Experts have criticised the World Health Organisation’s advice to set central heating at a chilly 18°C this winter, saying home temperatures that low could lead to illness, poor health and mould. The Mail has the story.
As temperatures begin to fall across the U.K., many of us will soon be considering turning up the thermostat.
But with the cost of energy at an eye-watering high, nobody wants to waste a penny on unnecessary heating.
The World Health Organisation‘s (WHO) recommended temperature for your home is a chilly 18°C (64.4°F).
However, experts have slammed the global health body’s recommendation, saying this could lead to illness and poor health.
In order to stay warm and safe this winter, health experts instead say the thermostat should be set to at least 20°C (68°F).
That’s just slightly warmer than the U.K.’s preferred temperature of 19.5°C (67.1°F), which was revealed in a survey of 2,000 Britons.
And it’s not just experts who have slammed the WHO’s suggested thermostat temperature, with several members of the public flocking to X (formerly Twitter) to express their outrage.
One enraged commenter wrote: “I’ll determine the temperature I want my thermostat based on my preference and it’s no one’s business but me.”
According to the WHO, a temperature of 18°C is all that is needed for most healthy people who are dressed appropriately.
The WHO says: “Indoor housing temperatures should be high enough to protect residents from the harmful health effects of cold.
“For countries with temperate or colder climates, 18°C has been proposed as a safe and well-balanced indoor temperature to protect the health of general populations during cold seasons.”
However, heating experts say that this target might be too low for many people to remain comfortable.
Worth reading in full.
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If that’s the advice, our 93 year old mum would be constantly cold!
Ha ho, 18°c is the the best heat pumps could manage anyway!
Health and safety at work act states 68° as a minimum, by law, in the workplace!
So, let’s have a seven day working week ,instead of four, just so we can all keep warm at the bosses expense!
68°F = 20°C
I wouldn’t recommend trying 68°Centigrade.
I didn’t put a °c after the 68, I just thought you could guess which measurement I was using, silly me
Sauna?
Maybe if one is that old it might not be a good idea. I’ll let you know in a few years.
I have mine set to 12 deg C and follow heat the human not the home. Works well in combination with a well insulated house.
If the tip of the nose or fingers get cold turning on the heat for 20 mins takes the sting out of the air for the rest of the day. Voilà.
Central heating became common with North Sea gas in the 1970s. We have only known it for just over 50 years as commonplace.
What on earth did people survive on before then – sure some must have died from hypothermia but think about people in countries where it goes well below zero for long periods.
Thematic Book Series: Heating People, not Spaces | LOW←TECH MAGAZINE
I have not yet read this but did read articles on this site about heating old buildings and using hot water bottles to heat the person. Clothing wise thermal underwear, preferably wool, is suggested and when the temp. gets below 0 – double thermals.
In the olden days our forebearers wore a lot more clothes, and a lot more layers. Hats, wrist warmers, good thick socks all make sense to me.
But obviously you don’t want too much moisture in the air, that’s why I stocked up on dehumidifiers etc.
They were allowed to burn coal. Fond memories of toasting bread with a toasting fork and Mum’s homemade raspberry jam
I remember doing that, the toast was delicious too.
The point isn’t just to survive, it’s to thrive, be comfortable.
Turning on the heat for 20 minutes – unless you live in a shoebox – can have no discernible effect. Just a waste of energy.
Well insulated 4 bedroom house.
As shoe boxes go it is quite large.
I have a lot of them.
My thermostat is always set at 17° (unless my wife notices!). I’m not some mad eco-nutter, but it’s a perfectly reasonable temperature. If you feel cold, flash up the wood burner.
Any old or young in your house?
Well, I’m 69 if that counts as old.
No it doesn’t, the very young and old feel it more, think yourself lucky that, like me, you don’t generally feel the cold, but other people in my house do and I have to put up with the heat I don’t need for their sake
Well, good for you.
