I know….it’s National Thrift Week, and I probably shouldn’t be complaining about the cold. But darn it, I am not going to be one of those bloggers who’s all, “We keep our house at 52, and once I put on a sweater, I hardly notice it!”. My house is 65 (at least upstairs by the thermostat it is), and I’m here to say that it feels COLD to me. Cold, cold, cold. Significantly colder than 67 (where we set our thermostat last year) and sig-sig-significantly colder than 70(where we set our thermostat before our electric company raised their rates).
I normally don’t mind winter that much, but I’m getting so weary of being cold, I don’t know if I can hold out at 65 degrees until springtime. It’s been 65 or less in here since mid-October, so we’ve been doing this for about three months. I know it will be cold for the rest of January and February, but maybe in March it will start to be a tad warmer. It could be cold through April, though.
So, best-case scenario we have about 1 1/2 to 2 months left and worst case we have three months left (that means we’re only halfway through…aaaahhhhh!).
I think perhaps if my utility bills were really low as a result of the 65 degree setting, I might be more inspired. But, it pretty much stinks to be cold all the time and still be paying $300+ each month. I mean, I know I’d be paying a higher bill if we kept our house at a delightful 70 degrees, but still, I wish keeping it at 65 was saving me more.
I keep reading about/meeting people who seem to cope just fine with temperatures of 65 or less, and I’m starting to think there must be something wrong with me. Even with three shirts (a long tank top, a long sleeved shirt, and a fleece), jeans, socks, slippers, and occasionally a scarf, unless I’m really moving around, I still am cold a lot of the time. The only two times of the day that I always feel warm are in the morning while I’m in the shower, and at night when I’m in my delightfully toasty bed.
I didn’t have such a hard time scraping together a good attitude about the cold house back in October, so either the house is actually colder now than it was then, or I’m just getting tired of being cold. If the latter option is the problem, I probably just need to work on my attitude, and I probably shouldn’t do things like counting how many more months of winter are left. Ahem.
Suggestions and/or sympathy are welcome.
photo by Dave Brosha
Libby
Tuesday 14th of June 2011
Moist air holds heat longer than dry air. This is why we why we feel hotter on a humid summer day than a summer day that is drier but the same temperature.
There is an optimal cross between percent humidity and air temperature that feels comfortable for humans. There are products sold that have two "clock" hands to measure these two factors. When the hands cross, it should feel perfect!
I find, during the winter, that I need my house to be 50% humidity in order to feel warm when the thermostat is set at 65. We also have a programable thermostat and go down to 58 at night and I crank it up to 70 for 30 minutes in the morning. We also play a game each fall to see how long we can go before turning on the heat. We celebrate if we can make it to November 1st - and I live farther north in New England than you!
Faith
Thursday 1st of April 2010
We have our house set at 60. Baking is a great way to warm up. :D
WilliamB
Wednesday 3rd of June 2009
I can tell the difference between 68F and 70F, which surprises me. Those are the critical numbers: if the thermostat is set at 68F I feel cold, if at 70F I feel fine. I tried a year to 68F when home, 55F when at work, and 60F at night (with an appropriate warmup period before I awoke). I was cold all winter. Now I have a roommate who works from home and I've decided not to be cold all winter, so it's 70F during the day and 65F at night. I'm working to get the nighttime number lowered; eventually my theory will prevail.
Rachael's Erik is wrong. It's not about how hard the heating unit is working to reach a temp, it's about the overall differential between the outside temp and your desired inside temp. If outside it's 60F and you want it 70F inside all the time, then that's 168hrs/week of +10F. If you let it drop to 60F for 8 hrs at night (and for simplicity, pretend the house immediately jumps to the indoor temp), that's 112hrs/week of +10F.
Frugal Liz
Wednesday 18th of March 2009
We keep our downstairs heater set at 64 and the upstairs one set at 63. When it's really cold outside, I burn wood in the fireplace and stay in the living room drinking tea. My three year old and I spent many a companionable morning together bundled up on the couch with a fire going! The good news is my gas bill has never gotten above $73, even in the dead of winter. I live in north Georgia, though, so it never really gets THAT cold.:P Now my electric bill for the air conditioning is a different story!
Julia
Friday 23rd of January 2009
I drink tea a lot,o. My 7 year old son and I homeschool, we hang out in the living room because it has the most sun, the gas fireplace which we can turn on for a few moments of warmth, and the chubby kitty who is ALWAYS up for a cuddle. If we get really cold, we snuggle on the couch with several fleece blankets and read books for a while. My son is super skinny but never seems to notice the cold either, it must be a kid thing. I dress him in warm clothes and half of the time, he takes off his fleece top or sweater and sits around in his short sleeved tee shirt. My husband is the one who always complains of being cold---perhaps because he's sitting around in a tee shirt? He just doesn't like to layer things. (I wear at least 3 layers at all times.) Luckily, though, he doesn't turn up the heat.