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Well Thomas, it sounds like your neighborhood has some of the best and the worst of L.A.  I will admit that I've not had much reason to venture very far south of the city center, other than to events at the Shrine Auditorium.

 

My sister lives in Glassell Park (near the bottom end of the 2 Freeway, south of the 134) back behind Dodger Stadium.  It's very much a "transitional" neighborhood.   I like how she is located between downtown L.A. and Pasadena, which are desirable arts and entertainment destinations, and how many original homes have survived in that area.   A couple of homes up the road behind her house there is one of those '20s staircases down to the block below hers, as seen on TV/movies.  I've spent time sitting at the top of those steps and enjoying the view of Griffith Observatory on the next ridge over to the west.  I may be a Bay Area native, but I love L.A.  Maybe not more, but I love it there.  And yes, I've worked and commuted there, so mine is not some la la perspective. 

 

It would be great if you got the front house and could steer the LL toward affordable fixtures and finishes that at least don't look cheap.  The ReStore is your friend.
 
Thomas 86 degrees

With all due respect, 86 degrees is NOT healthy.

Most people are comfy between 72 and 76 and a healthy humidity level around 30%

suggestions:
1. see a doctor, you may have certain vitamin deficiencies, such as Vit D. A lot of people do. A lack of vit D tends to make people feel tired, makes it difficult to sleep, makes ones bones achy, makes one feel cold, as well as other problems. You may need a supplement or to change your diet.

2. You're going to damage your health keeping temperatures that high.

3. You could well cause a fire with that many heat sources running.

4. you might try adding a humidifier in your home. S. Calif. typically has little humidity and even when it's 100 degrees, it will be tolerable to a typical person because of the low humidity. On the other hand, a place with 70 degree and high humidity of say 75% can make it feel like it's 90 degrees.

5. Move to a decent apartment that is well insulated and not drafty. A constant draft can affect one's well being because you feel you can't control your environment.

6. If all else fails, consider seeing a therapist as there may be other underlying problems.

good luck to you.
 
I feel overheated just reading this thread. It reaches 80+ in my house and I start putting my pillow in the freezer before bed and opening windows and taking off clothes, by far summer is my least favorite time of the year and my worst season for good sleep. Living in a northern climate though, I do have some resources for staying warm when the central heating can’t keep up (which happens once or twice a year, usually in January especially if you’re in a home relying on electric heat, which thankfully I’m not anymore). First of all, you really do have to just get over wearing clothing to bed. Long johns under nice flannel pajamas and a warm pair of wool socks should keep you plenty warm. I wouldn’t really recommend sleeping with heated electric bedding but if you really feel it necessary, a heated mattress pad is probably the better option. I personally use a hot water bottle to just warm the bed before bedtime. Flannel sheets are a big help as well as a nice down duvet and a thick wool blanket or two. I strongly recommend sticking with cotton, wool, and down rather than synthetics because they don’t trap moisture and have better temperature regulation properties. Finally, to just increase the ambient comfort of the room in general a good fan to distribute the heat more evenly does help and a humidifier is an absolute must. I wouldn’t discount exploring some possible medical causes of your cold intolerance either, human beings generally are very good at acclimating to new environments fairly quickly, years later you really shouldn’t still be that cold especially in Southern California.
 
Re: Reply #19

“I'm actually trying to run away from electric. During the summer, electricity is more expensive because of the air conditioners (2 brand new 12k btu Kenmore smart window units) that run almost 24/7. They work beautifully, but if I touch the external walls in the summer i can feel them cold (so my temperature loss is absurdly high because of the lack of insulation). During the winter the gas bill skyrockets. So if I can manage to reduce or eliminate the use of electric heating sources, it can be great. “

I’ve been wondering for the past few days why you would need to have the temp up to 86 F in the winter, if during the summer you say you run the AC 24/7? It would seem that if cold was really such a problem for you, then I would imagine that logically, you would enjoy the LA summer heat, and have little, if any need for AC during the heat of the summer.

