In your home, how do you decide when it's time to turn on the heat?
Posted at 5:00 AM on September 16, 2011
by Eric Ringham
(55 Comments)
Filed under: Environment/Energy
It's cold again. The temperature yesterday morning tied the all-time record low for the date in the Twin Cities. Today's Question: In your home, how do you decide when it's time to turn on the heat?
Comments (55)
Living in the Northland, the principle is off after June 1, back on October 1. That said, this year it was the end of June and last nite my interior doorknob were pretty cold so.....
Maintaining good insulation can help to resist the need to turn on the heat or air conditioner....
And actively watching the temperature ranges help.
Many apartments I have been in had 'thermostats' so one does not have to sit there watching.
And if you maintain a temperature its easier on the system.
Warm up if it gets below 67 (roughly) and cool when hotter then 77 (roughly).... all depends. And what the humidity is changes a lot.
Prefer a cooler room personally.
Roul, you realize, of course, that your tiresome screeds persuade no one, but only give evidence of how ridiculous your opinions are. The liberals I know do not fit your absurd charicature of them. I know of none who "writes only to rid himself of his shame and cowardice for never having served his country." Keep writing, please! That kind of hot-headed rhetoric helps moderate voters see the seamy underside of the right wing, so maybe they'll vote more sensibly in 2012 than they did in 2010.
I'm impressed by the answer from Roul. I was just thinking I would turn on the heat when a sweater wasn't enough to keep me warm. Apparently I'm not reading enough into this question.
When I need to turn up the heat, all I have to do is listen to some of the far left shows as MPR had discussed last week. reviewing some guilt ridden author who writes only to rid himself of his shame and cowardice for never having served his country. These are the same types that voted for the "first black president" over their misguided guilt for being white, a result of leftist propaganda. As a bi-racial I am applalled we sttill use the term African American for bi-racial or any American blacks. When is the last time a white person was called an Anglo or Euro-American? That phrase is a throw back to the 60's to further alienate American blacks with some false sense of a higher status?
The author discussed , " Are we holding the soldiers to a higher status than they should be?"
THAT turns up the temp really fast in most households, families of loved ones lost in war, etc.
Without our soldiers the leftists would lose their freedom of speech and we'd end up like Cuba and other Marxist socialist pathetic states with failing economies.
Below will sum it up well:
Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?"
The freedom to agree with them is the only freedom Leftist progressives believe in.
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean
It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.
Since Obama promised in his 2008 campaign to see electricity, quote_ "skyrocket under (his) plan..and he has radically slowed oil and natural gas output in America, so one must be nuts to risk being in poverty to assuage Obama's idealistic lunatic plans for America's energy independence with Failed solar and wind
( Read a bit on Solydra's bankruptcy and our loss of tax dollars to the tune of over $500 million for just one failed Green company. There are at least 10 others in the same boat. Do we need a President to spend over a million of stimulus dollars for each Green job created? Spain tried it_ failed as well.
No ionder MN Democrats are calling for Hillary to run!
Everything that needs to sealed up has to be done before we turn on the heat. We wait as long as we can and it is never set higher than 67 degrees.
My record is October 25th, but that was when I lived "down south"--outside of Winona!
It's simple. We turn on the furnace on Oct. 15 and off on April 15.
We lived in Korea where energy is really expensive. As a result, we only heated our house during the day during their mild winters. Since we returned, we've managed our heat much like we did in Korea. temperature when we are not home is about 50 degrees and no more than 60-65 degrees when we are home. We manage the temperature with a programmable thermostat and only over-ride it when we have company!
After we have a number of cold and grey days ... we built our house with high solar gain south facing windows. That coupled with serious insulation means probably sometime a week after Thanksgiving (cooking the feast carries the house for a couple of days at least!)
I know some tribal members- they can predict what kind of winter we have in store...
by the size of the white mans' woodpile!!
Glenn
C'mon, we all own sweaters! We rev up our woodburning fireplace insert when it's around 60 in our home...so not just yet!
We wait until the end of the baseball season.
When our huskies start sleeping with their noses tucked under their tails.
When our huskies start sleeping with their noses tucked under their tails.
When I feel cold..............DUH?!
I don't starting the heating season until Halloween if at all possible.
When that uninvited 'house -guest' starts paying the rent and the heat bill.
I'll be darned if I will turn on the heat before the storm windows are on.
If I get chilly, I can always do the ironing.
When my husband starts wearing a stocking cap while he watches TV. And covers himself with a fleece blanket. And puts on slippers.
When it's too cold to walk on the bathroom floor barefoot and even thinking of getting in the shower sends chills everywhere.
