What temperature do you keep your house in the winter?

Daox · 10-17-08, 12:33 PM

I currently have my house set for 68F (20C) degrees while we are home, and 63F (17C) while we are away and at night. (the picture is just an example)

I'm contemplating turning it down more at night. I don't buy the whole 'if you turn it down too much it takes more energy'. That, plus I turned off the furnace last night and woke up to 63.5F degrees. Its not real cold out yet, but I also don't have my attic insulation done yet either (which will over tripple the insulating value).

What do you have yours set to?

cmittle · 10-17-08, 01:58 PM

I just set up the heat routine for our programmable thermostat a day or two ago. For now I set up the occupied temperature at 70, overnight at 63 and unoccupied at 63. You bring up a good point and now have me contemplating setting the unoccupied temperature a little lower. Perhaps ~55..?

Also, I almost forgot to mention that I turned my ceiling fan on last night as suggested and that did seem to help a little bit.

SVOboy · 10-17-08, 02:37 PM

68 when home, don't know what in the night but it's still a little warm since we sleep upstairs.

insaneintenti0n · 10-17-08, 04:59 PM

today is our first day here that it's been <70 outside. 61 today. with no heat on at all so far, my house is at 76

but, once the real winter hits... probably 67/68 when i'm home (actually i do 70 in the morning when i wake up, i HATE the cold) and probably like 62 when i'm asleep. i'll decide probably next week or the week after.

groar · 10-18-08, 07:29 PM

I would say 21°C (70°F) by day (my wife would say 19-20°C/66-68°F), 16°C (61°F) by night and when not at home during less than a few days. If not at home during several days then 3°C (37°F).

My last winter experience has been concluded by the fact a programmable thermostat is a must. Our next change will be to have one, and use it

Currently we have the house divided in 2 zones with one program by zone. The program consist of "hot" or "cool" for each quarter of hour. At each radiator you configure the "heat level" for hot, but it's with a wheel graduated from 0 to 7 and doesn't correspond to a temperature. Usually the "cool" is about 3°C (5°F) under the "hot".

During the first winter in our house, we didn't had any problem. As the programs are 24h, during week-ends we had to manually put some radiators on "hot" in the morning and put them on "program" in the evening.

During the second winter in our house, because of our baby, the zone with the bedrooms had to be more frequently on "hot". Additionally, the weather was colder and more variable, it was then more complicated to correctly configure the internal temperature and generated an additional 200€ electric bill

(in France the you pay a bill every month, but they get the counter value only twice a year).

Last week-end we bought a programmer. The salesman said us it could be programmed by temperature, but in fact it couldn't, it could be programmed only by "hot", "cool", "cold" and "off"

so we get it back to store and we'll try again next week, hope the temperature will not make us heat the house before that.

Denis.

insaneintenti0n · 10-20-08, 08:01 AM

WAH, winter hit like over night, lol. some of the work i've done seems to be paying off (at least in terms of the house being warmer than outside.

my basement doesn't seem bitter cold (i sealed all the windows where there used to be drafts coming in)

but, my biggest problem is still my kitchen. it was 50 degrees in there this morning (vs 63 in my living room - other side of my house - & 34 degrees outside w/ no heat on in my house)

so, the kitchen is going to be my biggest focus. hoping to seal the overhang tomorrow (putting up the plastic barrier over the insulation i've added before), and then see what else i can do. It just doesn't help that that side of the house gets next to no sun during the winter.

Higgy · 10-20-08, 10:57 AM

Man, you guys have your's set lower then we usually do. We usually have it set to 69 while we're at home, 70 during the cold winter months from December till February. On certain really cold days, we'll up it to 71. The only reason we'll up it to 71 sometimes, is because we spend a lot of time in our living room, and it's the farthest from our furnace not to mention the duct work going to the living room vents has like a bunch of bends in it in order to get there, so it's not a nice even flow. So normally the living room is the coldest place in the house. I just bought a small heater for the living room to see if that would warm up the area a little more so that we don't have to have the heat up for the whole house as much.

Normally I'd drop it to only 68 in the winter when we're not home...and at the moment, my wife is on mat leave for a year so I can't really turn it down. She also breast feeds at night so I can't turn it down past 69 at night either until my son is sleeping through the night. I may just move that heater into his room and tell her to turn it on when she has to get up to breast feed.

In any case, once that's all over, I'm going to try dropping it to 65 at night and when we're not home to see what kind of difference that makes.

PaleMelanesian · 10-20-08, 02:49 PM

70 when we're there, 60 when we're gone, 65 at night. Installing the programmable thermostat saved us several hundred dollars over the previous year, when it was simply 70 all the time.