I personally am most comfortable with our home being at a constant 70 to 72 degrees. We don’t have AC, and in the summer, due to the many tall trees around our home providing shade the downstairs stays in this range almost all the time, upstairs is another story, and it can get up to 80 F in the afternoon during hot days, and thats way too hot for moi.

During the fall and winter, I set the thermostats in each room to about 68 F and this maintains a constant 70 to 72 F, which is comfortable. while wearing appropriate warmer winter clothing and socks. I can’t imagine being in 86 F heat and liking it.

My family only lived in one home during my childhood with forced air heating, and my Mom was like you, liked the house to be hot. I can recall my Dad coming home from work one evening and Mom had the thermostat up to 80 F. My Dad said, “Jesus Christ Bettie, wadda you think you’re doin’, growin’ Orchids in here!”.

If you really need the temp up to 86F during the winter I agree with some of the other posters, perhaps you have a metabolic problem that you should check with your doctor about, cuz 86 F is hella hot!

Eddie
 
During the summer this apartment looks like a self cleaning oven, I mean way hotter than what is comfortable for me.

It's incredible how this apartment gets hot, i mean, MUCH hotter than outside (outside the weather feels great at 100s) it feels like the sun is in my attic. Opening windows is unthinkable because of the pollution. That black dust everywhere unless I start dusting every day, and my life would turn into a cleaning nightmare. If I don't dust every day, in 3 days the apartment will look like it's abandoned for 10 years.

During the summer i set my A/Cs to 80 or 75, and they struggle. When they reach the temperature and turn off, it doesn't take longer than 2 minutes for the compressor to kick in again. Also, when they turn off, if feels like I just turned on the heaters, because the temperature rises almost instantly.

Right now it's somewhat comfortable at night. i set my space heater to 75 and I can forget it on 24/7 and it kicks in only at night when it starts to get colder. I'm no longer using the A/Cs (or using them very little near noon), they kick in and quickly reach the temperature and turn off and kick in again after several minutes.

Strangely, If i wait to turn the heater and furnace on, I arrive at 2 or 3 am (Uber) outside is cold, but not horrible, i can resist that with only a light jacket and the apartment feels much colder. When I open the door I feel like entering that walk in refrigerator at Costco.
 
Without proper insulation and a few other things nearly any building is going to become quite warm indoors during summer if you keep windows closed.

Can leave ours closed most of the day with heavy drapes shut, and things remain cool well into the evening. But that is with turning on AC say around 11PM and leaving it on until next morning. In short once place has cooled keep it that way by restricting (much as possible) heat from entering.

Either you or landlord really should pony up for a home energy inspection. Sometimes local utility companies will offer things for free or at reduced rates. Other than that look around for a good deal.

It really does sound as if your home/apartment doesn't have much insulation, which is common for older buildings. Things that went up when energy prices were "cheap" people didn't care as much about heating costs. If you got chilly just turn up the thermostat.

From early in last century until rather recently there also was a "ventilation" movement. Sparked by the 1916 flu pandemic people believed in fresh air, even in winter. Thus buildings were either designed or required by code to have heating systems capable of keeping indoor temps at say 70F even in dead winter with windows opened, and or they were "drafty" by construction intent. Again the idea was that fresh air prevented one from catching the flu (it doesn't)....

When your LL ripped out the previous hot water or steam heating system with rads it really sounds as if no one sat down and gave serious thought to how much heating is required. An energy audit would have arrived at proper sizing of a new furnace or whatever heating system that replaced previous.
 
Well, the insulation is definitely non existent here, given the way the external walls are cold during the summer (with the A/C on) and how they are extremely cold internally during the winter.

It's a point where the windows (replaced sometime probably in the 50's, standard guillotine windows with aluminum sashes and super thin glass.) are irrelevant because the whole wall gets cold.

Anyway

Redoing the insulation is obviously unthinkable. My landlord will definitely not spend that money and I wouldn't be stupid to consider talking to him about that.

