Heating: the 19 °C rule is over, here’s the temperature experts now recommend

The cold arrives first as a sound. A faint hiss from the window seals. The soft clunk of your heating system waking up after months of sleep. Outside, the world turns to misted breath and hurried footsteps; inside, you stand in your hallway, staring at the thermostat like it’s a moral question, not a number. For decades, that number was supposed to be 19 °C — the sensible, stoic, energy-conscious setting we were told to live with. But now, as winters grow stranger and energy systems shift, experts are quietly rewriting the rulebook. The old 19 °C rule is over. And in its place, a new, more nuanced temperature story is taking shape.

The Old 19 °C Rule: Where It Came From, Why It’s Fading

For years, 19 °C held a kind of cultural authority. It was the number energy-saving campaigns plastered on posters, the figure your thrifty neighbor defended with a smug smile, the benchmark some health agencies referenced as “adequate” for a heated home. It came from a blend of public health guidance, building standards, and an era that assumed one-size-fits-all comfort.

But those recommendations grew up in a different time — when insulation was poorer, fuel was cheaper, and our understanding of health, aging, and indoor air quality was less refined. We now know that humans don’t all thrive at the same temperature. A 70-year-old living alone, a toddler learning to walk, and a healthy thirty-something working from home all experience cold very differently.

Modern research shows that prolonged exposure to cool indoor temperatures can subtly raise risks of respiratory illness, cardiovascular strain, and even accidents in the home. As climate change destabilizes weather patterns, we see more sudden cold snaps, more vulnerable people trying to “tough it out” in underheated homes. The old rule, once a sensible compromise, starts to look too blunt for a world that’s become anything but simple.

The New Sweet Spot: What Experts Actually Recommend Now

Today’s guidance is less about a single magic number and more about a range — a flexible band you can adjust based on who you are, what you’re doing, and how your home is built. Instead of the rigid 19 °C, many energy and health experts are converging on a core recommendation: keep most living spaces somewhere between about 20 °C and 22 °C, with some important nuance.

In many European countries, health authorities now suggest around 20–21 °C as a healthier baseline for living rooms in winter, slightly warmer for homes with older adults or small children. At the same time, sleep researchers typically recommend cooler bedrooms, around 17–19 °C, because our bodies naturally drop in temperature at night. The emerging message: not one number, but a pattern. Warm enough to be safe and comfortable, cool enough in the right places to sleep and save energy.

To make this more tangible, here’s a simple overview of what experts commonly advise today for different rooms and people:

The strict 19 °C benchmark has quietly been replaced with this more flexible, evidence-based approach. It’s less about being tough and more about being tuned in — to your body, your home, and the people around you.

Inside the Numbers: How Temperature Really Feels

On paper, a degree or two sounds trivial. In real life, your body disagrees. You feel those single degrees in your fingers as you type, in the way your shoulders creep toward your ears, in the reluctance you feel to leave the blanket on the sofa. Thermal comfort is a complex dance between air temperature, humidity, clothing, and what you’re doing.

At 19 °C in a drafty room, your skin may sense the air as significantly colder due to air movement and surfaces that radiate chill back at you — cold windows, uninsulated walls. Your body responds by constricting blood vessels in your extremities, raising blood pressure a little, nudging your heart to work harder just to keep your core warm.

Now imagine the same 19 °C in a well-insulated, draft-free space where the walls feel almost the same temperature as the air. You’re wearing warm socks, a light sweater. Suddenly 19 °C is not harsh; it’s crisp and clear, a background coolness that energizes rather than punishes. This is why newer recommendations focus not only on numbers, but on building quality and behavior. The “right” temperature for you is not just what the thermostat says; it’s what your body actually experiences.

Experts talk about the “comfort envelope” — a range of temperatures where most people feel fine as long as their clothing, activity level, and environment are in balance. That envelope has widened thanks to better insulation, smart thermostats, and the rediscovery of simple habits like layering clothes and moving regularly. But it still has boundaries: dip below them for too long, and the quiet stress on your heart and lungs begins to accumulate, especially if you’re older or unwell.

The Hidden Health Story Behind Your Thermostat

Walk through a home on a cold morning and you can almost hear the body’s responses to temperature. The older woman sitting very still in a chilly living room, wrapped in a thin cardigan, may not complain — but her body is working hard. Prolonged exposure to cool indoor temperatures can increase blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular events. For people with chronic conditions, even a couple of degrees matter.

Respiratory health is another quiet casualty of underheated homes. Cold air irritates the airways and can worsen asthma, bronchitis, and other lung problems. In homes that are both cold and damp, mold thrives, turning each breath into a small assault on the immune system. This is one reason why modern guidelines emphasize keeping main living areas at or above about 20 °C for those at risk, and never letting the whole home sit below roughly 18 °C for long stretches.

