Heating: the old 19 °C rule is finally considered obsolete experts now reveal the indoor temperature they confidently recommend for real comfort and energy savings

The first cold day of the season always arrives quietly. One morning, you step out of bed and the air in the room feels thinner, sharper, as if the walls themselves have cooled overnight. You pad across the floor, wrap your fingers around a mug, and wait for the kettle. That’s when you notice it: you’re shivering, but the thermostat blinks a proud, unyielding number—19 °C. The “good” temperature. The “efficient” temperature. The number we were told, for years, was the sensible compromise between comfort and energy savings.

Except your toes are numb, your shoulders are hunched, and you’re already considering a second sweater. Somewhere between your breath and the silent radiator, a quiet thought appears: if this is the “right” temperature, why does it feel so wrong?

The myth of the magic 19 °C

For decades, the 19 °C rule hovered over our homes like a stern, invisible inspector. Government guidelines, energy campaigns, and well-meaning advice columns repeated the same mantra: set your heating to 19 °C and leave it. Any higher, you were told, and you’d be wasteful. Any lower, you’d be virtuous—but probably cold.

It sounded scientific, almost moral. Nineteen became a symbol of discipline, of being the “good” kind of homeowner, the one who cared about bills and the planet. You could practically hear the subtle judgment in the numbers: 19 °C was responsible. 21 °C was indulgent. 23 °C was scandalous.

But step inside a handful of real homes and that neat rule begins to unravel. In one apartment, a young family huddles in hoodies while a toddler drags a blanket across laminate flooring that seems to breathe cold air. In a drafty old stone cottage, 19 °C on the thermostat translates to icy corners and a stubborn chill that clings to every surface. Meanwhile, in a well-insulated modern flat with underfloor heating, the same 19 °C can feel almost too warm, the air soft and evenly distributed.

Experts have started to say out loud what many of us have quietly felt: the one-size-fits-all 19 °C rule never truly fit. New research, improved building standards, and a better understanding of how our bodies experience temperature are rewriting the story of what “comfortable and efficient” really means indoors.

The new comfort zone: what experts actually recommend now

When building scientists, energy consultants, and health experts talk about indoor comfort today, they don’t start with a holy number. They start with people—and then with buildings. But still, after years of rigid rules, we all want something concrete. So yes, there are numbers. They’re just more honest, more flexible, and more human.

Across various expert panels and building standards, a new consensus is forming around this core idea: for most homes and most people, a living-room temperature in the range of 20–22 °C is now considered a sensible target for both comfort and energy efficiency, provided the building is reasonably well insulated. Bedrooms, where cooler air supports sleep, are often recommended at around 17–19 °C.

The key phrase, experts stress, is “range” and “context.” A modern, well-insulated apartment with triple-glazed windows might feel perfectly cozy at 20 °C, while an older, draughty house might require closer to 22 °C to create the same bodily experience of warmth. Your comfort isn’t just about the number in the display; it’s about the surfaces, the air movement, the humidity, the clothes you’re wearing, the time you spend sitting still.

This is known as thermal comfort, and it’s why two people standing in the same room can argue passionately about whether it’s “freezing” or “boiling.” Our bodies react not to air temperature alone, but to a blend of factors: how much heat the walls radiate, how fast air moves across our skin, how much moisture is in the air, even whether our feet are on tile or thick rug.

Why 19 °C feels different in every home

Imagine visiting three homes on a frosty day, all set to 19 °C. In the first, you sink into a big sofa, the windows are double-glazed, the walls are insulated, and your socks meet warm wooden flooring. You might notice a slight briskness but not discomfort. In the second home, you sit next to a large single-pane window that leaks cold, the floor is bare tile, and a draft slips under the door. The same 19 °C now brushes against your skin like the inside of a refrigerator. In the third, you find underfloor heating, airtight windows, and soft textiles. Here, 19 °C feels quietly generous.

This discrepancy isn’t imagination; it’s physics. What you feel is a blend of air temperature and radiant temperature—the temperature of the surfaces around you. A cold wall or window chills your body by radiation, even if the air in the room is technically “warm enough.” So that old 19 °C rule, based mostly on air temperature alone, ignored half the story.

The type of heating matters too. Radiators that heat the air unevenly can create pockets of warm and cold zones, while underfloor systems or radiant panels warm surfaces and the lower part of the room, often allowing you to feel cozy at a lower air temperature. Add in humidity—dry air makes you feel colder, even at the same temperature—and you begin to see why a single number was never going to work for everyone, everywhere.

Experts now talk about an indoor comfort band rather than a single magic degree. Within this band, you adjust according to your home’s quirks and your own habits. If your home is well insulated, you might sit comfortably at the lower end of that band and save energy without ever touching a wool hat indoors. If your home loses heat fast, you either accept a higher setpoint—or you direct your effort toward sealing drafts and improving insulation so that you can turn the thermostat back down later without sacrificing comfort.

The sweet spot: comfort, savings, and a little honesty

After years of pressure to “be good” by stoically sticking to 19 °C, many people quietly turned up the dial and then felt guilty about it. They weren’t weak; they were just cold. The new, more nuanced guidance gives you permission to be honest with your body and still be responsible toward your wallet and the climate.