I can say I'm lucky, because my rent is ridiculously cheap (considering LA prices) and as I always paid rent a few days in advance, my landlord loves me and he didn't even raise the rent when he could.

I moved from a million dollar high end upscale building that was built in 1997 in Brazil with state-of-the-art technology and marketed as the most modern and safest apartment building in my state. Of course I had to adapt myself and honestly, I'm loving the challenge, but some things are a PITA. An apartment like mine here in los angeles would easily cost over 10 million dollars to buy or paying 50k dollars per month on rent would be nothing.

When I lived in Dallas, my apartment was huge (i mean really huge, probably twice bigger than this and it was also a 2-bedroom apartment), the living room was comparable to a ballroom so wide it was, the bedrooms were enormous, it had central A/C and furnace, fancy triple pane windows that were also sound proof and it was so well insulated it was probably more air tight than a mason jar. and rent was 4x cheaper than what I pay here. Moving to an apartment with the same features here in Los Angeles means I would have to sacrifice something near 5 or 6k dollars on my budget, EVERY MONTH! It's simply impossible for me to even consider that.

I have a friend from Brazil (my former boss) that has a daughter studying in Orlando, FL. He bought a huge house (I mean almost a mansion), 6 bedrooms (actually 6 master bedrooms with giant bathrooms with large jacuzzi on all of them and "celebrity" closets) in a gated community with all the luxury one can imagine AND a super fancy swimming pool with jacuzzi and waterfall that surrounds half of the house and "invades" one of the living rooms. It's a house that could easily be on HGTV. It was brand new when he bought it for only 380k dollars. With 300k dollars in great los angeles you probably can't buy even the land in the worst neighborhood (Compton).

My husband owns a tiny house in Tehachapi (It's a hole in the middle of nowhere, close to Bakersfield) That house is depressive, extremely modest, ugly, small and among the "luxury" features, I can mention it has a garage door, windows, the bathroom has a toilet and the kitchen has a sink. (Did I mention that there's nothing in this life that I hate more than that house and someday that "thing" will end up destroying my marriage?)
That "thing", believe it or not, is worth much more than my friends mansion in Orlando. Welcome to Californiaquistan!

Solution is: I have to make things work with the resources I have available. It's a scenario somewhat comparable to that reality show "The 1900 family". Back to the topic. My apartment has a horrible insulation (basically none).

I have a williams wall furnace that is mediocre and obviously under dimensioned for the apartment size and the temperature loss. I need to discover a way to extract as much heat as possible from it.

During the winter (when it's REALLY COLD) the internal walls are freezing cold and the williams furnace isn't enough. I use electric space heaters together, but I'd love to discover a way to reduce the use of the space heaters, so at least during the winter my electrical bill could be lower.
Wearing anything to sleep is a NO, NO, NO for me. I simply can't sleep at all.

Honestly, if I had the money, I'd give to my landlord a central HVAC system or those split-type HC air conditioners.
 
Thomas, I'm wondering if maybe part of the problem is a difference of measurements?

The winter temperature setting, 86-90 degrees and desiring warmer, is way warmer than typical... and the summer setting of 75-80, while relatively normal sounding, does seem to be way too cool for your otherwise stated preference for warmer temperatures.

Perhaps one or more of your units has a faulty or miscalibrated thermostat? Or perhaps the fact that each thermostat is independent and located in different areas means they aren't giving a true reflection of the actual temperature in your living space?

Before doing anything else, I'd get a good reliable thermometer, and place it in different areas of your home... particularly in the middle of rooms and not near the floor or ceiling... each time giving it a half hour or so to stabilize. That will give you some data points on the *actual* temps, not just what the temp is along a wall, by a window, etc... especially given the current close proximity of the thermostats to their respective heating/cooling devices.

It could very well be that you don't actually like the temp at 86+... that simply you have to set your thermostat to those temps to get the rest of your apartment to, say, the 78 that you'd like.
 
