Fighting over the house thermostat..do you?

hobbyfarm · Jul 22, 2005

( Maybe if you ran around in your underoos, she'd get the hint! )

Now there's a mental image I could just as easily done WITHOUT this early in the morning........... )

Indy,
I could have gone farther, and said run around in your holeist, most stained pair, but I figgered you really didn't need that in your mind all day! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

hobbyfarm · Jul 22, 2005

You know, I'm tempted next house we build to add a walk-in cooler too keep it "my" temperature, at least one room. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

shoppintractors · Jul 22, 2005

My mother-in-law stays with us quite a bit during the summer. 

It finally has come clear to me 'how' you've become so proficient at farming. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Don

Indydirtfarmer · Jul 22, 2005

( My mother-in-law stays with us quite a bit during the summer. 

It finally has come clear to me 'how' you've become so proficient at farming. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Don )

Sounds like I just gave away an important trade secret.....

Raised two kids.... Got them on their way.... Then the MIL shows up at the door.... Will I EVER have a home of my own..????????

LazKat · Jul 22, 2005

My wife wasn't born and raised here. The house where she grew up had two coal-fired stoves for heat. Her concept of heating is "it's on or it's off" and the whole idea of a thermostat never was part of her world. It's still isn't... despite long talks about how they work and why it's a bad idea to turn the system off before leaving for the day, either in winter or summer. I think the solution was to say that next time I find it off I'm going install one of those lucite cages around the thermostat - keyed lock and all.

The house has been comfortable for awhile now. 75 in summer and about 70 in the winter.

gsxr1100 · Jul 22, 2005

Wife is pregnant 7.5 months and she is always hot. So she likes it below the normal (69 F) in summer; she likes is a little colder (approx 67 F). Winter normal around here is about 70 to 72 in house.

We had it 54 F last year when she left the central air on manual and not auto…..Dogs were snowmen!

For me the extra K watts are cheap to keep the wife and my Chopin cool.

Mosby · Jul 22, 2005

I locked it. I had to. It was too difficult to explain that if you want the house a couple of degrees cooler or warmer, that setting it all the way left or right didn't get it there quicker. And that heat should never be used to offset the A/C (A/C all day and heat at night) Then I had to answer the question regarding how hot it was when she did house work. I simply said that we could adjust it that one day each month. Since then, the thermostat has been the least of worries.

Dargo · Jul 22, 2005

The only time my wife and I agreed on the temp was when she was preg. Maybe that's why I have 5 kids. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Arrgh! When I came home from work yesterday evening, I did have a rude surprise. The wife was complaining about the temp upstairs in our main house. It was 96 degrees up there! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif At about 1am this morining I finished washing out the condenser coil and replacing the TXV valve that had gone bad. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I have a brother in law who owns an HVAC service, and he agreed to give me the part in the middle of the night, but he wasn't about to come out and work on it. I was so hot and sweaty by the time I finished, that I ran the thermostat down to 60 to try to get it cooled down. I don't know exactly when I fell asleep (while sweating like crazy - wife refused to go out to the pool house to the guest bedroom where it was nice and cool) but I woke around 4am freezing to death! I don't want to talk about HVAC or thermostats this morning!

PineRidge · Jul 22, 2005

Got involved in more than a few husband/wife arguments over control of the thermostat in my day. And sometimes a thermostat in a business was prone to huge temperature swings due to folks playing with the stat all day long.

In some cases we would leave a "dummy" stat on a wall in plain view so folks could play, but then we would install solid state duct stats within the return air ducts to actually control the temperature within the home or business. That normally sufficed.

Gatorboy · Jul 22, 2005

The A/C and heat will run based on the temperature at the thermostat. So, if that room is generally cooler than the rest of the house you will find you need to keep the temperature set lower during the summer.

Because cool air falls, we close off all of the vents in the (finished) basement; a majority on the main level; and open all the vents upstairs during the summer. We do the opposite in the winter when we run the heat (heat rises).

Our thermostat is in the dining room -- so regardless of season, that vent is always closed. Seems that works well in getting a more accurate temperature of the house when the cool or warm air is not flowing in that room.