Heat Settings

Ruth

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For those of you who live in the cold Winter zones what do you keep your temperature at on your thermostat? I've been keeping it at 68 F but sometimes the air gets so cold before the heat goes back on that I give it a little turn up to 70 F. I'm trying to watch my fuel consumption and not have a large bill. The heat just kicked on in here and I was waiting--there was such a chill in the air. I also have birds and don't want them to catch a draft. I have put plastic up on my front window to try to keep a draft out. Last time I put the plastic up was 2 years ago and the plastic came up on one side and was hard to get back in place. I guess I didn't put it up correctly. I think I have it up there good this time, hopefully it will be okay for the cold months.
 

Lamb

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My thermostat is different from the one we used to have. The guy who installed it said go by comfort level and not the number so ours is set for 65 degrees. It probably equates to 68 on our old thermostat.

I put plastic up on 5 of our windows this year. There is one window in the basement that had a lot of condensation so a portion of the tape came off. I need to figure out another way to keep the cold out downstairs without covering over the blinds completely.
 

tango

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I've got one of the truly ancient thermostats that has a little capsule of mercury in it. You can't even buy them any more. What I usually do is to go through a cycle of turning it down a degree, letting the temperature settle, and then deciding if I'm still comfortable. If I am I repeat the process, turning it down a degree at a time until I feel chilly. Then I turn it back up a degree or two. The idea is to maintain the lowest temperature (and therefore the lowest bill) that doesn't involve endlessly feeling cold. At the moment I think it's set to 63-64. Sometimes in the evening we turn it up a notch or two.

My house is an old one that doesn't have central heating in all the rooms. My study doesn't have a radiator in it and if I leave it closed up (which I usually do to stop the cat getting in there) it often drops to the low 50s and sometimes lower still if we have a sustained cold snap. I keep an electric radiator in there on a timer to try and stop it dropping below the high 50s. It's hard to do much work when the temperature in there is 48 and the radiator is working overtime trying to get the heat back up. Part of the problem is the exposed concrete blocks - as soon as I can get the blocks smoothed off and insulation panels put in that will make a huge difference - when it's really cold in there my thermal camera shows the face of the concrete blocks at about 45 degrees and the inner face of the panels I have got in place so far at more like 56. Once I get drywall over the top of the insulation panels it should get better still.

Trying to balance maintaining comfort without being financially drained is tricky in the winter. A couple I know hated their house because they wanted more space. So when they found a house that was cheap because it had sat empty for three years they bought it. They love having the space but don't like their projected heating bills - they are expecting to pay something like $5000/year to heat the place. It's a magnificent house but that bill to heat it is ugly.
 

Josiah

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ONE of the things I love about Hawaii (where I do NOT live!) is that you don't need a heater and you don't need an Air Conditioner - just windows that open.

I live near the coast in southern California - and MOST of the time, neither a heater or AC is needed. But last night, it got down into the upper 30's here and in the Winter, the low (usually at sun up) can get to freezing!!!! Rare do temps get above 90 but 80's is common in the Summer and Fall.! I keep the heater at 68 and the AC at 76.
 

NewCreation435

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Lately it has been around 66 degrees inside most of the day. Personally, I think that is a little cool.
We don't live in as cold a place as many of you. We did have 9 straight days last winter where it never got above freezing.
 

tango

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My study was 52 degrees this morning. The rooms below it were holding a little higher at 54 degrees. Yesterday before I started fixing the walls it was 52 in there as well. I think I've got more gaps in the outside wall behind a wall I physically can't get at just yet.
 

tango

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I think I need to get a couple of space heaters and mains timers. It's pretty tedious when I go into the study and have to spend the first half hour trying to get the temperature up. It would be nice to have it maintained at a tolerable temperature during the day, so I'd just need to top up the heat a little if needed.
 

Krissy Cakes

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We go to comfort level or 65 but if its colder we might bump it up a little bit.
 

tango

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My breezeway is holding at 50 degrees, give or take. Not bad since the heater in there is disconnected. The area I'm working in has held steady at 52-54 degrees, also not bad since the only heat source is what drifts through the walls from the parts I'm not destroying.
 
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