Interesting.... for a second I stopped and thought about that.

Yes, in fact, the furnace heats (duh, that's obvious) and the thermostat is somewhat near the furnace (living room).

The portable space heater... well, i don't need to say the thermostat is IN it.

Near the furnace it's hot (I mean, uncomfortably hot) but a few steps away from it it's freaking cold. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, feeling like a penguin and i stand right in front of the furnace to stop shaking.

And yes, I have a fan pointed to the furnace to help spreading the hot air.

I also have two ceiling fans (bedroom and living room) that I keep running to move the air.
 
Eddie,

 

You're lucky that your house is shaded by trees and stays cool enough in the summer. Most of the summer here at this house, I have to shut all the windows in the morning and pull the shades on the south and west sides. That's because the long side of the house faces west, and faces a paved (concrete) courtyard that reflects a lot of heat. I planted a line of shade trees along the property line about 15 years ago, and they've grown to 20 feet or so, but they are not close enough to shade the house in the heat of the day. At night I open the windows and sometimes run fans as well, to pull in cool night air to cool everything down. This way the interior of the home stays in the 70's , sometimes into the 80's on really hot days, such as when it's 100 outside. Adding insulation to the attic seems to have helped a lot to prevent heat from the roof radiating down to the living quarters below. I have a small portable A/C unit in the family room that I can run when it gets unbearable; this last summer I think I ran it for just a few of the hottest nights.

 

 

 

 

 
 
Rich,
Believe me, we know how lucky we are! I’ve lived in over 23 places since I moved out on my own in 1970 when I was 19, and we’ve lived here for 25 years now. I’ve never been happier in any other home I’ve lived in. The grounds are beautiful, and every window in the house has a view of trees. And these trees provide that cooling shade for the downstairs. It stays so cool that on days where its still 80 outside, in the afternoon when the sun is no longer shining on the front of the house I often will put on a sweat shirt in the late afternoon because it’s so cool downstairs.

Now the upstairs is quite a different story, on hot days by the late afternoon its pretty hot upstairs. But the lovely ocean breeze that we get at least 350 evenings a year comes up when the sun starts to set and if we open up all the windows upstairs it cools right down. We do have 3 Dyson fans and those fans move the air around enough to keep us cool and comfortable on all but the hottest days of a heat wave.

The complex was built in 1980, and the insulation is minimal, but there is some. I’m not certain of the R rating, but probably only what code required in 80’. We did have a pipe leak in the wall of the living room where the main water line enters the home in 1998. The plumber needed to remove a 12”X12” section of sheetrock to make the repair. I did the patch repair myself, so I know that there is insulation because I had to replace a section of it. I just purchased a scrap piece at Home Depot along with a scrape piece of sheetrock, 3 ft. of 2”X3/3” scrape lumber, some sheetrock screws, tape, plaster and a can of spray texture, because we have orange peel texture on the wall. I spent $13.66 for the materials and it took me about 2 hrs total over 2-3 days to finish, and I’d never done it before, just learned how by watching a DIY TV program. And no one can even tell that it was patched. The HOA reimbursed me for my cost. My next door neighbor had the same repair done the next year, and the HOA paid $175.00 for the patch, I know because I’ve been on the HOA board for 24 years.

Anyway, sorry to digress, but having lived in N. Calif my whole life I know what you are experiencing in your home as far as comfort level during hot and cold weather. I think to a certain extent we notice it more now because the extremes of heat and cold are more dramatic than they were when our homes were built. Back in the old days, Bay Area weather was more temperate, therefore homes weren’t built for climate extremes. Also, at least for myself I’m 68 now, and 28 tolerates extreme cold and heat a whole lot better than 68, especially the cold if you have arthritis, and most of us in our 60’s have at least a little of the “room-a-tiz” as Granny Clampett used to say.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 11/17/2019-19:19]
 
Eddie,

 

What gets me is that from my experience here, the old plaster and lathe walls seem to have better insulating value than the newer drywall walls, even when there is fiberglass between the drywall and outer wall.

