A study from tado° has revealed that, on average, people in the UK begin to turn the heating up when the outside temperature drops to 13.5°C, but there’s a difference between Southerners, Northerners, and Scots.

The internal user study was conducted on October 8, 2019 from a sample of approximately 25,000 homes from the company's UK customer base. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 0.5°C.

The average outdoor temperature needed to get Southern English people to first turn on their thermostat after the summer is 13.5°C. However, Northerners wait for it to drop to 13°C, while Scots hold out until the temperature falls to 12.5°C. The average inside temperature at this time is 20.5°C for Southerners, 20°C for Northerners, and 19.5°C for Scots, according to the research.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the findings show that the further north you live, the more likely you are to tolerate both a colder outdoor and indoor temperature. Welsh people are, however, the first to turn on the thermostat when the outdoor temperature drops to 14°C, even though Wales is further north than southern England. As of the second week of October, approximately 95% of Brits had switched their heating on since the summer.