Enhanced heating regimes: consultation

Heating Regimes 

11. To calculate national levels of fuel poverty, a range of information is collected through the SHCS.  The SHCS is a sample survey which provides fuel poverty results at a national and sub-national level, as well as for a range of dwelling and household characteristics.  However, it is not feasible to use the SHCS to identify and target all fuel poor households in Scotland for various fuel poverty support schemes.  Instead we use a range of proxies.  As part of our work on the Fuel Poverty Strategy we will be reviewing all the characteristics of fuel poor households, including the heating regimes, to see how we can best target our support.   

12. In the SHCS we estimate the costs associated with heating different dwelling types to the requisite temperature for the requisite number of hours and we apply the appropriate heating regime, based on the characteristics of people in the household. This calculation also takes into account other domestic fuel costs required for cooking, hot water and other purposes.

13. The ‘standard heating regime’ has been set out in the Bill^[5] and is shown below.

Standard Heating Regime
Requisite temperature: 21 degrees Celsius for the living room and 18 degrees Celsius for any other room
Requisite number of hours: 9 hours a day on a weekday and 16 hours a day during the weekend.

14. The Bill also allows for enhanced heating regimes, with higher temperatures or longer hours or both.  The ‘enhanced heating regimes’ are set out below.

Enhanced Heating Regimes

Enhanced Heating Regime 1.  
Requisite temperature: 23 degrees Celsius for the living room and 20 degrees Celsius for any other room
Requisite number of hours: 16 hours a day

Enhanced Heating Regime 2
Requisite temperature: 23 degrees Celsius for the living room and 20 degrees Celsius for any other room
Requisite number of hours: 9 hours a day on a weekday and 16 hours a day during the weekend.

Enhanced Heating Regime 3
Requisite temperature: 21 degrees Celsius for the living room and 18 degrees Celsius for any other room
Requisite number of hours: 16 hours a day