I gave in!

[maytagbear]

Lost the battle of the thermostat.

I was trying to hold out on lighting the furnace until November 1, but I gave in.

I know what the "burned feathers" smell is, it's actually dust, et cetera on the burner, but oh, how I hate it. I just have the thermostat set at 60F.

If only my first apartment had had washer and dryer hookups..... Heat and hot water were included in the rent, not billed separately. The heat was hot water heat, and the potable hot water was made in a separate part of the boiler, so, it too, was very hot. People used the tap hot water to make tea and instant coffee.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[frigilux]

Me, too, Lawrence. I've had the thermostat set to 64-degrees for the past few weeks. It's been getting down to the low 30's at night and only about 45-50 during the day. Here's to another (expensive!) heating season with natural gas.

Gee...remember when heating with gas was so much cheaper than oil or electricity. Those days are gone, that's for sure.

 

[hoover1060]

I must be a total lightweight

well I have no blood anyway... my furnace has been on all month at least!
I get cold way too easy!

 

[chad_hauris]

This may sound strange but I need the heating to be about 78-80 degrees or else I start to feel cold!
I have never skimped on heating as I would feel miserable at 60 degrees. Even if I have a sweater and long pants on my ears and nose would be uncomfortably cold.

 

[jonv112]

I started running my furnace at 21.5 degrees Celsius, or 72 degrees Fahrenheit 2 weeks ago, but I shouldn't really be surprised; I live in Canada!

 

[retroguy]

I've had my furnace on for a week also....

But I get cold if it's 70.

 

[gadgetgary]

Heat Pump here in CT...

Have had the heat on for over a week....67 during the day.....65 at nite....

 

[partscounterman]

Gawd, it's 93 here today

(ducks and runs real quick!)

 

[oxydolfan1]

How about an electric blanket?

 

[washertalk]

Its been at 72 degrees for at least 6 weeks.
I respect your ability to with stand the cold though.

 

[vinvac]

Jeff

I am with you, I won't be cold or hot, I am the first to turn on the Air and the first to turn on the heat. I don't like it warm, but this fall has been extremely damp and chilly.

Morgan

 

[maytagbear]

I've

been sleeping under a polyfill duvet and two blankets for over two weeks, plus the mobile supplemental heating unit (Boris, the Russian Blue.)

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[gregm]

warm bed

I have a "heated mattress pad" so I crank that baby up half hour before getting into bed then shut it off and then have a down comforter over me, mmmmmmmm, toasty, toasty and the thermostat is at 58 for the night. When home early eve I keep it at 64 and wear a sweatshirt around the house.

 

[hoover1060]

When home early eve I keep it at 64 and wear a sweatshirt ar

Only a sweatshirt Greg???

{ducks and runs}

Seriously though, I'm cold as soon as the temp goes below 70... I know my furnace has been on for most of this month, but then we've also had some very freaky weather here too. Twice in 2 weeks we had tornadoes and some really ferocious thunderstorms come thru, then the bottom has fallen out on the temps.
Twice this week I was SO cold in the mornings that I started my car and let it warm up while I was walking Jack.
I've got a programmable thermostat too, but found the gas bill is cheaper when I keep it set at one temp rather than having different ones for daytime and overnight. 71 degrees all day long works for me, and if I get too cold then I'll bake some cookies or a cake. The oven on always makes the house nice and toasty

 

[gansky1]

I keep the 'stat at 68F all winter. I found the same thing, Jeff, the gas bill didn't change much to keep the same temp all the time.

The biggest energy savings for me comes from the 3M window-film. I love that stuff and have used it for over 20 years.

 

[sudsman]

Does not seem to matter what I do

My house in only 4 years old and has all the up dated features however my gas bill is always 150.00+ during the cooler months. I have had gas company check for leaks ect and found nothing and charged me another 200.00 just for doing so .. POOEY on Atmos Enegry.....Aunts house is 10 miles from mine and is all electric her bills avg 600.00 + both our houses are only 1300 and 1400 sq ft. Not that large ....