I stayed in a mates house a while back and he has his Stove with a boiler at the back to heat the radiators, his spare room was boiling. Had to leave the window open for a while because I was just not used to sleeping in a room as warm as he liked it. At least there’s no damp in that house!
Wear more clothes.
There is no central heating outside but we can all keep nice and warm in our winter coats and gloves – unless we don’t have any – which is either the very very poor or people who are used to living in houses with the central heating at 25 C and never go out except in the car and never walk more than a few metres from the car to their destination.
I have pairs of fingerless gloves that really help when my hands get cold
On eBay you can buy gloves which can be fingerless or full fingers. The ends of the fingers are jointed so that you can fold them back and have the ends of your real fingers poking out. The ends of the fingers on the gloves are held in place out of the way by Velcro.
I think the gloves with a padded front for grip are good, especially for driving in the cold. Wolly gloves are too slippery.
It might be “a perfectly reasonable temperature” for you, Jonathan, but it’s not for most people.
Why not?
It sounds like it’s not “a perfectly reasonable temperature” for your wife.
I don’t know why it is, but women always want to turn the heating up. Men tend not to.
Do agree there mate
I do hate having a shower and getting out in a freezing cold bathroom, but most my showers I have at work. When it can’t be avoided I just channel my inner Wim Hof and think if he can run up Mt Everest in just his underpants then I can get dried off in a freezing bathroom ( which isn’t at all freezing by Swedish ice bath standards) so that deals with that. Its mental fortitude.
People swim in the sea during winter, including the elderly, and it’s meant to be very good for you. I think it’s customary to have a dunk in the sea at New Year in many places, isn’t it?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
Don’t be misled by nutters IMHO like Wim Hof.
Some people are genetically adapted to survive in extremely cold environments like the Scandinavian fisherman whose boat was wrecked in a storm. His friends died by he swam ashore and walked in freezing temperatures wet through to safety.
Guðlaugur Friðþórsson: Icelandic Seaman Who Survived After 6 Hours in Ice-Cold Water
The Royal Navy tested him exercising against special forces personnel in an ice filled tank and he kept on going like the Duracell bunny when they all had to get out or die.
But we can all keep warm with warm clothes and don;t need the heating up.
The first time I turned the heating down by just 1 degree C I saved £300 on energy bills.
Correction: Icelandic is not Scandinavian
Correction:
“Iceland and the Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark”
H “Put yer coat on love. I’m off to the pub.”
W “Oh that’s nice to go out”.
H “Don’t be daft. You’re not coming. I’m turning the heating off.”
Sounds like a clip from Alf Garnett.
Actually it is the reverse in my house, I wear more clothes, my husband feels the cold more but is reluctant to put on more layers…so turns the thermostat up.
Bit similar except he has a hot shower. Not sure if that will change when they get round to fitting the compulsory water meter. He might also do better if he wore socks without holes in them……..
Or get a sofa rug, cheap enough on eBay.
This sounds weird. 18 degrees is when we normally turn ours off. Okay, 18.5 at a push, because that’s well warm. How can that be “chilly”?
We put it on around 15 degrees. But just now it says it’s 16.5 degrees in here, we don’t have heating on and totally fine. I don’t think we’re especially hardy or anything but I’m never in a rush to turn the heating on when the colder months arrive because it’s all too easy to quickly get acclimatised, then you want the heating on all the time. It makes you soft.
Agreed, 100%.
Not for all though mogs!
Yes that’s why the evil WHO saying this is just pointless and nonsensical. Everybody’s different and so our levels of comfort are going to look very different as a result. What sane person is going to heed anything this corrupt organisation say ever? People will just suit themselves regardless because it’s nobody’s business what temp we prefer to live in. They give us a ‘one size fits all’ recommendation as opposed to treating us as individuals. I’ve been in people’s houses and been flipping sweltering, couldn’t wait to get out in the cool air. Same as shops and offices. Maybes I’m just a cold fish.
