Whats a reasonable temp to set your thermostat at (winter in NE)

[SparkyJJO]

Between setting 2 and 3.

Yeah, my heater does not have an actual temperature listed. Yes, it is a wall-mount gas heater, not a furnace. Yes, it gets cold in the bedroom away from said heater.

Renting a small place sucks sometimes

 

[rudeguy]

3.5

I live in an apartment where heat is free. Thing goes up to 10 but anything above 4 is miserable. At 3.5 the living room is plenty warm and I leave my bedroom window open so I can sleep.

 

[lxskllr]

Between setting 2 and 3.

Yeah, my heater does not have an actual temperature listed. Yes, it is a wall-mount gas heater, not a furnace. Yes, it gets cold in the bedroom away from said heater.

Renting a small place sucks sometimes

My first place had a gas fired space heater. I loved it. It had the nature of a wood stove without the work :^)

 

[rudeguy]

I heat with coal, and since I cut and split quite a few cord of firewood this summer, I may even supplement that heat with a wood stove in the basement. When not home, I cut it back to low. When home, whatever feels comfortable, so it varies a bit with the weather. Anywhere between 50's and 90's. I recall when I was home for a "snow day" - too cold for the buses and for students to be outside (-20's F), I said "F U Mother Nature! You've got nothing on me!" And tried to see if I could get the house above 100F. I got it to 97.

My sis and bro-in-law went to a wood fired furnace. Damn near free to run and they can leave it at 75 and not care. My BIL and nephew spend the summer splitting and stacking wood so they can be nice and cozy in the winter.

I'm surprised you haven't done that yet.

 

[Imp]

Whatever the hell 21 C is in farenheit.

We did 18-19 and froze our asses off. Theoretically, 18 C is the cut-off point for when you people usually turn the heat on, feel it, or something like that.

 

[rudeguy]

Whatever the hell 21 C is in farenheit.

We did 18-19 and froze our asses off. Theoretically, 18 C is the cut-off point for when you people usually turn the heat on, feel it, or something like that.

http://bit.ly/WakG3y

 

[CPA]

74.

Whatever makes you comfortable.

 

[DrPizza]

My sis and bro-in-law went to a wood fired furnace. Damn near free to run and they can leave it at 75 and not care. My BIL and nephew spend the summer splitting and stacking wood so they can be nice and cozy in the winter.

I'm surprised you haven't done that yet.

Because it would never pay back the investment. The outdoor wood boilers aren't the most efficient things on the market - they go through more wood than a wood stove does indoors. I'd also have to install either hot water baseboard heating, else install a heat exchanger & all the duct work for forced air.

Regardless, if I was going to cut and split that much firewood, then I'd cut and split that much firewood, sell it for $50 a face cord, buy enough coal to last the winter, and take my wife out to dinner a couple times with the extra money I made (extra money if I purchased the coal in bulk, rather than bagged. I'm lazy enough to just get 50 pound bags & pay the extra.)

 

[rudeguy]

Because it would never pay back the investment. The outdoor wood boilers aren't the most efficient things on the market - they go through more wood than a wood stove does indoors. I'd also have to install either hot water baseboard heating, else install a heat exchanger & all the duct work for forced air.

Regardless, if I was going to cut and split that much firewood, then I'd cut and split that much firewood, sell it for $50 a face cord, buy enough coal to last the winter, and take my wife out to dinner a couple times with the extra money I made.

lmao!

They live in an older house that had a really bad gas furnace. They were spending $100/month on gas and it was always freezing in there. Their unit still uses the furnace to force the air, and the wood just supplies the heat. At least I think that's how it works.

 

[waggy]

We keep ours 62-63, wear extra clothes. Every home is different though...

same.

I heat with coal, and since I cut and split quite a few cord of firewood this summer, I may even supplement that heat with a wood stove in the basement. .

We have a nice large wood burning stove in the basement. i fire that up about 5pm it gets VERY hot and keeps the basement 1st floor warm.

wich lets us keep the temp down. the house is livable. sure we wear another layer and use blankets too.

 

[IronWing]

72F Gimpy cat gets cold.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Somewhere between 65 and 68F.

We have an oil furnace and a wood stove in the basement. We use the wood stove constantly in the late Fall, Winter, and early Spring, and the furnace kicks on to supplement it.

 

[richardycc]

constant 72 upstairs, due to 21month old baby and my wife likes to walk around the house with only a T-shirt on. First floor is between 68-70.I have one of those high eff 90% oil boiler.

 

[DrPizza]

lmao!

They live in an older house that had a really bad gas furnace. They were spending $100/month on gas and it was always freezing in there. Their unit still uses the furnace to force the air, and the wood just supplies the heat. At least I think that's how it works.

My eyebrows just squished together. $100 per month, with a bad gas furnace, in Michigan, in an old house, is... incredible. Under those circumstances, I'd predict closer to $400-$500 per month during the winter.

