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As much as we pretend we are being environmentally friendly, preferring to let icicles form on the tips of our fingers instead of turning on the heating is just a form of stinginess. It's surprising in how many households this becomes a serious issue of conflict. However, it's December now and if you've not already taken the plunge and turned yours on here's some signs to see if it’s really a necessity:
1. You resort to drying all your clothes one by one with a hairdryer because your clothes have failed to dry a week after you've washed them.
2. You stay in the library longer than you have work to do because most of the time the temperatures reach tropical.
3. Not making it to your 9.15 because it's physically impossible to get out of bed becomes a valid reason.
4. You and your housemates walk around the house in the uniform of two hoodies and a duvet, which is particularly impractical when trying to navigate the stairs at the same time.
5. You find yourself opening the oven and basking in its heat instead of letting it actually cook your food.
6. Being in the shower and getting out of the shower form the highlight and lowlight of your day respectively.
7. Breathing in bed makes you resemble Puff the Magic Dragon. This was at first novel, before you realised how worrying it was.
8. You attempt to write an essay wearing mittens
Whilst it is very tempting to resort to freezing and then thawing yourself out over the Christmas break, just think in Summer you can be as stingy as you like but you need to sacrifice a bit now to make sure you actually make it there..
This is so horribly true. Especially 2. And 4. And 8.
In our house, we await "Radiator Hour" with so much excitement that it really is like having Christmas every day 
The fervour with which some people seem to want to freeze themselves in their houses astonishes me. Even people in brand new builds, with thick insulation, double-glazed PVC frame windows and doors and highly efficient condensing combi boilers have the heating on for the shortest period possible in the evening and insist on leaving the temperature to drop overnight!
It's not healthy. Standardised room temperature is 20 degrees Celsius - less than 18 is considered dangerous for children and old people in the winter. Lower temperatures also promote condensation and damp in your house, damaging your belongings and increasing the risk of illness (and decreasing your ability to recover from any illness you might have). Set your heating on an appropriate timer (from an hour or so before you wake up to late morning then from up to an hour before sunset to when people usually go to bed, in the winter) and keep the thermostat at 20/21, close all your windows, put on warm clothes and save money in other ways. It's not worth freezing over.
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