, and energy is haved. (Also, they are probably transferring much more heat from their own single heated room than from neighbors through walls).
In December I was mostly opening the doors about midday just for the afternoon, but since mid to late January I'm back to opening the doors mostly from about 9 in the morning again, right through to the end of the working day.
To do this and remain comfortable I have to put on extra layers. When I go out the extra layers come off.
Weirdly, this is the first winter in a long time I've not really felt cold at all. I think it's because previous winters I've been working in an office heated to 20C+, and this year I've acclimatised slowly from the summer.
When I have put the heating on, I get hot real quick unless I start taking layers off, and actually it's easier to turn the heating off.