IndyIan · 10-21-08, 04:08 PM

We heat with wood so we keep our place between 58F (cold enough that making a fire seems like a good idea) and maybe 68F (when we quit adding wood). For some stretches when its really cold outside we'll have the fire going for a few weeks at a time, not full roaring, but banking the coals at night so we don't have to relight it.
I find having to exert a small amount of physical effort is a great moderator on how warm the house "must" be. Also with the wood stove you can just stand in front of it for a couple minutes and get warmed up regardless of what the house is at.
We also have the window open a crack in our bedroom down to the 30's F outside, so maybe its in the 40's inside sometimes, I've never bothered to check. Fresh cool/cold air is good for sleeping!
Neither one of us is "skinny" so the low temperatures don't bother us to much, some of our "delicate" friends can't handle it so we throw some logs on before they show up.
In a well insulated open concept house with thermal mass(we have a concrete main floor), heating with a woodstove isn't really a big pain in the butt, we don't burn very much wood and there are no big temperature fluctuations. It took a couple years to figure out how to run the stove well and get our wood handling figured out but now its pretty painless. We save alot of money for a bit of labour, or its like having a part time job that pays $50-75 an hour...

Higgy,
Try one of the oil filled radiators for your living room, we use a couple as back up for our wood heat if we are going to be gone for a weekend. They are silent and have a low surface temperature.

Ian

truckncycle · 10-21-08, 04:10 PM

We keep our heat at 67 all the time except when we have guests over. We will bump it up a few degrees for them during the day. We have a heat pump so keeping a constant temp prevents the aux heat from kicking on. I used to avoid the aux heat mostly because it stunk. I think that is probably because the water that collects but never evaporates in the air handler from Summer cooling would grow stuff. I have started cleaning out the water in the fall before we turn on the heater. Since that seems to help, I might program the thermostat to go down to 65 and then back to 67.

10-17-08, 12:33 PM	#1
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	What temperature do you keep your house in the winter? I currently have my house set for 68F (20C) degrees while we are home, and 63F (17C) while we are away and at night. (the picture is just an example) I'm contemplating turning it down more at night. I don't buy the whole 'if you turn it down too much it takes more energy'. That, plus I turned off the furnace last night and woke up to 63.5F degrees. Its not real cold out yet, but I also don't have my attic insulation done yet either (which will over tripple the insulating value). What do you have yours set to? __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Last edited by Daox; 10-21-13 at 04:02 PM..

10-17-08, 01:58 PM	#2
cmittle Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Sioux Falls, SD Posts: 56 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	I just set up the heat routine for our programmable thermostat a day or two ago. For now I set up the occupied temperature at 70, overnight at 63 and unoccupied at 63. You bring up a good point and now have me contemplating setting the unoccupied temperature a little lower. Perhaps ~55..? Also, I almost forgot to mention that I turned my ceiling fan on last night as suggested and that did seem to help a little bit. Last edited by cmittle; 10-17-08 at 02:48 PM..

10-17-08, 02:37 PM	#3
SVOboy Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 291 Thanks: 3 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	68 when home, don't know what in the night but it's still a little warm since we sleep upstairs. Last edited by Daox; 09-23-13 at 11:31 AM..

10-17-08, 04:59 PM	#4
insaneintenti0n Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 183 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	today is our first day here that it's been <70 outside. 61 today. with no heat on at all so far, my house is at 76 but, once the real winter hits... probably 67/68 when i'm home (actually i do 70 in the morning when i wake up, i HATE the cold) and probably like 62 when i'm asleep. i'll decide probably next week or the week after. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Daox; 09-25-13 at 09:27 AM..

10-18-08, 07:29 PM	#5
groar X-Frenchy: very Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Toulouse, France Posts: 153 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	I would say 21°C (70°F) by day (my wife would say 19-20°C/66-68°F), 16°C (61°F) by night and when not at home during less than a few days. If not at home during several days then 3°C (37°F). My last winter experience has been concluded by the fact a programmable thermostat is a must. Our next change will be to have one, and use it Currently we have the house divided in 2 zones with one program by zone. The program consist of "hot" or "cool" for each quarter of hour. At each radiator you configure the "heat level" for hot, but it's with a wheel graduated from 0 to 7 and doesn't correspond to a temperature. Usually the "cool" is about 3°C (5°F) under the "hot". During the first winter in our house, we didn't had any problem. As the programs are 24h, during week-ends we had to manually put some radiators on "hot" in the morning and put them on "program" in the evening. During the second winter in our house, because of our baby, the zone with the bedrooms had to be more frequently on "hot". Additionally, the weather was colder and more variable, it was then more complicated to correctly configure the internal temperature and generated an additional 200€ electric bill (in France the you pay a bill every month, but they get the counter value only twice a year). Last week-end we bought a programmer. The salesman said us it could be programmed by temperature, but in fact it couldn't, it could be programmed only by "hot", "cool", "cold" and "off" so we get it back to store and we'll try again next week, hope the temperature will not make us heat the house before that. Denis. __________________ Earth absorbs 1.8 t CO2/head/yr, while a French generates 6.2 t CO2/yr To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. kg saved 06/08-08/09: 1816.9+382.9 (ecodriving / 1420mi not driven) = 2199.8 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. (2.66 kg/l diesel) kg saved by 3kWc photo-voltaic solar panels : 187 kg/yr To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. (59.1 g/kWh) Radioactive wastes saved by 3kWc photo-voltaic solar panels : Long life (>100,000 years) : 2.85 g/yr (0.9 mg/kWh) Short life (<300 years) : 31.7 g/yr (10.0 mg/kWh) Based upon "official" French figures...

