It's time for an update from the diamond geezer indoor thermometer.
Because I now have two years of data.
As a reminder...
» This is the temperature in my living room first thing in the morning.
» First thing in the morning is the coldest time of day in my house.
» First thing in the morning is not affected by any central heating I may have had on.
» I'm not one of those people who leaves the central heating on overnight.
This is not the temperature it would be in your house first thing in the morning because you live somewhere else with different weather behind different walls. But the overall shape of the graph would probably be similar, individual wiggles notwithstanding.
What the graph shows twice over, obviously enough, is that it gets colder in the winter and warmer in the summer. But see how winter 2020/21 was noticeably colder than winter 2021/22 and also how summer 2022 was significantly warmer than summer 2021. The differences are quite marked, and not just a consequence of that record-breaking heatwave in July.
• In 2021 the indoor temperature dipped below 12°C for a fortnight in January and another week in February. The only such dip last winter was a couple of days in November 2021.
• In 2021 the temperature first thing in the morning only exceeded 22°C for three brief bursts, never longer than a fortnight. In 2022 it stayed above 22°C from the first week of July to the first week of September - a full two months.
And my reason for showing you this data is because we all have central heating costs on our mind this winter.
I don't know where your central heating threshold is, but my subconscious doesn't even think of switching it on if the temperature's over 16°C. My graph shows that the 16°C threshold tends to be breached in November and doesn't recover until surprisingly late, i.e. April or May. That's six months below and six months above, with the 'chill in the air' half-year starting soon. As for the 14°C threshold, when even an extra layer might not cut it, that's more of a December to March event.
Remember your house won't heat up or cool down like mine so the numbers on my graph are only relative. Also indoor temperatures tend to get warmer during the day, so even when it's a bit nippy first thing it could still be shorts weather by lunchtime.
But if you've already turned your heating on, don't expect to be turning it off until May. And if you intend to hold out because you're resilient or you're trying to save on fuel bills, the toughest shivery bit is likely to be from December to early March.