 

There is one difference: the crawl space under the addition has more ventilation than the older part of the house. So that may be a factor... but I made sure to heavily insulate the attic and under the floor in the addition to compensate for the increased ventilation. The older part of the house has markedly less crawl space ventilation. It seems to work OK, as there never seems to be any dampness down there. One reason is that the front part of the house - the part facing the street - has a tall foundation, triangular in shape, that acts like a buttress against the soil in front. In other words, no cripple wall on that side, so no vents. And the vents on the east side of the older part of the home are reduced in number, as they are blocked by a variety of constructions, such as a fireplace, a half bath, stairs, water heater, and the patio kitchen counter. It all works out to about 225 sq ft of '41 house per sq ft of foundation vent, vs. 61 sq ft of addition per sq ft of foundation vent. The addition crawl space is open (save for an open cripple wall) to the main house crawl, so there must be some compensating air circulation between the two. But the probable deficient part is that the entire north-east corner of the house has no foundation venting. There's about 30 feet of the east side, and about 26 feet of the north side, without any foundation venting. It is perhaps not as bad as it sounds since the shed roofing over the half bath and patio kitchen tends to keep that side of the house perfectly dry. But still, if I were to address this I'd add a couple of foundation vents to the northeast corner of the structure. I helped compensate for the lack of venting by laying down polyethylene tarp on the exposed dirt in the entire crawl space, which should reduce moisture intrusion from the earth (where I gather a lot of foundation/moisture originates). I also installed full perimeter strip venting in the roof soffits, where little to none existed before. That, along with the attic floor insulation, likely helps keep the living quarters cooler in the summer heat.

 

Hey, it all beats a soggy sleeping bag in the park. ;-)

 
 
One thing I''ve found during the summer if I open the attic access it keeps the whole second floor cooler. Creates a chimney effect and the attic does not get to 120+ with the sun beating down.  I actually drop my whole house fan over the opening, use it inn the evening mostly.  Pull it out for the winter and close it up.
 
That's probably a good idea, with the attic opening. I could probably work up a frame to house a cheap window box fan to do the same. But the soffit vents also serve the same purpose, to keep the attic cool, more or less. They are combined with roof vents higher on the roofing, although from my reading it appears an attic can be adequately vented with just soffit venting.

 

I have accumulated a fair amount of firewood from managing trees on the property. It's fairly well aged now. The problem in this area are the frequent "no burn" days designed to keep the air quality from degrading from wood smoke during cold windless weather. Just the nights when a cozy wood fire would seem best. Ah, the price we pay to live in a supposed paradise.

 
 
Poor (inherited from her father) Circulation, here?

I think I need to thoroughly read up in this topic... My wife is the one who complains about being cold, but when I am mostly in charge of the thermostat in interest of saving energy, I find myself going from what I think is a cold house, to making things sweltering...!

So, to, wit, here, in;S-E Michigan is where our thermostat is set:

Making me wonder, as our furnace is just now kicking on, wondering why o complaint from the wife about the cold that I’m feeling, to my relief I’m hearing her (the furnace);starting up, providing warmth not her (my wife) starting up about the (her) typical lack of...

— Dave

daveamkrayoguy-2019111720403107529_1.jpg
 
Not sure what that thermostat is, but if it's not programmable, my suggestion is to get a programmable model. I program my Lux 1500 to start at 5 or 6 pm to heat the house to 67F, then at 11:30 pm it goes down to 64. Depending on my schedule, it starts up again in the morning to 67, then ratchets down to 64 for the day. The thing has separate routines for weekdays and Sat and Sun, as well. The main difference I make for the weekend is a later morning startup time. It takes the millivolt signal from the heater pilot, as well as a couple of internal AA batteries that last at least a year. Of course it can be overridden if someone starts raising a ruckus about the temperature, and then it goes back to the schedule at the next time point,  or it can be disabled completely. The Lux 1500, as I recall, was reasonably priced about 10 years ago at $25 or less. I would never go back to a manual thermostat.