The last two mornings I actually wore jersy gloves while reading the P.Press , watching PBS and listening to WPR/MPR. Once I decide my comfort is worth more than a fall macho test of will, I then decide to turn the damn thing on. Or get out the insulated gloves. Stupid cold.
We'll start up the furnace when the dogs no longer keep us warm at night.
You shouldn't need to turn it on or off. That is why the thermostat was invented. When it gets below 62 degrees, the furnace comes on.....it's that simple.
When I can see my breathe in the house.
Does turning on the oven while I get my tea ready count as turning on the heat? Then I did that yesterday morning....... Total house heat rule? November 1.
@Dick C
http://mail.aol.com/34122-111/aol-6/en-us/mail/DisplayMessage.aspx?ws_popup=true
I try not to turn on the furnace until November 1. As I age though, it gets harder and harder to wait that long. I may flip the switch at 6 a.m., then crawl back to bed until 6:20 a.m. and shut the thing down when I leave for work at 7:15 a.m.
Now that I'm divorced, whenever I want! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!
That said, the chill in the air adds something to my pot roast, squash and warm crusty bread.
When windows are closed, jeans, socks, long sleeve shirts no longer keep me warm.
When the AM temp in the house is 60. Daughter has tropical fish, so that's my excuse.
When our dog, who as been sleeping in his bed all summer jumps up on the sofa, pulls the afghan down that rests on the top of it and get's underneath it.
when the road construction season ends.
November first or when the lake freezes over, whichever comes first. That is the rule. The forces that cause the rule to be broken include my wife, my kids, the cat... The reality is, whenever I finally lose the argument.
When the expected high for the week is colder than what we keep the thermostat at. Sure, it's supposed to be back up to 75 next week, but I couldn't move my fingers this morning so that baby is going full blast!
I live in a rented condo in Hopkins. This will be my 8th winter here. I believe that the condo association's rule is that there must be 3 days in a row of Ambulance calls for hypothermia before they turn on the heat,
I usually hold out as long as we can and have a general "at least Oct. 1st" rule, but this year we have an infant, so when it got to 60 degrees indoors yesterday, I turned it on. I love the "it's for the baby" excuse. :)
I turn on the heat when the prisoner refuses to talk.
I say I am not turning it on until November 1st and then hold out as long as I can...when I start rubbing my hands together for heat more than doing anything else...then I give in - don't know I ever made it to November.
When I actually want to wash all the dishes by hand just so I can warm up.
When being cold disrupts daily activities. Every year I wait... Once I finally turn it on, I exasperate, "Why didn't I do this sooner!?"
When I can't take it any more.
We really put it off the year we bought our first house. A brand new furnace had been installed over the summer, and apparently never tested. We came home late one cold autumn night to a frigid house and turned it on. It immediately filled the house with smoke. We ended up opening the windows to air the house out and left the furnace off that night. Brrrr! We later learned the smoke was from oil burning off parts that they coat to keep them from rusting before installation.
When the whining of the women of the household reaches a level my lower back can no longer tolerate.
When the overnight temperature in our house averages 55. During the heating season we keep the heat set at 58 overnight and 62 during the day.
When I crawl out of bed and it is around 50, I go downstairs to the living room and crank up the wood-burning stove. Soon it is in the 70's and the warmth permeates the entire house. I use warm bathrobes, cozy slippers and a hot cup of coffee. Hey, it's Minnesota.
I don't worry about it. I just invite one liberal friend and one conservative friend over for a beer, and that provides plenty of hot air.
I am still paying last winters heat bill. I put it off as long as I can, and then a little longer.
I've often gone outside... to warm up.
We're polar bears. Its free air conditioning season. I'll be opening the windows again and enjoying the cool for awhile. Probably won't be thinking about heat until the outdoor daytime highs are consistently in the 30's.
When the woman's complaining gets to be to irritating.
I used to me very money conscious and put off turning on the heat as long as possible, but I was always cold and grumpy. Now I turn on the heat when I feel cold. It costs a little more, but I'm much happier.
When the dog's water bowl in the basement starts to ice over....
When the temperature in the house drops below 60, we set the thermostat to 62 during the day and 60 over night.
We wear light jackets and long johns in the house all winter.
Heat? What's heat? I'm not in charge of the thermostat at home.
We have a 52 week a year meat locker. I'm thinking about installing a rack system so I can hang sides of beef.
That's why it's hard to diet when your body is always wanting to store fat seeing I'm close to hypothermia.
If the meat locker doesn't work, then I've thought of making our house into a cryogenic lab. Maybe we can store Ted Williams' head.
We have the thermostat set at 60 through the winter.
I decide to turn on the heat when my room thermometer starts dipping consistently into the 60's.
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