Psychology of Heating: Why Brits Overheat Their Homes

When winter rolls in and the nights get longer, many people in the UK reach for the thermostat without a second thought. But there’s more to this habit than simply chasing comfort, there’s a psychology behind our urge to crank up the heat. In fact, it’s been reported that UK homes are among the warmest in Europe, often heated to levels well above recommended temperatures. So, what’s driving this need to overheat our homes?

Let’s explore the psychology behind this national habit and what it might be costing us.

Reasons For Overheating our Homes

1. Comfort is King

At the heart of overheating lies a basic human instinct: the search for comfort. The British climate is unpredictable and damp, which has resulted in a desire for warm, cosy interiors. Warmth is associated with safety and well-being, especially at home. With temperatures dropping below 0 degrees in winter, it’s no surprise that the UK likes to heat their home above the average temperatures.

2. Thermostat Wars and Perception of Cold

Have you ever been in a household where one person is always cold and the other is always boiling? This battle, often known as the “thermostat war”, stems from how we perceive temperature. Factors such as age, gender, metabolism, and activity level affect how warm or cold we feel. For example, older people often feel the cold more intensely and may set their heating higher than younger people. What one person finds cold, another might call perfectly comfortable. This can lead to heating being turned up, creating homes that are warmer than necessary.

3. A Legacy of Poor Insulation

Many UK homes, especially those built before the 1980s, were constructed with minimal insulation and as a result, they lose heat quickly. To compensate, homeowners crank up the heating and keep it running longer, often overshooting ideal temperatures.

Even though modern homes and retrofitting schemes have improved insulation, old habits die hard. Once a household is used to living in a warm home, it's difficult to dial things down, even when better alternatives exist. Of course, there will be homeowners who don’t improve their insulation and continue to overheat their homes to compensate.

4. Social Expectations

If you’re hosting guests, there’s an expectation that your house will be warm. As a result, any optimised schedule you have set up with your smart heating system goes out the window. It also links back directly to one of the previous points, where the perception of ‘warm’ differs for everyone. You’ll likely find that homeowners are overheating their homes to accommodate their guests.

How Warm Is Too Warm?

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends an indoor temperature of around 18°C for healthy adults. However, surveys show many households regularly heat their living spaces to 21°C or higher, especially during winter evenings.

That extra 3 degrees might not sound like much, but it adds significantly to energy usage, emissions, and household bills. Dialling down the thermostat by 1 degree can produce significant savings over 12 months.

What Can We Do Differently?

• Educate ourselves on healthy temperature ranges - 18°C is warm enough for most.
• Use smart thermostats that learn habits and adjust accordingly.
• Invest in insulation and draught-proofing to retain heat more efficiently.
• Adopt heating zones—heat the rooms you use, not the ones you don’t.
• Challenge cultural norms—warmth doesn't always mean blasting the radiators.

Heat More Efficiently with Wiser Smart Heating

Overheating our homes isn’t just a technical issue, it’s a psychological one rooted in culture, comfort, and perception. Understanding these drivers is the first step toward smarter, healthier, and more sustainable heating habits. Installing systems such as the Wiser smart heating system can help provide detailed reports to evidence how much energy is used, and how much can be saved! Features included in our smart heating system also include automatically open window detection, which will turn off the radiators in that room to save precious energy.