Then why, as a internationally renowned health governing body, do they keep using this tar and brush? ..making such all encompassing sweeping statements on behalf of mankind? Sorry Mogs, but it does get soul destroying! I pity others not as strong as me and the missus
Their main concern should be things like malaria, dengue fever and access to fresh water in the third world, but, as people are aware on here, they’ve been captured.
Well f-ing said! Stick to their job
Hear hear!
When I was a child, we did not have CH until 1964 – about the time it was becoming common generally. I once read how in those days people were used to indoor temperatures in the upper 50s (fahrenheit). That brought home to me how soft we have become, in this as in so many other ways, and ever since, my thermostat has been at 14-15 deg C. One adapts. To describe 18 deg as chilly is cheap politically motivated hyperbole.
Amazing how a large meal followed by a hot Tea can warm you up. That’s my modus operandi.
Everyone should make sure they eat enough protein – apparently that raises your body temperature by 1/2 degree, then using cayenne pepper in food opens up the capillaries and allows better circulation. Ginger and chilli and paprika all good too, as it mustard. A Japanese friend puts a bit of ground ginger in the tea pot, most delicious.
I never tried that. Protein is good for those dieting because of the filling effect in protein.
I also remember being a kid before central heating. But this was early ’80s so maybe we were well behind the times in Newcastle.
Running downstairs after having a bath to get dried and into jarmies in front of the fire. Hot water bottles for bed before upgrading to the luxury that was electric blankets. This was also before double glazing, of course, so I think houses were much more drafty then too. Yes you certainly do adapt. That’s why I’ll never sit indoors with a coat on as I was brought up with my mam saying “you’ll not feel the benefit when you step outside again” and I think that’s true.
Sounds like you should have been a sister of mine! Certainly sounds like the same household, mine was in Notts but just as basic, outside toilet until 1978, the luxury of a warm loo!! Oooo, and, central heating in the same year!
Bathroom with basin in the third bedroom, toilet outside, and one of those elliptical pull cord bar heaters high up on the wall, totally fing unless when you got out the bath! Sorry about the chronology but brings back many, and not disliked memories
In general, life expectancy increased because of warmer homes, it was a good innervation
Total crap.
And ….
innervation
noun
Because me stating what temp suits me best is sooo triggering for the resident haters…
Who takes any notice of anything this poisonous organisation says these days?
Precisely.
Skinny people generally feel the cold more than fat people.
We’ll all be skinny if the price of food keeps going up and we’re not allowed dairy anymore.
Must be honest, mine’s been on 18C for years.
It’s omfortsble and keeps our bills low.
If you’re home is properly insulated and (most importantly) draught free, its enough.
Along with this topic, the heat you require is personal, how about food? Is that a choice as well?
John mc Ternan: “farming is an industry we can well do without ”
John mc Ternan: “do to the farmers what Thatcher did to the miners”
Former Tony blair and now labour aide/ advisor!
Even “our Kier” has had to disagree, in parliament! What a bunch of Britain haters we have had to let into power because of our megalithic voting system!
I have started experimenting with non electric dehumidifiers, disposable and top up tablets . Moisture rests in the coldest areas when there is little ventilation, and that is usually along the lower walls and corners. I usually light the stove in evenings and night, and when the Winter is mild I can get away without lighting it, but that is when damp accumulates. I had to redecorate because of mould, so it made me more aware of stopping it early. They say you can put the small dehumidifiers on every window. Tesco has a four pack for around £6.
21 for us
The WHO can jog on
I recall some article here the other day saying we should reform it not get rid of it…
More than happy for people to offer me lifestyle advice, just not using my tax money
Jog on!.. Love it tof
https://image.vuukle.com/afdabdfb-de55-452b-b000-43e4d45f1094-d1d8ffbe-e70a-48e2-a3a2-5492bf3882fd
Alison Pearson, The Telegraph, has had a visit from plod for allegedly posting hurty words.
Pretty par for course then Hux?
Oh these great and proud days we live in!
“Tell me the story again! How you crushed and trod on anyone who disagreed with you grandad”
‘As their eager faces sat at my knee,I noticed a deep want in their souls’
(Nazi youth maybe?)
