Home heating

Walkywalkerson

I set my thermostat to around 20C around this time of year - it starts to feel cold ( to me )
It's 12C outside right now and as far as I'm concerned that's freezing 🥶 🤣
I have my bedroom around 16C and the heating goes off completely around April.
I'm in London.

MikePfirrman

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Getting close to Winter again. If you haven't insulated your home, this would be the year to do it. Natural Gas costs are supposed to double this year. If you normally had a $200 bill, expect a $400 bill.

Look at adding a programmable thermostat, electric space heaters (electric might be cheaper than natural gas this year) and additional insulation. If you have drafty windows, there is window film you can use.

All good ideas, but with supply chain and labor issues good luck finding materials and/or someone to install if can't do it yourself.

If you can get into an attic, radiant barrier insulation (looks like long aluminum foil) is so easy to install yourself. And I wouldn't think that anyone should have any issues finding it right now. It's not something that there's a "run" on currently. It's large and takes two people, but you literally just staple it to your rafters and leave a gap (like 6 inches) at the top and the bottom. That alone will save most people 15% on their bills. There are plenty of great videos on YouTube about how to do it.

The window films are made for anyone to install. I'd just be cautious to look at reviews and make sure they won't leave any residue. Some come where you can put them up over and over again year after year. Great for drafty windows.

Thermostats also aren't very hard. I'm not handy, at all, but I've installed at least four thermostats myself. They are pretty simple to do. I don't have a Nest or similar -- just a decent Honeywell programmable, which isn't that expensive at all.

Read another article yesterday on how much money (in futures in the stock market) is being gambled on natural gas prices doubling this Winter.

Electric space heaters are easy to find and cheap now. I think we paid like $50 for ours and they have lasted years. I like the ones that don't get hot (because I have pets). Electric might be cheaper than gas this Winter and pay for itself. I think I have the Lasko oscillating heaters and they are fantastic.

Even though I live in AZ, it does get down to around 32 degrees here in the Winter. Nights can get nippy. I get cold easy since I don't have a ton of body fat (any more) -- one disadvantage of not being obese any longer! I keep a space heater going most of the day while I'm working in my office. It saves us from having to heat the whole house because my wife gets hot easy. Plus, since I have a solar home in AZ, the electric is ample in the Winter months. I'd rather use it than sell it back to the utility at half price.

MikePfirrman

Home Depot has videos on their site (rated Beginner) on how to install a thermostat.

kshama2001

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Home Depot has videos on their site (rated Beginner) on how to install a thermostat.

*I* installed a programmable thermostat once just using the directions it came with, and I'm not especially handy. I think I was angry at my roommate, though, and that helped me

This was in South Florida, and I deliberately did not connect the heat, which we really didn't need the first 5 years I was there, being in an apartment complex with only one side with windows, and those hurricane glass.

However, it was unusually cold the winter after I left. I wonder if I let my ex know why the heat would not work...

lynn_glenmont

I know it's a data point of 1, but I'm really annoyed about it, so I'm going to share my recommendation NOT to get a thermostat with a motion sensor that turns on the light for the interface screen. Mine stopped working within a couple of months of being installed. Now I have to poke at it, turning the dial, pushing the touch-screen, etc., and wait for anywhere from 10 to 40 seconds, which I get annoyed and start poking at it again. Eventually it responds, but the whole process can take a couple of minutes. The next time, I'm going to get one where the screen is always on, and to *puppies* with the power that eats up.

MikePfirrman

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

I know it's a data point of 1, but I'm really annoyed about it, so I'm going to share my recommendation NOT to get a thermostat with a motion sensor that turns on the light for the interface screen. Mine stopped working within a couple of months of being installed. Now I have to poke at it, turning the dial, pushing the touch-screen, etc., and wait for anywhere from 10 to 40 seconds, which I get annoyed and start poking at it again. Eventually it responds, but the whole process can take a couple of minutes. The next time, I'm going to get one where the screen is always on, and to *puppies* with the power that eats up.

I'm super into energy conservation, but I'm also into simple. Why do I need to control the thermostat from my phone? Nests and such are great, but the more things that thermostats do, the more can go wrong.