 
 
As mentioned earlier in the thread, humidity can be a key.  As mentioned I'm totally comfortable at 64 degrees, but I keep my humidity as close to 50% as possible, less than that and I do feel cool.  My April Aire humidifier has an outdoor sensor that track temps and adjusts the humidity as needed, most people do not adjust their humidistat to reflect the exterior temp.  I also run hot water to the humidifier, the furnace guys that installed the furnace had to put the humidifier on the cold air return and told me that only way I'd get close to enough humidity was to use hot water.  It does work well.
 
I grew up with the central gas heat set on 74.  In the 70's energy crunch my dad built a chimney and put up a wood stove.  We'd get used to that warmth and as winter dwindled down we'd take the stove down and store it in the room outside until next winter.  We'd freeze using the gas heat after the stove was taken down.  They no longer use wood in the house so keep the furnace set on 74.  I like the comfort but it's hard to breathe since my own gas furnace is set on 72 and I've acclimated to that temp.  I'm usually cold-natured.  I wear 4 layers to work because we all know how cold it gets in hospitalsSummertime I keep the central AC at 76-77. 
 
Ok, now something REALLY weird.

I arrived home a few minutes ago (1:30 am).

Darryl left the furnace on and the space heater off and I can imagine it was several hours ago, so it was the perfect scenario to grab the thermometer and make some readings.

External temperature (according to Alexa): 63°F

Living room:
10 inches far from the furnace at my chest height 119°F
Right in front of the sofa (opposite to the furnace) 59°F (how can it be COLDER than outside considering outside isn't that cold AND the furnace is on?
Right in front of the thermostat: 71°F (It's set to 75 now)

Bedroom:
Door was closed, so the air wasn't mixing with the living room.
10 inches in front of the furnace (with the fan on the floor right in front of it, pointed at it at a 45° angle): 103°F

Right where my desk is (measured right in front of the chair, where I would normally be seated: 61°F (again, it's colder than outside.)

Spare bedroom: (no furnace, no heater, no nothing and door is kept closed. I measured it just to have a reference) 54°F WTF? That's 9 degrees colder than outside! How can that be ever possible?

This eliminates the theory that I'm sick or that I'm crazy. It's not "that" cold. I can survive... but in a month it will be much colder and....?

More theories. Heat is never "lost", it's exchanged, transformed into colder temperatures.... Where is the heat from the furnace going?

In the living room, ok, the fan there was off (it's actually an oreck air whatever electrostatic wannabe a filter.) but in the bedroom the fan blowing air upwards should at least mix some of the air.

And the cherry on top goes to the bathroom. door was closed, window closed. space heater off.

The moment I opened the door I could feel it was warmer. for a fraction of second i thought the space heater was on, until I looked at it and saw it was off.
Theoretically the bathroom should be the coldest place. It was 67°F (4 degrees hotter than outside and much hotter than right in front of the sofa that is in the living room with a furnace running almost non-stop since it was turned on.). BUT HOW?

Something VERY strange is happening here. I thought the temperature readings would help me solving the mistery but it just made it worse.
 
My living room, kitchen, and each bedroom all have 2 outside walls.  Those rooms are significantly colder than the bathroom which has only one small outside wall.  It's warmer in the bathroom.  My house is insulated in the walls to 1956 standards but there's thicker insulation up in the attic that was added at some point by a previous owner.  Frequently when we have cold nights and warm days and still need the AC in the day time, overnight it will still cycle the AC even though the outside temp may be in the mid 60's and the thermostat will be set at 76.  Warmer inside than outside and causing the air to kick on.  Can't open the windows at that time due to humidity and mugginess.  Tony thought I was playing some kind of trick when the house was showing 74 degrees once and the Tstat was set on 72.  "How can that be"? he asked me.
 

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