Anything different heating this winter?

[Pellice]

And, how low one keeps the heat in winter is only half the story .... the other half is what, if anything, the AC is set for in summer. It may be that a setting of 55F in winter is followed by 65F in summer.

I feel cold easily, but am fairly heat-hardy.

 

[NW-Bound]

Wow. 74 in the bedroom. I'd be roasting.

Tell me about it.

I have the habit of sleeping with a small table fan on the nightstand to blow air over my face. I need it to sleep in the summer, and this habit carries over to the winter. I tried a noise generator to mimic the sound of the fan, but it does not work well.

My personal fan causes a draft over to my wife's side, and it drives her crazy because she's cold all the time. So, I try to position the fan to minimize it.

During travel, of course I do not have this fan. It would take me a few nights to learn to sleep without it. Upon returning home, I went for a week without the fan. Then, turned it on in a sleepless night, and the habit came back.

It was 53F inside the house when I woke up this morning. I wore 3 sweatshirts over a t-shirt. No heat used.

Up at my high-country boondocks home, we would retreat into the bedroom and keep warm with a portable heater. When the outside is subzero, the 1.5-kW heater runs constantly to keep 60F. We have an electric blanket, and that helps a lot.

The house thermostat is kept at 45F, whether we are there or not. In the morning, I would dress up and go out to drink coffee waiting for the sun to come up. The home has very large windows on the south side looking down a hill slope. At the end of the day, the interior is often heated by sunlight to more than 70F.

The first few winters we bought this new home, we spent many nights there for the experience. After a few snowstorms, decided we knew enough, and have not spent much time there in the winter.

 

[MC Rider]

Fire fire heh heh.

 

[skyking1]

^
I have a flannel quilt across my legs and a heat pad on the high setting across my feet, recovering from a day out at work.
Reynaud's is weird. Your peripheral nervous system decides that the core is dying, and all circulation must be cut off to save the core. It takes a lot of heat to get the circulation switch flipped again.
It is not a circulation issue, it is defective wiring.

 

[NW-Bound]

^
I have a flannel quilt across my legs and a heat pad on the high setting across my feet, recovering from a day out at work.
Reynaud's is weird. Your peripheral nervous system decides that the core is dying, and all circulation must be cut off to save the core. It takes a lot of heat to get the circulation switch flipped again.
It is not a circulation issue, it is defective wiring.

Did not know the word, so I had to look it up. Scary.

 

[ERD50]

Not "wasted" in the traditional meaning of the word (IOW the heat balance is in a closed system.) But energy use (while reduced by this method) is still significant.

I wonder if anyone has ever looked into producing a dryer that works on this principle - a heat-pump dryer. Instead of exhausting the moist air from the dryer, why not condense the water from waste air using the cold side of a heat pump. Essentially, one would be recycling the same heat in a loop. I'm guessing the efficiency would be terrible and such a system wouldn't make sense except in the winter. Oh, well, there goes another patent idea down the drain.

I'm pretty sure that concept is common in Europe.

-ERD50

 

[Music Lover]

It was 53F inside the house when I woke up this morning. I wore 3 sweatshirts over a t-shirt. No heat used.

I could do the same thing too, but I can't think of any reason why I would want to.

 

[NW-Bound]

I could do the same thing too, but I can't think of any reason why I would want to.

Not if you have cheap natural gas.

 

[Sunset]

Our heating with natural gas last year was $86 and this year is $126 about a 46% increase.
Although we used a bit more than last year, as the avg temp was 4 degrees colder this billing period.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

I could do the same thing too, but I can't think of any reason why I would want to.

The difference is you live in a place where one would die with no heat used.

Where I live one doesn't need to turn on the heat in the winter.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah just 3 sweatshirts...

 

[Koolau]

The difference is you live in a place where one would die with no heat used.

Where I live one doesn't need to turn on the heat in the winter.

I stayed at 4000+ feet on Big Island for a few days. Was very glad to have electric space heater (and electric blanket) at night. But no one would die of cold there though they might be miserable. Daytime, long sleeve shirt was about all that was needed in January. YMMV

 

[GaryInCO]

My gas bill runs about $150/mo in the winter. Electric is about $200 in the summer. My furnace is 15 yrs old & AC is 30 yrs old, so I'm seriously considering a heat pump.