I suppose there's convenience in just saying "turn on the light" or whatever, using whole house controls, but so not worth it to me.

mtaratoot

I got a nice thermostat when I replaced my furnace. That was 16 years ago. One feature that was really neat was that it automatically adjusted for daylight saving time. I wish we would ditch DST where I live, but we've voted to do the opposite; to get rid of standard time. I digress.

Two years after I bought the furnace, the US Congress changed the dates of DST. Grrrr. So instead of having to set the thermostat's time twice a year, I had to remember to set it when it used to change AND when it did change.

One year when I had an annual service, the tech had a book with "secret codes" that he could enter and get that feature turned off. I'm back to just twice a year, manually, and maybe soon won't have to change it at all.

I did reprogram it this year. Last year I ran the heat more because I was working from home AND I had a geriatric cat that didn't like to be cold. This year I'm not working from home, and I no longer have a geriatric cat.

I probably should replace some insulation. If I'm still in this house in another ten years, I will probably switch to a ductless heat pump.

knitski2002

We have a woodstove in our living room which I like to keep toasty in the winter, about 70 or so. Our bedroom stays 66 or lower because we keep our oil heat set to that for the night when our woodstove cools down. We have an electric heater for our bathroom just for bathing time. In the summer we just use fans, no air conditioning needed.

caseylizbeth

The heat stays between 70 and 74 degrees F during the day (depending on how cold I am) and then at night gets bumped down to around 60 degrees F. We all like to sleep with a lot of blankets so we're all cozy at night. The only downside of turning the heat down that far is that when I wake up it's a cold dash to the thermostat to turn it up.

kshama2001

We recently moved in with my mother and brother and have three types of heating systems (>.<). I have a question about the propane, as we are using that for the first time and didn’t know what to expect.

We are near Boston, Massachusetts (so it’s winter) and are going through 20 - 29 gallons of propane per week - Is that normal?

Details:

There is a brand new boiler which is heating three rooms. One room is 35 x 14‘. The temperature is set at 68°F during the day and 64° at night. There is a second floor and then unheated attic above this room. There is new blown-in foam insulation under the floor. All five windows just had weatherstripping, and there are also storm windows. There is blown in newspaper type insulation in the walls.

The second room is the seller where the boiler is and is about 14 x 12‘. The third room is a very small bathroom.

Thanks for your input.

mtaratoot

kshama2001 wrote: »

We recently moved in with my mother and brother and have three types of heating systems (>.<). I have a question about the propane, as we are using that for the first time and didn’t know what to expect.

We are near Boston, Massachusetts (so it’s winter) and are going through 20 - 29 gallons of propane per week - Is that normal?

Details:

There is a brand new boiler which is heating three rooms. One room is 35 x 14‘. The temperature is set at 68°F during the day and 64° at night. There is a second floor and then unheated attic above this room. There is new blown-in foam insulation under the floor. All five windows just had weatherstripping, and there are also storm windows. There is blown in newspaper type insulation in the walls.

The second room is the seller where the boiler is and is about 14 x 12‘. The third room is a very small bathroom.

Thanks for your input.

I'm going to take a stab at this with math.

A gallon of propane, apparently, has 91,500 BTU. Natural gas has 1030 BTU per Cubic Foot. A BTU is kind of like a calorie. It's the energy to raise water one degree F. In this case it's a pound of water. As a comparison, I'll convert BTU to therms.

91,500 BTU is about 0.92 therms, so 25 gallons of propane would be about 23 therms or about 3.3 therms per day. I use natural gas, and I averaged a little more than 2.3 therms per day last month. I live in a much milder climate even though I am actually farther north than Boston. Boston averages just under 35F in December; where I live it's just over 40F. My thermostat is programmed to drop to 58 at night, come up to 68 when I wake up, and then drop back down while I'm at work.

So 25 gallons doesn't sound unreasonable. Depends on the size of the home (mine is small), the insulation, the outdoor temperature, and the efficiency of the heat exchanger. I have what was a VERY efficient furnace when I bought it 15 years ago or so.