10-20-08, 08:01 AM	#6
insaneintenti0n Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 183 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	WAH, winter hit like over night, lol. some of the work i've done seems to be paying off (at least in terms of the house being warmer than outside. my basement doesn't seem bitter cold (i sealed all the windows where there used to be drafts coming in) but, my biggest problem is still my kitchen. it was 50 degrees in there this morning (vs 63 in my living room - other side of my house - & 34 degrees outside w/ no heat on in my house) so, the kitchen is going to be my biggest focus. hoping to seal the overhang tomorrow (putting up the plastic barrier over the insulation i've added before), and then see what else i can do. It just doesn't help that that side of the house gets next to no sun during the winter.

10-20-08, 10:57 AM	#7
Higgy The Gardener Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Manitoba - Canada Posts: 492 Thanks: 17 Thanked 8 Times in 7 Posts	Man, you guys have your's set lower then we usually do. We usually have it set to 69 while we're at home, 70 during the cold winter months from December till February. On certain really cold days, we'll up it to 71. The only reason we'll up it to 71 sometimes, is because we spend a lot of time in our living room, and it's the farthest from our furnace not to mention the duct work going to the living room vents has like a bunch of bends in it in order to get there, so it's not a nice even flow. So normally the living room is the coldest place in the house. I just bought a small heater for the living room to see if that would warm up the area a little more so that we don't have to have the heat up for the whole house as much. Normally I'd drop it to only 68 in the winter when we're not home...and at the moment, my wife is on mat leave for a year so I can't really turn it down. She also breast feeds at night so I can't turn it down past 69 at night either until my son is sleeping through the night. I may just move that heater into his room and tell her to turn it on when she has to get up to breast feed. In any case, once that's all over, I'm going to try dropping it to 65 at night and when we're not home to see what kind of difference that makes. Last edited by Daox; 09-23-13 at 11:33 AM..

10-20-08, 02:49 PM	#8
PaleMelanesian Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 118 Thanks: 4 Thanked 10 Times in 9 Posts	70 when we're there, 60 when we're gone, 65 at night. Installing the programmable thermostat saved us several hundred dollars over the previous year, when it was simply 70 all the time.

10-21-08, 04:08 PM	#9
IndyIan Lurking Renovator Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 8 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	We heat with wood so we keep our place between 58F (cold enough that making a fire seems like a good idea) and maybe 68F (when we quit adding wood). For some stretches when its really cold outside we'll have the fire going for a few weeks at a time, not full roaring, but banking the coals at night so we don't have to relight it. I find having to exert a small amount of physical effort is a great moderator on how warm the house "must" be. Also with the wood stove you can just stand in front of it for a couple minutes and get warmed up regardless of what the house is at. We also have the window open a crack in our bedroom down to the 30's F outside, so maybe its in the 40's inside sometimes, I've never bothered to check. Fresh cool/cold air is good for sleeping! Neither one of us is "skinny" so the low temperatures don't bother us to much, some of our "delicate" friends can't handle it so we throw some logs on before they show up. In a well insulated open concept house with thermal mass(we have a concrete main floor), heating with a woodstove isn't really a big pain in the butt, we don't burn very much wood and there are no big temperature fluctuations. It took a couple years to figure out how to run the stove well and get our wood handling figured out but now its pretty painless. We save alot of money for a bit of labour, or its like having a part time job that pays $50-75 an hour... Higgy, Try one of the oil filled radiators for your living room, we use a couple as back up for our wood heat if we are going to be gone for a weekend. They are silent and have a low surface temperature. Ian

10-21-08, 04:10 PM	#10
truckncycle Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Roseville, CA Posts: 81 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	We keep our heat at 67 all the time except when we have guests over. We will bump it up a few degrees for them during the day. We have a heat pump so keeping a constant temp prevents the aux heat from kicking on. I used to avoid the aux heat mostly because it stunk. I think that is probably because the water that collects but never evaporates in the air handler from Summer cooling would grow stuff. I have started cleaning out the water in the fall before we turn on the heater. Since that seems to help, I might program the thermostat to go down to 65 and then back to 67. Last edited by Daox; 09-25-13 at 09:25 AM..