What do you keep the thermostat at inside the house in the winter?

[BoylermanCT]

68 during the day and 60 at night. I keep the wood stove going all winter long, and that keeps the living room at 72-74, the kitchen and dining room at 70 and the bedrooms at 65. The thermostat is there to keep the house from getting too cold if and when the fire dies down.

 

[NoTrespassing]

It's 3 degrees outside right now. The propane forced air furnace is set at 66 and that's the warmest place in the house. The kitchen is 62 degrees facing the northwest. I run 2 small electric heaters to supplement the propane, one in the kitchen and one in the kid's bedroom. Electricity is cheap here but so was propane this year. I think I paid 99 cents per gallon and will burn about 400 gallons for the year. That includes the water heater and oven/stove. Power runs about 70-80$.

I remember frost on my bedroom walls as a kid and using electric blankets. We had a glass of water freeze in the bedroom next to mine that the floor register was closed off to. We also never had air conditioning when I was growing up. Getting out of bed in the morning for school was an experience in itself. brrrrrr......

Kevin

Woo Hoo! 750 Posts!

 

[smstonypoint]

Surely you have days when you wonder, "Why do houses in cold climates tend to be kept warmer in winter than those in warmer climates, despite the greater cost of heating in colder climates." Then you come to the same old realization, "I need the advice of an economist. An economist would be able to answer my question."

It's funny how something I read 30 years ago came to mind when I started reading this thread. "Cold Houses in Warm Climates and Vice Versa:A Paradox of Rational Heating" by David Friedman (son of Milton) appeared in the Journal of Political Economy in 1987. Here's an ungated version of the paper: Cold Houses in Warm Climates: D. Friedman.

Steve

 

[Ehanson]

ours is set at 60 at night and 65 to 67 during the day. We usually where a sweater throughout the day. Slippers help as well.

 

[newbury]

It's 3 degrees outside right now. The propane forced air furnace is set at 66 and that's the warmest place in the house. The kitchen is 62 degrees facing the northwest. I run 2 small electric heaters to supplement the propane, one in the kitchen and one in the kid's bedroom. Electricity is cheap here but so was propane this year. I think I paid 99 cents per gallon and will burn about 400 gallons for the year. That includes the water heater and oven/stove. Power runs about 70-80$.

I remember frost on my bedroom walls as a kid and using electric blankets. We had a glass of water freeze in the bedroom next to mine that the floor register was closed off to. We also never had air conditioning when I was growing up. Getting out of bed in the morning for school was an experience in itself. brrrrrr......

Kevin

Woo Hoo! 750 Posts!

Maybe that's my problem with heat. The house I grew up in (northern Vermont) was old with single pane windows and I'd swear at times leaked so much air that I could fly a kite inside.
Routinely there would be a half inch of ice ON THE INSIDE of the windows. I'd wake up and be able to see my breath.

58 degrees??!!! Are you nutso? Who the heck can stand 58 degrees?! No way, man. I need at least 70, and I freeze my a__ off if my wife turns it down to 68 for sleeping. (Same with our daughter, who doen't have an ounce of fat on her.). And we are in Canada, where everyone lives in igloos!

Brrrrr! I have to go and get a blanket now.

The first two years (1984, 1985) in my present house in northern Virginia we had no storm windows and were tight on money. Our eldest son still tells stories of seeing his breath inside.

 

[techman]

Geo heat pumps, 71-72 day and night

paul

 

[jk96]

Geo heat pumps, 71-72 day and night

paul

Same here. Geo heat pump as well with all zones 71-72 all winter. We also have a wood burning fireplace insert that is cranking out the heat as I type with a little osage orange in the mix. 4 degrees outside right now an main living area (living, dining, kitchen, entry, loft) is 74 currently with the fireplace going. Any warmer and we turn the blower down.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The last few days of sub-freezing temps we have left the heat pump set at 63 degrees, so we will notice it's chilly and feed wood into the stove. When temp gets about 40, we sometimes let the wood fire go out and use the heat pump at about 68 degrees.

 

[TnAndy]

No thermostat as such, heat with wood. Do have a couple of mini-split heat pumps we could use as backup, but almost never do. Keep the living area mid 70's, bedroom mid-low 60's for good sleeping.

 

[Bird]

I grew up in the days of a propane heater in the living room; only heated the living room, kitchen, and dining area; no heat in any bedroom. I was 19 years old before I ever slept in a room that had either heat or cooling. And now we have a heat pump HVAC with heat strip in a total electric home. We have a programmable thermostat at eye level in the living room, and we NEVER change it or use that programmable feature; it stays on 76 24/7 year round. We only switch it from heating to cooling in the Spring and Fall. We also have ceiling fans in the living room, bedrooms, and in the "bedroom" I'm currently in that is my "office/library/desk/computer" or whatever room. Now 76 at eye level means 70-73 at eye level when sitting down. In this room, the ceiling fan is ALWAYS on and on medium speed. Right now the NWS says it's 9 degrees outside, and I'm sitting under the ceiling fan, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. A good part of many days, my wife sits in the living room under a blanket while I sit in shorts and a t-shirt under the ceiling fan. In summer that fan's running, in winter it's not.