How cold/warm is your house?

[MaKettle]

Today the ice is melting off the trees and fences from the last cold spell, but there is another one coming. Fuel costs keep rising. We supplement with the wood stove, but that sure doesn't affect the living room or bedrooms. DH keeps moving the thermostat down to 55. At that temperature I either go into hibernation mode or seek errands so I can have a warm car for shelter. How about the others in the cold areas? Are you living in Carharts and boots in the house, permanently hunkered by the stove?

[moonwolf]

I am much more frugal than in the past, especially since the cost of fuel has gone so high. I have wood and oil backup. Buying either isn't cheap. The main house I keep cool in the 50's if that. I keep a smaller room warmer where I sleep that is maintained by electric baseboard heat. That has kept the winter heating costs to the bone minimum. I don't suffer or wear mukluks, but occasionally the sorel boots and I layer clothes to keep warm. One gets acclimated to our seasons by going outdoors every day some, even in winter.

[cloverfarm]

We try to keep it about 65 to 68 ... but if we are going to be away for a long time, turn it back to 55 or 60.

[kesoaps]

DH forgot to check the propane last month, and today found we were hovering just above zero With a foot of snow on the ground, that's not a good thing. We've got a couple small space heaters in the living room and rec room that are keeping us pretty warm, and a blanket is draped over the hallway blocking off the bedrooms (which will be chilly tonight!)

[Fla Gal]

I feel guilty... it was in the upper 70's here today and I had to turn on the A/C for a few minutes to get the heat out of the house after a day of the sun beating down on the house.

[motivated]

We are having a heck of a winter so far, with several days of snow and rain this past week. The downstairs is gas heated and kept 66 in the day and 58 at night.
In the large living room with 16 ft ceiling, and woodstove it is a very hot 72! I can hardly take it and am down to a tee shirt! It seems that DH adds 2 or 3 logs whenever I am not looking and it just builds up. We use 2 fans and a ceiling fan to blow the air around. I like it cooler with a few layers of clothes instead. When you are moving around with housework you stay warm.
Jodi

[DeAnn]

Feeling guilty too. 9:00 pm and it is 75 degrees in the house with windows open. But remember us in the summer when it is 90 degrees with no breeze!

I was hoping for a longer winter...I hate the heat. A Winter so short I can't grow lettuce.

Keep warm everybody,

DeAnn

[travlnusa]

64 during the day, 55 at night

[MaKettle]

DeAnn, here is the Midwest it is 90 degrees in the summer. I wanna be a snow bird.

[FrankTheTank]

Lets see...Cold in most of the house, and warm in the bedroom...i've been known to turn things off when i'm gone pipes shouldn't freeze... Really I don't mind a cold house (I grew up wearing a jacket most of the time--in the house) I couldn't live in the Southeast...i can't stand that humidity (we get it once in awhile)...I think a desert climate would be ideal for me (hot days, cool nights--semi cold winters). I would say here in SW Wi we get a solid 6 months of ideal temps (no Ac/ No heat) And maybe a couple weeks (last summer never!) with AC...and a sold 4 months, give or take with the heat running. Overall its not too bad.

AC in Jan is insane...

Looks like a nice shot of Arctic chill is coming down for late week. The high here should be 0F to subzero and overnight lows in the -teens...It'll be nice once Jan/Feb are over with.

[Maura]

Our weather changes a lot. All the snow melted over the new year's holiday, then it snowed again. It is now cold enough to freeze the drinking water and will go up to 45 in a few days, then drop to around 11. I'm not looking forward to the 11.

The temperature in the house stays pretty much the same. The garage, which is on a concrete slab, we keep at 65, the upstairs 72 to 68. I like 72, hubby pushes it down to 68. Because the heat is in the floor, lower temperatures feel warmer. our lp was about $1100 for the past year for heat, hot water, and stove.

[comfortablynumb]

I can live fine if the needle dont go below 50-55 inside, or I build a fire.