So I'm thinking this Winter your bill will run about $245

I wish. Last month's bill was nearly FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Nearly double the previous highest-ever bill. Gonna be a long cold *expensive* winter.

Reynaud's is weird. Your peripheral nervous system decides that the core is dying, and all circulation must be cut off to save the core. It takes a lot of heat to get the circulation switch flipped again.

I don't have full Reynaud's, but something similar. I have to keep my office at least 72°, because otherwise my fingers get so stiff and cold that I can't type.

I have two blankets and a down comforter on my bed, and normally that keeps me cozy when the thermostat goes to 65° at night. But sometimes my body decides my feet don't need any blood, and I'll wake up ice-cold from the knees/thighs down. It'll keep me awake all night long until I warm up, which only happens with external heat (heat pad or electric blanket).

 

[aaronc879]

I wish. Last month's bill was nearly FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Nearly double the previous highest-ever bill. Gonna be a long cold *expensive* winter.

You must have an oil furnace and/or a mansion? My bill with a natural gas furnace was $130 and that is for gas and electric.

 

[COcheesehead]

I picked up a new dehumidifier for our guest bath. I hang a lot of laundry up in there and this new one looks promising.
A typical dryer load costs $0.57 and dumps that heat outdoors, and wears out the clothes. This dehumidifier will use $0.96 in 24 hours, and will never run like that.
All the energy stays in the house, and I re-use the water too.

In the western US, non coastal Colorado, we want water in the air.

We hang clothes regularly in our laundry room. Washed at breakfast, put away by lunch.

 

[NW-Bound]

This winter, I set the thermostats higher than I did in previous years. Getting old, I guess.

With the mini-splits mounted high due to the vaulted ceiling, when I set their temperature to 77F (25C), the temperature at ground level is 71F (22C) out in the living space, and 74F (24C) in my bedroom. I still wear t-shirt and shorts, and sleep without a cover.

The outdoor low is not too bad at 36F (2C) or higher. My electric bill is going to be $75.

I need to go up to the high-country boondocks home to check it. Low of single digits. High above freezing. My wife is afraid of the cold even for a short stay, so I don't know if I will go alone. Need to check the road condition.

Just got my electric bill. $76. Last year, it was $60.

If it were not for my off-grid solar system helping out, the bill would have been perhaps $130. Still not bad for such a toasty thermostat setting.

 

[Andre1969]

Some people have never paid a utility bill in their life and it shows. Here it is, the coldest night we've had in several years. Outside temp is around 7-8 degrees. I just paid about $943 last week to fill up the oil. And my housemate, who tends to complain about being cold? Well, he has a hot flash and cracks his bedroom window open!

 

[Pellice]

Some people have never paid a utility bill in their life and it shows. Here it is, the coldest night we've had in several years. Outside temp is around 7-8 degrees. I just paid about $943 last week to fill up the oil. And my housemate, who tends to complain about being cold? Well, he has a hot flash and cracks his bedroom window open!

I use and recommend LL Bean's "Cozy Cottage Fleece."

 

[Music Lover]

The difference is you live in a place where one would die with no heat used.

Where I live one doesn't need to turn on the heat in the winter.

Where I live is irrelevant. If it was 53F in my house I would turn the heat on, regardless of the outside temp.

 

[GaryInCO]

You must have an oil furnace and/or a mansion? My bill with a natural gas furnace was $130 and that is for gas and electric.

Not quite a mansion, but a stupidly large house. My then-fiancé and I built it 33 years ago, when big lakefront houses were fashionable. I've wished many times we didn't build such a beast. But it's a beautiful place to live so I've stayed here even after ex-DW took a hike.

That $500 bill was for a gas furnace, but like I said, it was nearly 2x the highest bill I EVER had in this house. Gas prices spiked this summer (thanks Vlad), jumping nearly 3x from a year ago. The utility was quick to jack up rates when the prices went up, but they're slower lowering them since gas went down again. I'm looking into installing a heat pump, and possibly solar.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Our total costs, and we are all electric are on average $15 pm more than last year. Not bad really, just a normal nominal increase. We are in Nort East Florida, and we do use Heat on occasion as I hate any temp below 75 Degrees.