Experts now confidently suggest that aiming for around 20–21 °C in living areas creates a practical balance: warm enough for most people to feel comfortable in typical indoor clothing, but low enough to avoid runaway bills in an average, reasonably upgraded home. If you’re moving around a lot, you may lean closer to 20 °C. If you’re sitting still all day at a desk or have health concerns, nudging towards 21–22 °C can be entirely reasonable.

To ground these ideas, imagine your home as a kind of personal climate experiment. Rather than clinging to a rigid number, you tune into your body: Are your fingers cold while working? Is your jaw tense? Are you piling on clothing that makes movement awkward? If so, bumping the setpoint by 0.5–1 °C may actually be a more efficient choice than plugging in an energy-hungry space heater at your feet or constantly retreating under fleece throws.

What matters is the overall pattern. Each degree you raise the thermostat can increase your heating energy use by roughly 5–7%, depending on the house and climate. But each degree you save by drafting-proofing and insulating can bring comfort and costs back into harmony. Instead of worshipping at the altar of 19 °C, the new approach invites you to work with a gentle corridor of temperatures and invest effort where it pays off most: in your building envelope and your habits.

Real comfort in real life: tailoring your own indoor climate

To make all of this less abstract, it helps to compare different room types and activities. The table below offers a simple overview of expert-inspired, real-world target ranges you can adjust to your home and lifestyle. These aren’t commandments; they’re starting points for your own experiment.

Start by choosing a temperature at the lower end of these ranges. Live with it for a few days. Notice your body. If you find yourself constanty tensing, layering excessively, or fleeing to the warmest room, ease the settings up by half a degree at a time. That slow, deliberate adjustment gives your body a chance to adapt and your mind a chance to separate real discomfort from simple habit.

Beyond numbers: small rituals that change how warmth feels

There’s another quiet shift happening in how experts think about indoor temperature: they’re looking more closely at the little rituals that shape our perception of warmth. A thick rug under your feet can make 20 °C feel like 21 or 22. A draft-stopping curtain over a leaky front door can transform a “cold” hallway into a neutral corridor you no longer rush through. Warm light, textiles, and where you place your favorite chair (not pressed against a cold external wall) all play surprising roles.

Rather than treating heating as a battle between the thermostat and your bank account, you can see it as a kind of domestic ecology. The setpoint is just one species in the system; it interacts with insulation, fabrics, routines, and even the stories you tell yourself. Many people discover that once they’ve sealed obvious drafts, added a rug, and moved seating away from cold windows, they can nudge the thermostat down by 0.5–1 °C without noticing a thing—except a slightly smaller bill.

There’s also a psychological comfort in knowing you’re not failing some strict national standard by choosing 20 or 21 °C over 19. The old rule suggested that virtue meant shivering. The new understanding says something gentler: your comfort matters, and so does the way you achieve it. Waste is not measured by a single degree, but by unnecessary loss—heat leaking out through gaps, radiators blocked by furniture, windows left uncurtained on winter nights.

In this more generous view, you are allowed to want warm fingers on your mug, a living room where you can read without a blanket, a home that meets you halfway when you come in from the wind. You can aim for 20–22 °C in the rooms where life actually happens, and work, slowly and steadily, on making your building worthy of those degrees—tightening its envelope, upgrading where you can, and adjusting habits where it’s easy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 19 °C now “wrong” as a heating temperature?

No. Nineteen degrees isn’t wrong; it’s just not a universal rule. In well-insulated homes, many people are perfectly comfortable at 19–20 °C. In older, drafty buildings, 19 °C may feel too cold to be realistic. The key is to treat 19 °C as a reference point, not a commandment.

What indoor temperature do experts currently recommend for most living rooms?

Many experts now suggest a comfort range of about 20–22 °C for living spaces, with 20–21 °C often being a practical target for balancing comfort and energy efficiency in reasonably insulated homes.

Will raising my thermostat by 1 °C dramatically increase my bills?

Raising the setpoint by 1 °C typically adds around 5–7% to your heating energy use, though the exact figure depends on your home and climate. If you need that extra degree for genuine comfort, you can often offset it by improving insulation, sealing drafts, and using heating controls more intelligently.

What temperature is best for sleeping?

Cooler bedrooms generally support better sleep. A range of 17–19 °C is commonly recommended, using warm bedding and pajamas rather than heating the room too much. People sensitive to cold or with health issues may prefer the upper end of that range.

How can I feel warmer without turning up the thermostat?

Focus on reducing drafts, improving insulation, and warming the surfaces around you. Add rugs to cold floors, use thick curtains at night, rearrange furniture away from icy walls or windows, and wear warm socks and layers. These changes can make a 20 °C room feel as cozy as a 21–22 °C room with none of the extra energy use.

Is it better to keep heating on low all the time or to turn it on and off?

In many homes, using a timer and thermostat to heat only when needed is more efficient than leaving it on constantly, even at a lower setting. Exceptionally well-insulated or very massive buildings can behave differently, but for most households, smart scheduling and zoning save energy without sacrificing comfort.

How do I find my own ideal indoor temperature?

Use the recommended ranges as a starting point. Set your thermostat near the lower end, live with it for a few days, and pay close attention to how you feel. If you are regularly cold despite reasonable clothing and small comfort measures, nudge the temperature up in 0.5–1 °C steps until your body feels relaxed rather than tense. Your ideal temperature is the lowest setting at which you feel genuinely at ease.