The science-backed reason to rethink your approach to heating habits

Most of us treat home heating like a translation problem: we turn a knob, the house “speaks” warm, and we assume more heat means more comfort. certainly! please provide the text you would like me to translate. and of course! please provide the text you would like me to translate. capture the same reflex in another context-asking for input so the system can respond accurately-and that’s exactly why they matter here: your heating only works well when it’s responding to the right signals, not your instincts.

Because the science is awkwardly clear on one point: your body doesn’t experience “temperature” in a simple, uniform way. It experiences heat loss, air movement, humidity, radiation from cold surfaces, and whether your skin and core are drifting up or down-often on different schedules.

What the research actually says (in plain English)

The common mistake is treating comfort as a single number on a thermostat. In practice, comfort is a moving target influenced by physiology and environment, and it’s why two people can sit in the same room and argue about whether it’s freezing.

A lot of building science leans on a concept called adaptive thermal comfort: people don’t just “receive” temperature; they adapt to it. Clothing, activity level, expectations, and recent exposure to warmth or cold all change what feels comfortable, and those shifts can happen over days and weeks.

There’s also a simpler, more immediately useful truth: sudden swings in heating tend to feel worse than steady, moderate warmth, even if the average temperature is similar. Your body notices change-especially cold drift-more than it notices a stable, slightly cooler baseline.

The hidden driver: radiant temperature, not just air temperature

If you’ve ever stood near a cold window and felt chilled despite the thermostat reading 20°C, you’ve met the missing variable. Your comfort depends on mean radiant temperature-the average temperature of the surfaces around you (walls, windows, floors), not just the air.

Cold surfaces “pull” heat from your body via radiation. Warm air can’t fully compensate, because your skin is still losing heat to the room’s colder geometry. That’s why draughty rooms and poorly insulated walls create the urge to crank the heating: you’re fighting surfaces, not air.

A useful mental model:

• Thermostat = measures air temperature in one spot
  
• Your body = responds to heat loss in every direction
  
• Cold surfaces + draughts = make a “20°C” room feel like 17–18°C
  

Why stop-start heating can backfire

Many households run heating in sharp blocks: off all day, then full blast for a couple of hours. It feels sensible-why heat an empty home?-but it often creates two problems that are easy to miss.

First, the house itself becomes a cold sponge. When you turn the heating on, a chunk of energy goes into warming walls, floors, furniture, and the air trapped in the fabric of the building. Until those surfaces climb, you may feel chilly even as the boiler works hard.

Second, short, intense heating periods can increase perceived draughts and discomfort. As radiators heat air quickly, convection ramps up: warm air rises, cooler air sinks, and you get more noticeable air movement across skin. That airflow can make you feel colder at the same thermostat setting.

The counterintuitive result: “more heat, faster” can feel less comfortable than “less heat, steadier”.

A practical rethink: heat the person, stabilise the room

The best shift isn’t necessarily “heat more” or “heat less”. It’s to separate baseline stability from targeted comfort.

The baseline: stop the room from falling off a cliff

You don’t need tropical indoor temperatures, but you do want to avoid deep cold-soaking the building if that leads to discomfort and aggressive reheating later. Think: smaller, steadier corrections.

• Use a modest setpoint while you’re home (even if it’s 1–2°C lower than your old habit).
• Avoid letting indoor temperature drop so far that walls and floors feel cold to the touch.
• If your system allows it, aim for longer, gentler runs rather than short spikes.

The comfort layer: local heat beats whole-house heat

If your goal is “warm enough to feel good”, local solutions often outperform raising the entire home’s air temperature.

• Heated throw, hot water bottle, or an electric blanket (used safely) warms the body directly.
• A small foot warmer or rug reduces cold-floor discomfort, which disproportionately affects overall comfort.
• Closing doors and heating the rooms you actually occupy reduces the volume you’re trying to control.

None of this is about suffering through a cold house. It’s about using the right tool for the job.

The quick audit that changes decisions

Before you change schedules or spend money, do a simple check tonight. It tells you whether you’re battling air temperature, radiant cold, or airflow.

1. Stand one metre from your coldest external wall or window. If you feel chilled quickly, surfaces are the issue.
   
2. Notice airflow at ankle height. If your feet feel cold first, draughts and floors are driving discomfort.
   
3. Compare rooms, same thermostat setting. If one room always feels colder, insulation, glazing, or ventilation balance matters more than the boiler.

You’re looking for the dominant discomfort source, because it dictates the fix.

Small changes that are genuinely science-backed

Not every tip survives real life. These generally do, because they target heat loss and perception-not just the number on the dial.

• Reduce draughts first. Stopping unwanted airflow often improves comfort more than increasing the setpoint.
  
• Don’t ignore humidity. Very dry air can feel harsher; very humid air can feel clammy. Aim for a reasonable middle.
  
• Use curtains well. Close them at dusk to cut radiant cooling from glass, but avoid blocking radiators if they’re under windows.
  
• Keep heat sources consistent in occupied hours. Stability improves comfort and can reduce the “panic boost” that wastes energy.
  

If you want one guiding principle, make it this: optimise the room’s surfaces and airflow, then tune the temperature.

Where this lands for your winter routine

The science-backed reason to rethink heating habits is that comfort is not a thermostat reading-it’s a heat-balance experience shaped by surfaces, air movement, and adaptation. Once you accept that, your plan stops being “higher/lower” and becomes “steady/targeted”.

A home that holds a calmer baseline, with smart local warmth where you actually sit, often feels better while using less energy than the daily cycle of cold-soak and full blast. And it’s easier to live with, which is the part most “efficient” advice forgets.

FAQ:

• Do I need to keep heating on all day to be comfortable? Not usually. The aim is to avoid extreme drops that cold-soak surfaces, then use targeted heat where you spend time.
• Why do I feel cold at 20°C? Often because of cold windows/walls (radiant temperature) or draughts, not because the air temperature is “wrong”.
• Is it better to heat rooms individually? If your home and system allow zoning, heating occupied rooms can improve comfort and cut waste-especially when unused spaces are closed off.
• What’s the quickest comfort win without changing the boiler? Deal with draughts and cold floors, then add local warmth (throws, foot warmth) before turning up the whole-house setpoint.