Does it make a difference what type of accommodation I live in?
The right time to start heating your home depends on several factors including your own personal preference, the weather, whether you live in rented accommodation or own your own property, and on the age and features of the property you live in.
How does the heating system work in Swedish homes?
More than half of all houses and commercial properties in Sweden use district heating or fjärrvärme, with this number rising to around 90 percent for apartment buildings.
This system distributes hot water from heating plants to houses and apartments through underground water pipes, meaning that heating sources are centralised, rather than individual houses or apartments having their own heating source.
In smaller towns and in houses, district heating is less common, and it's these households who can benefit the most from waiting longer to turn on their heating.
Do I control my heating?
It depends. If you live in a rented apartment or a bostadsrättsforening (co-operative housing association) with district heating, your landlord or the board of your housing foundation will usually decide for you when to turn your heating on.
Unlike other countries, Sweden has no official legal heating season, with heating in bostadsrättsföreningar usually switched on automatically following periods of cold weather, no matter which date they occur on.
This will usually be designed to provide an indoor temperature of around 21C - you can turn your radiators down if you feel this is too warm, but you won't usually be able to turn them up if you want the temperature to be warmer.
The Public Health Agency recommends temperatures of between 20 and 24C indoors, with temperatures lower than 18C in apartments posing a health risk.
Temperatures lower than 14C are not recommended as they can cause condensation and mould growth on walls and furnishings, which, again, are a health risk, and can cause permanent damage to properties.
Can I save money by waiting to turn my heating on?
Again, it depends. If you're renting and you pay varmhyra - rent with heating included - then you won't save money directly, but heating your home wisely could make it less likely for your landlord to raise your rent to cover increased heating costs.
If you pay kallhyra - rent without heating included, then waiting to turn on the heating will save money on your electricity bill.
Similarly, in some housing associations, electricity and heating costs are included in your monthly fee, meaning you pay your share of the heating costs for the entire building ever month. In this case, your energy costs are more affected by how much energy everyone else in your housing association uses than your individual usage.
On the other hand, this doesn't mean you shouldn't care about how warm your heating is - if you have your heating on full-blast for the whole winter, your costs will increase as well as the costs of all of your neighbours, and if the entire association's energy costs increase substantially, the board may decide to raise the monthly fee or avgift for everyone in the building to cover this.
If you pay an individual energy bill based on your own household's usage, and not on an average of the whole building, it could pay to wait before you switch on your heating.
How else can I save money on heating costs?
Turning your heating down a couple of degrees can make a big difference to your heating costs, but you can also save money on heating and make your property feel warmer by making it more energy effective.
There are a few easy ways to do this, according to the Swedish Energy Agency.
Firstly, make sure your house is well insulated, not just your doors and windows, but also in the loft: a large amount of a building's heat escapes through the roof. This also applies to the boundaries between well-insulated and poorly-insulated areas.
If you have a cellar or conservatory, for example, which is not heated and not insulated, make sure the door between this room and the rest of the house is well-insulated with no gaps around the doorframe where heat can escape into the colder room.
In a similar vein, locate any drafts and do what you can to block them, either with draft excluders or by replacing worn-out draft excluder strips on old doors and windows.
You can also benefit from thinking about how you furnish your home to make the most of the energy you're using to heat it. Furniture placed in front of radiators, for example, mean it is harder for warm air to circulate, and you can keep your house warmer at night by closing your curtains or blinds to keep heat from escaping through your windows.
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