Rsrs35

Growing up our heater only went on when it was really needed - jumpers socks hot water bottles lol

For my own home definitely keeping it toasty but have to say it’s easier as it’s the underfloor heating that literally warms up the entire downstairs and also I have a few oil heaters in rooms connected to plugs that I can control via an app - so I can always make sure a room is nice and toasty before I go into it! I don’t have a mansion btw!!!!

yirara

I've moved houses, and countries more often than most people I guess... and usually find a way to hack my heating in one way or another to keep it warm, but costs down.

In one flat I had really cheap night, but expensive daytime electricity and stupid storage heaters. Writing down usage every day I quickly figured out that both tariffs were switched around. Cool! I totally ignored the storage heater and used the in-build booster during daytime. Never put heating on in the bedroom as it never got that cold.

Another flat, modern, underfloor heating. Leave it running all day to have a nice warm flat in the evening or sit in the cold when I get home? Took a bit more experimenting, but I figured out that buying a timed thermostat was the way to go: sun will (hopefully) shine into big windows from just before noon and prewarm the place. Put livingroom heating on from 15:00, have a warm-ish livingroom when I got home at 16:30 that would be warm when done cooking. Saved about 2/3 of heating costs compared to running the heating constantly.

Next flat: no heating needed at all. Never found out where the warmth came from, but it was pretty sweet.

Then: old-fashioned radiators that are a bit difficult to control as I can't find a setting to keep warmth constant while minimizing costs. So i put the heating on when I get into the livingroom in the evening and then put it off again. Usually enough until I go to bed. Do the same in my bedroom that's also my home office during daytime. Still hardly ever use heating in the bedroom at night, though this place is a bit less well insulated that most. Sometimes I warm up the bedroom a bit before going to bed. On, and I air the whole place 1-2x per day: all windows and doors open for a few minutes to just exchange the air and that's it.

kshama2001

mtaratoot wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

We recently moved in with my mother and brother and have three types of heating systems (>.<). I have a question about the propane, as we are using that for the first time and didn’t know what to expect.

We are near Boston, Massachusetts (so it’s winter) and are going through 20 - 29 gallons of propane per week - Is that normal?

Details:

There is a brand new boiler which is heating three rooms. One room is 35 x 14‘. The temperature is set at 68°F during the day and 64° at night. There is a second floor and then unheated attic above this room. There is new blown-in foam insulation under the floor. All five windows just had weatherstripping, and there are also storm windows. There is blown in newspaper type insulation in the walls.

The second room is the seller where the boiler is and is about 14 x 12‘. The third room is a very small bathroom.

Thanks for your input.

I'm going to take a stab at this with math.

A gallon of propane, apparently, has 91,500 BTU. Natural gas has 1030 BTU per Cubic Foot. A BTU is kind of like a calorie. It's the energy to raise water one degree F. In this case it's a pound of water. As a comparison, I'll convert BTU to therms.

91,500 BTU is about 0.92 therms, so 25 gallons of propane would be about 23 therms or about 3.3 therms per day. I use natural gas, and I averaged a little more than 2.3 therms per day last month. I live in a much milder climate even though I am actually farther north than Boston. Boston averages just under 35F in December; where I live it's just over 40F. My thermostat is programmed to drop to 58 at night, come up to 68 when I wake up, and then drop back down while I'm at work.

So 25 gallons doesn't sound unreasonable. Depends on the size of the home (mine is small), the insulation, the outdoor temperature, and the efficiency of the heat exchanger. I have what was a VERY efficient furnace when I bought it 15 years ago or so.

Thanks, really appreciate it!

My family was wondering why I was posting this question here, but I had faith one of you smart people would reply

dinolan1

I had a geothermal heat pump installed in 2007. The house already had superior insulation and was fairly airtight. I keep the thermostat at 74F the year round. The heat pump is on a separate electric meter and we're only charged from October to March. Average bill is around $20 per month.

HoneyBadger302

I've always been a utilities miser (one of the easiest ways to reduce my monthly costs), but right now I'm keeping the house downright frigid IMO.

Yes there's a reason.

After a covid layoff a year ago, I haven't managed to land any jobs that pay remotely close to what I was earning, so my income got slashed. Single, so no SO to help cover expenses.