[Jen H]

I keep it around 65 during the day and no heat at night - that's what the down comforters are for.

I usually just run the wood stove for heat, but we do have a propane furnace I can use if I'm feeling lazy. I'm cheap, tho, so the furnace is almost never on.

[big rockpile]

Just keep shoving wood in the stove,kind of warm in here now.Don't know what the Tempreture is.

big rockpile

[jenzden]

We have our oil furnace set at 55 to 58 - depending on how cold it is outside. We are struggling financially this year so we have to stretch the oil out as far as we can. When it gets really cold we get into our longjohns and use a fleece blanket over our legs when sitting. Sometimes we will turn on a small space heater. We have a fireplace in the livingroom and a woodstove downstairs connected to the furnace ductwork. Unfortunately we did not stock up on firewood because of different things going on, so what little firewood we have has to be used sparingly. If it would ever quit raining here we will go out and get some wood from dead but still standing trees. We have tons of maple trees just right for chopping without having to split.
Thankfully this winter season has not been as harsh as last year. I know it will probably change to bitter cold soon so we will conserve as much as we can.
Can't wait for spring....

[apirlawz]

Chalk me up as another one of those who discovered they were out of propane the day after a 18" snowfall! That happened last year, right after we moved to our farm. Luckily, the propane folks were able to find a man to plow our 1/5 mile drive for the truck!! (Did I mention that we have the best propane folks ever!?!)

This fall, we installed a Fisher wood stove (that took me forever to track down!), and it's been pretty nice. I was thinking that it would supplement our ancient, inefficient boiler, but we found we only have to rely on the stove. The room that the stove is located in is usually 75, with the far end of the house being only 6 degrees cooler. In the mornings, it's usually around 60.

I'm still learning the finer points of ol' Mama Bear, and hopefully can figure out how to keep a smaller fire (ie, cooler fire, cooler home, less wood!) without having to either load it with twigs every half hour, or keep it so choked up that I have to clean out creosote every two weeks!

Luckily, we have quite a few acres of mature, wooded land (and a lot of standing dead timber to boot), so although it's a lot of hard work, our heat has been free this year.

April

[desdawg]

High of 68, low of 48. The best way to keep your house warm is to put the wheels back on and move it to AZ! And then when summer comes and you all are having the nice temps we are sitting at 108 degrees. And our electric bills are off the charts trying to stay cool. Plus or minus, ying and yang, everything has it's tradeoffs.

[Alex]

When it's MINUS 35F outside, it's so nice to have it about PLUS 70 F inside down stairs during the day and about 66 to 68 F up stairs at night.

We use the Blaze King largest model - 82.5% efficient - huge firebox - lasts all night. Great wood stove - bone-warming radiant heat is the best!


70 F Inside, Very Cold Outside, Spruce & Pine Keep It Warm, The Three or four Largest Logs in The Image Will fit in the Stove At One Time, and Will Last All Night.

Stay Warm,
Keep Active,

Alex

btw We do NOT feel "guilty" one bit. We feel good. We got the wood, chopped it and burn it - and are warm, hope you are too.

and btw Our heating bill is for some chain saw, gas, oil, etc., and food to give us energy.

[MorrisonCorner]

We've got a "back up" Monitor which runs on Kero set at 56 during the day... we allow it to pop up to 60 in the morning so we can take showers without getting frostbitten.

The woodstove, however, keeps the first floor around 58 during the day. And yes, I do sometimes work in my coat. Thank goodness for wool overalls!

[perennial]

It makes me feel cosy just to see it. I keep our house at 67 during the day. It comes up to 69 after school time and goes back down to 67 at night. We have forced hot air heat so it feels chilly more easily. We do have a wood stove insert which heats the LR fantasticly, so i'm trying to use that more also. When that's on, the heat doesn't come on.

When we move to be rural, we will NOT have hot air heat.


I LOVE that wood stove - gonna show hubby that picture!