Clocks Go Back 25 October: Reset Your Heating Timer Before Winter

The UK clocks go back one hour at 2am on Sunday 25 October 2026, marking the end of British Summer Time. Most people only think about correcting the oven clock and their watch - but it's also the most natural moment in the year to check your heating programmer actually matches how your household lives now, not how it lived in July.

Your boiler doesn't know the clocks changed

A heating programmer runs on whatever schedule was last set - it has no idea it's suddenly an hour darker at 5pm. If your schedule was set for long summer evenings, it may now be switching the heating on later than the house actually needs it, leaving the first hour after dark cold before the system catches up.

What's worth checking this weekend

Three things take a few minutes: confirm the programmer's clock is correct (some older mechanical timers don't auto-adjust and will now be an hour out until manually corrected), check the "on" times still match when the house is actually occupied and cold, and if you have a smart thermostat, confirm its schedule or geofencing is still behaving as expected rather than assuming it "just handles it."

While you're in there

This is also a sensible moment to check boiler pressure is still in the normal 1-2 bar range, and to book an annual boiler service if it's been more than a year - both covered in more detail in our autumn heating checklist. None of this takes long, and all of it is easier to deal with now than after the first genuinely cold night of the year.

If something's actually wrong

If the heating won't come on at all once you've checked the schedule, or the boiler shows a fault, see our Emergency Boiler Repair page or call 07472 251465.