I was shivering while eating frosted flakes this morning, and I began thinking about how much heat one would cut out to save money. I am a renter in someone else's house and they like to keep the thermostat very low. I ate breakfast at 2:45am in a 62° house this morning. Granted it is a large house, which costs a lot to heat but where do you draw the line? Keeping the thermostat in the low 60s as much as possible probably saves about 30%-40% on our utility bill.
I know with the economy in such a poor state a lot of folks are trying to save some cash anyway possible. I would like to pose a few questions: Where do you set your thermostat on a regular basis? How low are you willing to put your thermostat while you are in the house? How much money are you saving if you are an extreme energy saver? Do you walk around your place in thick socks, hooded sweatshirts and stocking hats all winter long? I ask this last question because I had some friends in college that left a stack of blankets by the door so that anytime a guest came into their cold domain they could grab a blanket to try to keep themselves warm. I'd be eager to hear what's rattling around in your brain. -ADAM
12 comments:
our house typically sits around 65/66 degrees. when we have guests we sometimes up it to 70, unless the oven does it for us when we cook lol
we did purchase a whole house humidifier, and just installed it a couple weeks ago. it makes it seem that we can keep the temp down a few degrees and the humidity in the air makes it feel warmer, so thats nice.
64 at night and about 68 during the day IF someone is home. If not then it is set to about 66.
Yes, in the evening we are decked out in sweatshirts and blankets while watching TV.
My thermostat is set at 58-60 degrees. In the winter, I lounge around the house in shorts (maybe a pair of sleep pants if it feels too cold) and a tshirt with a longsleeve shirt over that and I am comfy. I do have an oil-filled portable heater that I use off and on to keep the chill away from the living room.
I tend to sleep with my window opened a crack, but I have a heated mattress pad that I keep on low when I am sleeping. I cover up with 1 flannel sheet and a fleece blanket (2 if it is REALLY cold). When guests come over, I crank the heat up to the high 60's for them, but the minute they leave, the thermostat comes back down to "normal".
If I remember correctly, this saves me about $50/month in heating cost -- WHICH is almost made up for in the summer as the AC is on from April/May to October! haha
Adam,
I set my thermostat at 56 degrees.
This actually came about very gradually. When I was a poverty stricken graduate student and routinely set the thermostat at 72 degrees, I decided to start lowering it by one degree each year. I figured from year-to-year I wouldn't notice a 1-degree difference. I was right. 16 years later I had lowered it to 56 degrees. My wardrobe changed gradually. I now have LOTS of warm sweaters, vests, turtlenecks, thick socks, etc. for around the house, and even a couple of thermal hats that I wear IN the house when its feeling chilly.
There are consequences to training your body to be comfortable at 56 degrees, the most noticeable of which is that I feel much too warm in most other people's houses and places of business, at work, etc.
I think I could have even kept lowering it more (one degree each year), but I made a decision to stop at 56 degrees for 2 reasons: (1) I didn't want my pipes to freeze, and (2) I didn't want to be any more out-of-step with the rest of the world, thermally speaking, than I already was.
It probably makes a difference that am a long time hiker & camper, and y'know, whenever I wake up and think, "brr, its cold in here," I just remind myself of the many hiking trips I've taken in the Rocky Mts when I would have been thrilled to wake up to such a "warm" morning!
I know I'm a little wierd - but I also think that a lot more people could train their bodies to "feel comfortable" at a lot lower temps than what we currently keep our homes & businesses heated to.
We lowered ours this year --we pre-buy propane, and it was very expensive this year (not so much now, but that's the luck of the draw --other years we've been on the winning side).
We used to keep the house at 68, then last year it was 67, now it's 66. We lower it to 63 or 64 when we're not home and at night.
I can't stand to be in a house that's heated up to 70 --even with a humidifier, it feels stuffy.
However, I think 62 is just a bit on the cold side :-)
We were blessed to purchase a corn/wood pellet stove. So our home is toasty warm during the winter months. Saved us a ton of money on propane. We live in an old farm house with no insulation. We are just now getting new windows put in our attic and then we are going to blow insulation in it. Our corn/wood pellet sits in our living room-about 72 degrees, kitchen, and dining room about 68 degrees, upstair -blowing heat up with a fan is about 61-68 degrees depending on the wind outside. If we were to heat our home with propane, it would of sunk us. But like I said, we are blessed with this stove!
You all impress me by your toughness! I think you are right about adapting and training your body to cooler conditions. I need to invest in a bundle of wool socks.
As for sleeping with the window cracked open in December, Jodi you are impressive!
Everybody's a lot tougher than I am... yikes.
Our thermometer is usually set between 72-75 degrees all day and night. Of course we don't have a very big house. Seeing these temps posted here makes me freeze.
An added bonus for all you dieters out there: one advantage of training your body to feel comfortable at a lower temp is that I'm pretty sure the way your body stays warm at cooler temps is by increasing your metabolism. People's bodies are just like livestock, you need to eat more to keep your body temp up when the air temp is colder.
I know since I started my "extreme" thermostat lowering, my dogs and I definitely eat a lot more in the winter but neither the dogs nor I gain any weight from eating more.
we keep the house at 68 during the day and 65 at night.we wear sweatshirtrs/sweaters & keep blankets handy. Cooler temps are better for indoor allergy sufferers too!
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