Will heat pumps be able to atain 18°c if the temperature outside drops to..let’s say -4°c?
Has this been tested? Lives are on the line here
Air heat, ground heat, water heat? Can any of them cope with the realities of a British housing stock/winter?
Well, I guess that…
I am very curious as to how heat pumps will cope with cold weather in the UK. Certainly here in the west of England we haven’t really had a proper blast of cold since Feb/March 2018, so I think it would be fair to say they haven’t had a real test yet. I have read that they are fine until the temp. stays consistently around or below freezing. Has anyone here any experience to offer?
In cold weather we use our multi-fuel stove, which can make the sitting room very warm at times, but the heat percolates around the house, so it is pretty economical. The heat is sufficient to turn off the central heating, due to the position of the thermostat, so we save on oil. 18 is the temp I light the stove at, as it’s too cold for me. My husband then walks round going ‘phew!’ and ostentatiously ripping off clothes. Men and women certainly do like different temps!
The WHO in the light of the covid response need to shut up.
Milliband doesn’t need any more encouragement. Remember they’ve banned our warming beef stews as well.
Ascetics R US
I wonder do Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, George Soros etc set their thermostats to that temperature?
Sounds like a rather silly article!
“Health experts say”, eh? Would that be similar to “scientists say” that we should all stop using fossil fuels?
The first paragraph is silliest.
You don’t “turn up the thermostat” when temperatures fall. The whole point of thermostats is that they control the system to keep the temperature at the desired setting. If you turn them up when it’s cold, you might as well just have a switch.
Our thermostat is set to 16.5 degrees. But if someone else wants to swelter at 20 degrees, good luck to them!
Good point about thermostats. Have you noticed how many people think that turning a thermostat up higher increases the rate at which a room warms up? Our thermostats remain on the same setting all year round. Why set them otherwise?
I wish people wouldn’t show off about how cold they keep their houses, like it makes them better people than the rest of us. We’re all different, if you like your house at 12 degrees then of course keep it at 12 degrees but don’t tell everyone else they should be doing the same. Yes, people survived without central heating not so long ago, my parents and grandparents included. They without exception say it was miserable. I try not to heat my house beyond what is necessary to feel comfortable, I wear a jumper (and sometimes a body warmer or dressing gown on top) indoors all the time with the thermostat set to a minimum of 19 during the time the heating is on (several hours interspersed throughout the day), any lower than that and I have constant chilblains all winter despite wearing wrist warmers etc. And I’m only in my 40s! I’m skinny verging on underweight for various reasons and have always found it hard to keep warm. So the WHO can get lost as far as I’m concerned.
Surely most people on here are against being told what to do by the WHO anyway?!
What ridiculous advice – why cannot this useless organisation just can’t leave us alone (rhetorical)?
I have a chronic multi system condition which affects my mobility and means I cannot create body warmth through normal physical movement and activity. Large numbers of people, including the elderly, will readily appreciate that when body temperature drops it is very difficult to raise it.
For all the chemists and physicists out there, room temperature (as part of room temperature and pressure values) is defined as 298K (i.e. 25°C) to standardise calculations. Well that was the case when I last did RTP (Room Temperature and Pressure) calculations, as apposed to Standard Temperature and Pressure (STP) which is 273K (i.e. O°C).
That 18C recommendation – there is a mark on thermostats – has been around in the UK since the oil crisis of the 1970s.
Most or at least many wall thermostats are mechanical and operate within a +/- 2C range of accuracy, so setting them at a certain number is meaningless.
A relative of mine replaced their heating boiler which came with a wi-fi digital room thermostat. They were surprised that when the old wall thermostat was set at 18C, the digital thermostat said 20C.
Most people I know adjust their heating temperature controls according to how warm or cold they feel.
Being too cold reduces the body’s ability to fight infection, and how many inactive elderly people can tolerate a temperature of 18°C? This is assisted dying in all but name, albeit without the victim’s consent.