 

[sjwaste]

We keep it at 70 when we're home - split zones, upstairs and downstairs, programmable t-stat staggers it a bit. Downstairs goes to 58 overnight, but the house never actually gets that cold. We keep the upstairs 70 all night because we have a 5 month old.

I really want a coal stoker in the basement. We're on oil now, but the thing is in way too good of shape to get rid of. Coal is just so cheap.

Portland, Maine area.

 

[waggy]

My eyebrows just squished together. $100 per month, with a bad gas furnace, in Michigan, in an old house, is... incredible. Under those circumstances, I'd predict closer to $400-$500 per month during the winter.

agreed. i have a newer house with good (not great) windows and a 2 yr old HE furnace and i pay $110-150.

maybe its a small house..

 

[96Firebird]

64°F.

Any warmer and I sweat my ass off at night, any cooler and my feet are freezing.

If your windows are drafty, put plastic on them. Worked well in my old house that had old windows.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

We don't set it. The outdoors get to the low 40's at night, and throughout most of the house in the low 60's. My brother usually leaves the bedroom window open, so it's probably mid/low 50's where I sleep. Cold air + covers + lots of pillows = easiest sleep ever.

 

[ussfletcher]

We don't set it. The outdoors get to the low 40's at night, and throughout most of the house in the low 60's. My brother usually leaves the bedroom window open, so it's probably mid/low 50's where I sleep. Cold air + covers + lots of pillows = easiest sleep ever.

But it takes some super human will to get out of bed in the morning.

 

[herm0016]

between 62 and 65 is great. i would love to buy a house with a wood stove or a pellet stove. I am stuck in an apartment right now.

 

[SparkyJJO]

But it takes some super human will to get out of bed in the morning.

That's what it took for me last winter. No heat in my bedroom and only the one door to the main area, so it would get COLD back there. Water service comes in the corner of the closet area and it froze overnight once last year if that tells you anything on how cold it can get in my bedroom

 

[NetWareHead]

My sis and bro-in-law went to a wood fired furnace. Damn near free to run and they can leave it at 75 and not care. My BIL and nephew spend the summer splitting and stacking wood so they can be nice and cozy in the winter.

I'm surprised you haven't done that yet.

That doesn't sound like "damn near free" at all. Even if you get the trees for free, wood needs to be split, stacked and seasoned, occupying space in the yard for at least a year while drying. Besides a chainsaw, anybody relying on wood for heat almost always has a log splitter which also isn't free. Between the maintenance needed, gasoline & oil there are very real costs to wood. And who wants to spend the summer splitting and stacking wood? Wood is a shit ton of work.

Regardless, if I was going to cut and split that much firewood, then I'd cut and split that much firewood, sell it for $50 a face cord, buy enough coal to last the winter, and take my wife out to dinner a couple times with the extra money I made (extra money if I purchased the coal in bulk, rather than bagged. I'm lazy enough to just get 50 pound bags & pay the extra.)

This. I chopped/stacked wood (without a splitter) too for a wood burning stove while we heated the rest of the house with gas. After countless cords of wood, I was turned off of wood completely and am seriously considering coal for my next house. It doesn't rot, can sit outside for years and insects/vermin won't be attracted to it. Id rather fill a 5 gallon pail from my coal bin and bring that inside the house than an armful of wood which tracks wood debris all over. I find it easier to shovel coal pieces into a stove than to load irregular shaped logs. Wood forms creosote in a chimney and carries risk of chimney fires, which you don't get with coal. You can even burn coal wet. Buddy of mine has a coal stove and he gets 12-36 hour burn times from one coal load, try that with wood. And coal is cheap and is mined in the USA.

Oh yeah, live in NH and thermometer is set to 67. House is typical 1920s construction with new windows and gas hot water baseboard heat.

 

[notposting]

Right now (southeast Michigan) we set it to 64 at night, though the bedrooms get colder, and I crank it to 70 in the morning, when it hits 70 I dial it back to 64 and watch the temperature go down.

Though it usually doesn't really fall until evening...but it definitely feels colder without fresh warm air being blown around.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

We have dual heat - oil and pellets. Pellet stove keeps the house nice and toasty (right around 70) for a whopping $850 a year (roughly 3.3 tons of pellets). The thermostat for the oil heat is set at 60, but the oil furnace never comes on unless we need to heat water. I think I burned ~100 gallons of oil in total last year.

 

[akshatp]

Right now (southeast Michigan) we set it to 64 at night, though the bedrooms get colder, and I crank it to 70 in the morning, when it hits 70 I dial it back to 64 and watch the temperature go down.

Though it usually doesn't really fall until evening...but it definitely feels colder without fresh warm air being blown around.

What do you do after you are done watching the temperature go down?