Then there’s sleep. While cooler bedrooms can support better, deeper rest, going too cold nudges your body into shallow, restless sleep. You wake with stiff muscles, a sore throat, or that bone-deep reluctance that no amount of coffee can shake. Experts now frame good sleep not as “turn the heat down as far as you can tolerate,” but as “find the cool that feels calm, not punishing” — usually in that 17–19 °C zone, combined with warm bedding and dry, fresh air.

In this light, the new temperature guidelines are less an indulgence and more a preventive measure. They aim to avoid those silent, incremental harms that don’t shout, but quietly nudge health in the wrong direction over years.

Balancing Comfort and Climate: Warmer Homes, Smarter Choices

Of course, there’s another voice in the room: the planet’s. Turning up the thermostat from 19 °C to 21 °C seems small, but across millions of homes it has real consequences for energy use and emissions. Experts recommending slightly warmer baselines aren’t ignoring this; they’re reframing the question from “freeze to save the planet” to “heat smart, not hard.”

That means thinking in systems rather than single numbers. Instead of keeping the whole house at 22 °C all day, people are encouraged to warm only the rooms they actively use, and only during the hours they’re in them. Smart thermostats can now learn your patterns, trimming needless heating while still keeping the living room at that health-protective 20–21 °C when you’re actually there.

Insulation, once a dull word, becomes a quiet hero. A well-insulated home lets you feel perfectly comfortable at 20 °C instead of craving 23 °C, because warmth stays put. Draft proofing doors, improving windows, and insulating lofts or roofs change the lived experience of a room more than an extra twist of the thermostat ever could.

There’s also the forgotten art of dressing for inside weather. Pulling on thick socks, soft layers, and using blankets on the sofa might sound old-fashioned, but the science is straightforward: add 1 °C of warmth to your skin with clothing, and you can drop the room temperature by roughly the same without feeling colder. The new recommendations assume this balance: a home that’s not frigid, bodies that are not bare, and a climate impact that’s trimmed wherever possible.

Finding Your Own Number: A Practical Way Forward

The most honest thing experts can say today is that the perfect indoor temperature doesn’t exist — at least not as one single setting for everyone. But they can offer a safe, sensible starting point. Here’s a simple approach many specialists now suggest for a typical winter season:

Begin by setting your main living area to around 20–21 °C during the times you’re usually home and awake. Let the bedrooms sit cooler, between 17–19 °C at night, using warm bedding rather than cranking the radiators. If your household includes older adults, infants, or anyone with chronic illness, gently raise the living area closer to 21–22 °C and be extra wary of letting the home dip below 18 °C for long stretches.

Then, tune. Notice your body. Are you constantly reaching for an extra jumper, or do you find yourself opening windows to let in cool air? Does someone in the house always seem cold, even when others feel fine? Adjust half a degree at a time and pay attention over several days rather than chasing comfort hour by hour.

Very quickly, you’ll find that your “right” temperature is less an abstract figure and more a living agreement between your thermostat, your walls, your clothes, and your own skin. The experts’ new ranges are there as guardrails: they keep you from straying into territory that quietly threatens your health or the climate. Inside those guardrails, you get to write your own comfort story.

FAQ

Is 19 °C now considered too cold for a living room?

Not always, but for many people it’s on the edge of comfort, especially in older, drafty homes. Most current expert advice suggests aiming nearer 20–21 °C for main living spaces, and slightly higher for older adults, infants, or people with health issues.

What is the minimum safe temperature for a home in winter?

Many health-focused guidelines recommend not letting indoor temperatures stay below about 18 °C for long periods, particularly where vulnerable people live. Below this, health risks — especially cardiovascular and respiratory — begin to rise.

What temperature should I set at night for sleep?

For most healthy adults, a bedroom between 17–19 °C tends to support good sleep, provided bedding and nightwear are warm and dry. People who are older, very young, or unwell may need bedrooms slightly warmer.

How can I stay comfortable without turning the heating way up?

Focus on reducing drafts, improving insulation where you can, heating only the rooms you use, and wearing warm, layered clothing indoors. Using blankets, rugs, and heavy curtains also makes cooler temperatures feel more comfortable.

Does raising my thermostat by 1 °C really use much more energy?

Yes, across a whole heating season, each extra degree can increase energy use noticeably, often by several percent. That’s why experts now suggest a moderate, health-conscious baseline (around 20–21 °C) combined with efficiency measures rather than either shivering at 17 °C or overheating at 24 °C.