Brought in a roommate, who a couple weeks ago moved out with basically no notice (her deposit went towards last month rent per the agreement), and there I sit. Trying to find another roommate if I can, but this is not a great area to find roomies (very suburban, family area where people either have money or they want to live closer to the big city).

So right now, temps are set at 52-54 most of the time, I have the heat kick in first thing in the AM about 30 minutes before i get up and going back down after an hour so it's not an icebox getting out of bed, but 52-54 is where it's at. Saves me about $30-50 a month at those temps vs low 60's, so is what it is. In my little home office room I run a space heater during the day so my hands aren't frozen and I'm not having to wear a coat to stay warm lol, much cheaper than running the house heater.

Sucks, but until all the little things I've been doing to get my career back on track come to fruition, or a new roommate is located, it is what it is.

nossmf

My wife gets cold easily, so we keep the house between 68-72 during the winter. During summer we let things drift up a little to as high as 75. The cats and dogs may be able to handle bigger temperature swings, but the parakeets and aquarium fish are much more sensitive, so for their sake we try to stay about the same year round.

Theoldguy1

House is 74 degrees year round, except for a few days in the spring/fall when we turn the system off.

Corina1143

Just might be interesting
I grew up in a very old house. 4000 square feet or more. The only air conditioner was a water cooler, front room, downstairs. Heating was gas heaters in most rooms.
No thermostat, no thermometer in the house. The temperature was always perfect in winter, 'cause you adjusted the heater until it was. The temperature in July and August was always hotter than h---! We went to the lake 3-4 afternoons a week, slept on cots in the backyard a lot.
Thank goodness for central heat and air!
Now? 67-68 winter, 75-78 summer. Don't run the ac near as much as most people. May not turn it on til July.

NotGvnUp_EJ

We keep ours around 73 during the colder months 72 at the least.

yirara

Wow, you all keep your homes super warm in winter. All that energy! How I heat my home depends a lot on how it works best because energy tends to be rather expensive across Europe. When I lived in a home with underfloor heating I bought a thermostate with a timer and set it to switch on at around 15:00. When I came home from work at 16:00 it was warm. Switched it off again sometimes in the early evening. It worked because the sun warmed up my livingroom through big windows even in winter. Currently I heat my livingroom when I work there briefly in the morning, which gets the temperature up to about 22C. Then it decreases slowly again until about 19.x until the evening when I switch it on again. Found out this is a lot cheaper than having the heating on permanently.

mtaratoot

I also have a "smart" thermostat. It is one of the nicer ones that has the possibility to have a different setting every day. Now that I'm retired, it's mostly the same each day except Mondays. One Monday a month I get up early to go to the coast to volunteer at the aquarium, so I have it come on a little earlier on Mondays. It also comes back on earlier in the afternoon because it's kind of nice to have it on when I get home if it's really cold out.

It's smart enough that it monitors how long it actually takes to get the house warm and it kicks the furnace on early enough to be at temperature at the correct time. It works pretty good - I usually hear the furnace turn off right about the time it's supposed to. If I get up before that time, it's already getting warm. A typical day is:

Furnace turns on to bring the house up to 65 (~18C) by 07:00.
I kick it up to 66F (~19C) when I get up. I tell it how long I want it to stay there - usually noon.
If I don't tell it to stay on until noon, it drops back to 60F (~15.5C).
Furnace kicks back on to bring the house back up to 65 (~18C) by 19:00.
At 23:15, it drops back to 58F (~14.5C) overnight.

I have an oil-filled radiant space heater I leave in the area I spend most time so the furnace doesn't have to heat the entire house. If I used the whole house, it would be more efficient to use the furnace. I don't see any need to heat the parts of the house I don't use, so it's a bit or a compromise. I also wear a warm hat and a fleece vest so I stay comfortable.

Whenever I leave the house, I tap "cancel" on the thermostat, so it lets the house go back to 60F (~15.5C) when nobody is home.

