my friend's response to but it's a dry heat:

"So is my oven!"

I wish I could say that, mine is a natural gas oven, therefore there is condensation inside the oven itself as it humidifies and heats my house during BOTH winter and summer. If I want a frozen pizza, I put a Pizzazz pizza cooker on the back porch so my house doesn't get hotter or more humid from using an oven during the air conditioning season. Works very well for me and does a good job of keeping the cooling bill from my inefficient 25 year old A/C unit down. I do the same thing with a toaster oven for small stuff.

it's so great to hear other people do these things too :thumbup:.

I'd say anywhere between 57-60. After I changed over to the heat pump it can't keep up after January hits so I just set it to 74 and let the dissipate out to the ends of the house. We just wear a base layer of smart wool and its completely fine :D

You might try closing off the parts of the house that don't absolutely need to be heated. Then your struggling heat pump might be able to pull the grade.

I only heat the kitchen when I'm preparing a meal or eating, otherwise, I close it off, and let it go cold. Less work for the refrigerator.

I don't heat the bathroom either (See AC Hacker's Mini-Loo). When I take a shower, the hot water heats the bathroom. I do think that a winter-time electrically-warmed toilet seat is in my future, however.

I have stopped heating my bedroom in the winter. I found that an electric blanket (actually electric mattress pad) makes the situation much more palatable. I turn on the bed warmer a few hours before I retire, and then when I get into a nice warm bed, I turn the bed warmer off. I have lots of warm covers and I have found that I sleep much better that way. The cost of electricity for the bed warmer for a few hours a day is really cheap... way cheaper than heating the whole room 24/7.

BTW, I keep the rooms that I choose to heat, around 67F. It has been interesting to see how the heat gradually flows into the other non-heated rooms, on its way to the great heat sink in the sky... kind of like recycling heat.

Best,

-AC

Main living areas during the day are at 21c|69.8f after bedtime, 20c|68f


"It has been interesting to see how the heat gradually flows into the other non-heated rooms, on its way to the great heat sink in the sky..."

It does seem a little odd. So much heat going sideways. Maybe it's the light duty door?
We have one small bedroom that gets zero heat, it's door is closed 24/7.
But leakage and it's daily solar gain keep it above 50F all winter!

I checked the master bedroom temp this morning and it was 63F over in the far corner.
We keep our bedroom door closed until around midnight, when I go to bed.
So, it warms up for about 8 hours, before it's closed off again.
If it's a cold night, I'll crack the door open a few inches around 8 or 9 PM, to take the chill out.

My wife can't sleep if it's a little too warm (which feels cool to me), but many times,
I'll wake up cold, because she's taken all the blankets! :eek:

At the risk of looking sexist.........this is very typical of almost every woman i have known. I am trying to do my best to not heat the un-used rooms but she of the cold fingers/toes won't let me go too far.......bummer.

Hahaha!
I have to admit she was right about the Christmas Eve party, 18 guests in a house this size,
means not much heat needs to be pumped in. :)

The blanket thing is a little odd, since she has suffered from chronic hot flashes for the last 15 years.
So, when I jump into bed late at night during the winter. She's emitting about 700 BTUh and I'm toasty in no time. :p

Sometimes, when she's outdoors, surveillance satellites report her location as a forest fire.. :rolleyes:

I used to set my thermostat to 58 when I was gone 63 at night 68 morning/evening when I was home. Propane costs too much. My thermostat has been set to off for about 3 years now. I still spent too much using electric heaters so this year I gave them away. The upstairs bathroom is heated with a baseboard heater to 65 - 67. My son's room also has one and is kept about 68. I use a heated mattress pad in my room. The blower on the furnace stays on to circulate and the rest of the house is whatever the wood stove gets it too. Lately its been around 20 F outside at night and 34 in the day. Even though I haven't been getting up at night to put wood in its been about 63F when I wake up and get home from work. I measured the temp of the stove itself this morning at about 120 with enough coals left to restart a fire.

So your furnace fan is going 24/7? Do you know how much power your furnace blower uses? When my furnace is on it is pulling at least 400 watts. If you run that all day that is almost 10kWh. You might consider putting a timer on it, or finding a way to reduce the motor's speed? Sizable gains to be had if that is the case!