(no subject)

[which_chick]

We installed a user-controlled thermostat for one of the apartments at the office today. (This was because we had upgraded, if you can call it that, the tenant from accustat-controlled landlord-paid heat to tenant-settable, tenant-paid heat with reduced rent.) The tenant will actually show savings on his rent+heating bill if he does the really difficult heat management technique known as Turn It Down When Nobody's Home. That's a tough one, though... lots of people seem to find it challenging to put into action.



And that got me to thinking about people and their heat. (The fact that it was in the single digits this morning, with high winds, did not do a damn thing to distract me from thinking about heat.)

My house is heated primarily (and by "primarily" I mean so that the pipes do not freeze) by electric baseboard. The thermostat on the electric baseboard is set to fifty degrees. It is a rare day indeed where I move that thermostat, probably four or five days a year, if that many. If I'd actually like to be warm and "wear more clothes" is not cutting it, I build a fire in the woodstove (fireplace insert, with thermostat-controlled electric blower to move hot air around lots) and make the house somwhere between "warm" and "really too fucking hot" depending on my fire building skills, the outdoor temperature, and my general mood. Most of the time, I get the couch in front of the stove (about 6' away) to the mid-seventies. Even with the blower, areas of the house further from the woodstove are markedly cooler than the couch in front of the stove. The kitchen is never really warm and neither is the bedroom. Oh, and the bathroom has a huge electric wall heater that I run for the duration of my morning shower because I do not like being wet and cold at the same time.

Tell me about your heat. Is it #2 fuel oil, natural gas, propane, electric, coal, wood, solar, geothermal?

I don't really turn my heat down when I'm not home. I don't move my heat much at all. It's set to fifty. I generally let the fire go out when I'm not home for more than a few hours, too. If it's bitter cold, though, I throw in some big logs before I go to work and damp it down so that I have nice coals to work with when I get home.

How about you? Do you have a programmable thermostat? Do you turn the thermostat down when you're not home? Yes? No? Sometimes? Only when you're going to be gone on vacation for weeks at a time? Never?

I let the fire go out if it's a reasonably warm night. Single digit nights, I get up about 2x per night to throw more wood on the fire. I'm used to it and it's no worse than having a small baby for the ten or so nights a year that it's so cold as that. Do you turn your heat down at night when you're asleep?

As for temperature, I do the Tinfoil Hat 50, with accessory wood heat to comfy and beyond. How warm do you keep the place when you are heating it? Do you do the energy-concious 68, the comfy 72, the hedonistic 75, or the Truckle The Uncivil Bastard 65?

Tell me, how do you keep warm?

One nice thing about keeping my house colder than most people prefer is that it makes my cats very affectionate. They will sit quietly on my feet and purr for extended periods of time in the winter. It's nice. I'm not sure why they're so affectionate when it's winter. Probably they've got some sort of seasonal affective disorder...

Comments

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

We are Truckle the Uncivil Bastard, but that means the downstairs is generally a flat 60 (the thermostat is upstairs).

Our programmable thermostate is programmed to turn down at night. We are rarely both out for more than a morning, and if we're heading out on a trip together Eric will turn it down for the duration. If we do the simple turn-down, it will come back up at the next programmed point, generally 6 pm. If we hit "hold", then we will need to cancel the turndown when we get home.

It is fuel oil. Cursed, cursed fuel oil, probably now available at 1/2 to 1/3 the price we dutifully locked in in July.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Fuel oil, as I had occasion to check this afternoon, is selling for $1.52 a gallon in my area. Your area might be a few pennies different, but not more than a dime or so per gallon.