What I really don't like is that the ducts are in the attic. The warm air blows down from the ceiling. Since heat rises, it mostly stays up there. I often have a small fan to help circulate the air and distribute the warmth. I don't have ceiling fans. House is a little over 75 years old. It's what I could afford when I took out a mortgage. I paid it off in November!

cwolfman13

I have radiant heat only with multiple zones throughout the house. We've had to play with it a bit over the years as to not overheat the house. Most of our zones are now set to 65* to kick on. Once the water in the system is heated, it continues to heat so usually when we get home in the evening the house is around 72*. We keep the bedroom zones at 63*. The only room we have a higher setting is the master bathroom so that it's toasty when we get up in the morning.

yirara

The best heating hack I ever found was in the UK. My wee flat had a dreaded storage heater with a night and day tariff. Those who don't know those: it's the most useless type of heating: you use the cheap night tariff (more than 3x cheaper than day) to heat up a huge brick inside the heater, and once the expensive day tariff kicks in this brick gives off the heat. Which means you have a lovely warm place in the morning, but come afternoon when you return from work it's cold again. But I have a habit of noting down my electricity usage (and unit count on radiators) every day. And quickly noticed that the energy company had messed up and the cheap night tariff started at some time in the morning and went to the expensive day tariff in the evening. Yay! Basically I forgot about the storage heater and put on the electric heater that was included in this thing and had a quite warm place at low cost. Of course I never noticed this, right? 🤗

claireychn074

I keep my house to around 18 degrees (64F) during the day and I prefer 10 (50F) at night - but it doesn’t always get that cool. I do have a log burner in the living room so that room will be warmer if it’s on, and I’ll turn the rest of the house down to about 14.

I was brought up in north Scotland with no central heating, so 18 feels mega toasty to me. I struggle at work and in hotels as they are always too hot. I stay in a premier inn every week for work, and the LOWEST that air con will go is 19 (66F) - that’s warmer than my entire house during the day ☹️

ceiswyn

I start losing sensation in my fingers at temperatures below 19C (Raynaud’s). Yes, even when I’m wearing a jumper.

I was brought up on the edge of the Scottish highlands in a house where the heating didn’t work properly, before moving south for university. Back when I was morbidly obese I used to keep my window open all winter, wear summer dresses year round, and my central heating was virtually never on. Now I’m only really comfortable at temperatures over 23C (though I grant you that climbing Ben Nevis in 28C and direct sunlight was.. A Lot…) and I kind of miss my fatty insulation. But on the whole, I think I’ll just carry on paying high heating bills, keeping a cardigan in the office, and snapping at people who seem to think that feeling the cold is somehow a moral failing.

yirara

ceiswyn wrote: »

I start losing sensation in my fingers at temperatures below 19C (Raynaud’s). Yes, even when I’m wearing a jumper.

I was brought up on the edge of the Scottish highlands in a house where the heating didn’t work properly, before moving south for university. Back when I was morbidly obese I used to keep my window open all winter, wear summer dresses year round, and my central heating was virtually never on. Now I’m only really comfortable at temperatures over 23C (though I grant you that climbing Ben Nevis in 28C and direct sunlight was.. A Lot…) and I kind of miss my fatty insulation. But on the whole, I think I’ll just carry on paying high heating bills, keeping a cardigan in the office, and snapping at people who seem to think that feeling the cold is somehow a moral failing.

I also have Raynaud's, and I get you! Mine starts to kick in at lower temperatures (or possible I don't notice it before) but it's a major pain. For me, it's my fingers, or rather the area between the fingers, the ball of my thumb, toes, chin, nose and ear canals. Keeping hands and feet warm is useless as it's triggered by cold and especially wind anywhere.

I tried something new this winter: My flat has some older double glazed windows. I put plastic film tightly onto the frame and I think it makes a difference of about 2C overall. It was -8C last night and this morning my temperature inside was about 13.5C. Last winter it was a lot cooler. Saves some heating costs

jwardtabitha1

We keep the house at 72F in the winter, and 76-78F in the summer.

yirara

jwardtabitha1 wrote: »

We keep the house at 72F in the winter, and 76-78F in the summer.

That would be impossible here. Like heating one room up to 72F in winter twice a day and the bedroom a bit before going to bed already costs a lot of money. Constantly, the whole flat would be close to 300-400 Euro/month

ninerbuff

68 in winter, 77 in summer


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition