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When do you usually turn on the heat for the year?
It's November 2nd and last night was cold and this morning there was frost on the grass and my car windows. I feel chilly right now and my cat is leaning against me, which usually she doesn't, so she must be cold, too.
I'm probably going to turn on the heat (horribly expensive baseboard electric) today. I usually go barefoot at home, but will have to start wearing socks now as the floors felt freezingly cold this morning.
I turn it on when it gets too cold in the house. Usually at the end of October or first few days of November. Mine has been on a couple of weeks as I was sick and just couldn’t get warm so I turned it on.
We turned our heat in mid October in Minnesota. We tried to wait, but with a 1 year old it had to go on. Now with the below average temperatures this week, the heat is staying on. We keep the house around 67 to 68, and turn it down to 65 at night. It may go up to 70 when the temps the really cold.
I grew up in a household where the thermostat never went above 63 and was set down to 57 at night. It was always cold in the house. And no matter how many blankets and clothes you wear, once you are cold , they do little help.
When I lived in the mountains Dad got some bubble wrap and we used it in our beds between the sheets either the top or the bottom but not both, it got too hot.
We had a propane gas stove in the kitchen an oil heater in the living room and eventually a fireplace too.
Bat and board cabins had no insulation but tar paper between the boards to keep the wind out.
We left the water dripping in the sinks and had ice in them in the morning. NO flames are left on at night unattended.
We had down comforters and we slept well through the night even though it was freezing in the cabin. first thing was to start the gas stove and warm up the kitchen and head out to the outhouse and take care of business there and pick up some firewood and head back into the cabin and get breakfast going. With 2-3 feet of snow I had to shovel out the drive for mom to go to work and I would head off to school on foot only a mile away. that was the mid-1960s. Sometimes the first winter storm came on mother's day and it didn't melt till April.
Nowadays I live in the wine country and we do get snow rarely but enough to disrupt life for a moment.
8;45 AM the house is 67 degrees and I am quite comfortable, It is just 60 degrees outside right now. I heat with a wood cookstove and cook on propane gas I don't heat the house automatically, it is a waste of energy on this home.
I much prefer the colder weather, I miss the mountains, but I miss the people more.
Wow. I don't envy you the primitive circumstances of that childhood, but I'm sure there were other compensations for living that way, in that place.
For those living with electric baseboard heat (the most expensive form in my part of the country), do you have a gas range? In a smaller unit, having a big pot of water, uncovered, always at a low simmer on the gas range can be a way to reduce the amount of electric heat used, while also humidifying the house. Make sure you have a working carbon monoxide monitor in the kitchen, though, and that the pot is always filled, and no clutter or flammable kitchen cloths near the gas range.
In my house, we all have down comforters, and wear fleece jackets and socks in the house. Heat goes on when the weather is cold out, and house gets down to 60 or so. We leave it at 60 when we're out during the day, turn it up to 65 when we get home, back down to 60 overnight. If we have warm days, we turn it off altogether.
As for our tenants, in multifamily rental housing? They keep the heat (that they control and that they or the taxpayers are paying for) at 80 degrees, and wear shorts and t-shirts in the unit. That is, until the gas gets shut off for non-payment! Then they get onto an unlimited use subsidy plan, that requires them to pay something like $50/month year round, no matter how many thousands they already owe, and they can use as much as they want, which means they're likely to have a year-round gas bill of about three thousand dollars, and pay about $600 dollars a year, forever - as long as they keep making their $50/month payments. And even if they stop, it will take about a year before the gas company turns off the gas - because shutoffs are prohibited in the winter, or year round if there is a person with a qualifying condition in the household, and then they can get back on to the $50/month plan and get it turned back on..... but I digress.
We like our creature comforts and so do our whiskered masters. House is very well insulated and geo thermal is set on 65F; fireplace is our main source unless it gets really cold. Gas with a rock enclosure to the ceiling which works like a heating stone.
It was 11 degrees this morning. Our gas furnace is ON. Its set at 72. We lived in the south during the winter for the last 25 years. We are not yet reaclimated to cold weather. Give it a year or 2 and we might turn down the thermostat, but not this year.
When it gets cold.... We keep the temp between 66-68 during the day but I do turn it down to 64 at bedtime.
Luckily my mothers bedroom faces the south side so her room heats up nicely during the day when it's sunny. She's home all day and I would not want her uncomfortable.
When do you usually turn on the heat for the year?
It's November 2nd and last night was cold and this morning there was frost on the grass and my car windows. I feel chilly right now and my cat is leaning against me, which usually she doesn't, so she must be cold, too.
I'm probably going to turn on the heat (horribly expensive baseboard electric) today. I usually go barefoot at home, but will have to start wearing socks now as the floors felt freezingly cold this morning.
If your teeth are chattering and your pipes are frozen, it's probably too late.
Usually somewhere in October the heat comes on. This year I feel like it was a little earlier, but we hit a cold snap that took us into the negatives two weeks ago. We have cove heating so every room in our house has a different temperature gauge. We keep it set around 55°. Our house is very well insulated. It we turn the heaters up much more, even in the winter we'll be sweating.
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