 

[hoover1060]

gas bill

Most of my major appliances are gas: Stove, HW heater, dryer, furnace.
I do a fair amount of cooking and use the stove almost every day, keep my furnace at 71 in the cold months, my water heater at 140(a shower is no good unless it completely steams up the bathroom) and I do 4 loads of laundry a week. I guess I run the dishwasher about twice a week too, 15 gallons of hot water a pop there too.
In the warmer seasons my gas bill is $25 a month. During the cold months its been as high as $200. My place is 1600 sq ft. and even at $200 a month its cheaper to heat than the 800 sq ft apartment I had with the electric baseboard heaters!

 

[petek]

Here at moms she keeps her t-stat set at 72 so the furnace has been coming on some days and nights and not others since the weather seems to have been so unstable this last month. I don't like it when it gets too chilly in the house and I don't like wearing sweaters indoors either, then again I'd rather the house be on the cool side than too warm. I feel the heat more than I feel cold.

 

[foraloysius]

Overhere in Holland the temperature has been way too high for the time of the year. By now it should be around 10*C (50*F) but earlier this week it was 21*C (70*F). And because it's raining here the humidity is very high. I am running a dehumidifier in my bedroom 24/7 at the moment (I have asthma and I'm sensitive to humidity). Today it's a little colder and the furnace is on now. Thermostat at 20*C (68*F).

 

[gregm]

clarify for jeff

hahahahah, sweatshirt AND pants, sometimes "longjohns" < (spelled right?)

 

[hoover1060]

:-D

you're a good sport Greg!

 

[dalangdon]

It doesn't get that cold here - it hardly ever goes below freezing - but it is a damp cold, which makes things feel colder, so you do tend to run the furnace a fair amount.

But since we got the new windows, the house has held heat much better, so the furnace only runs a bit in the morning - at least so far.

And now that it is getting cooler, I'm starting to appreciate how a gas stove can keep the kitchen warm. In the summer, I wasn't so sure ;-)

 

[abcomatic]

It is cold for this time of year

It is 3:40pm in central Illinois now and is very warm for the 7th of Nov. The boiler is turned off at school today and we all had our windows open. I know what Jeff was talking about a few days back. Lots of weird storms and very cold. I built a fire in the kitchen stove so that warmed up the kitchen. I keep my thermostat set at 67 and leave it there for the winter. Its hard on the pianos and organ to turn the temp. up and down. Greg, I get all bundled up too but sweatshirt AND pants is a good thing. I wear toe socks too sometimes to keep warm. lol Abcomatic

 

[Unimatic1140]

We've had the heat on now for about three + weeks. I love being able to turn the heat on, everything feels so much drier and my skin which can be a bit oily at times goes back to normal. We keep the thermostat at 72. This week we are having all new windows installed in the house, the old windows (1931 vintage) with storms are going so it should make big difference and I might be able to turn it down to 70. Of course it better for $17,000, oy.

 

[petek]

Furnace woes here at moms house !!!

Mom had a new Carrier hi efficiency furnace and central air installed back in 1995 and with it bought a 10 year extended warranty good to August 2005. Within a couple of years a circuit board burned, then in 2003 the heat exchanger fan went, all covered by warranty thankfully. Well last month it started to make a noise (the heat exchanger fan) so we had the dealer in to replace it, actually another dealer since the original no longer carried Carrier. He took the old one off which was only 3 years old and was astonished to see that the previous repairman had used silicone to seal it to the heat exchanger..not supposed to do that he said.. That entailed now getting a new heat exchanger and fan.. lots more money and labor, although Carrier is paying for the heat exchanger under it's 25 yr warrant but not the fan which is $275. On top of that he took the furnace apart on Monday and the part still isn't it so the house is sitting at about 64 degs now, thankfully it's not any colder out.
I won't be buying any Carrier product in the future after this fiasco. Any money mom saved in gas on her hi efficiency furnace is now gone paying for repairs.

 

[DADoES]

Hmmm. Interesting, Pete. My house has a Carrier heat pump. Mid-summer this year a board went bad and the blower wouldn't run. Got that fixed, then discovered two months later (after the two highest electric bills I've had thus far) that another board was bad causing one (or both) heating auxiliary heating elements to run either continuously or (more likely) whenever the blower was cycled off. Still waiting for the repair to be finished. I called the service outfit this week, he said they've had the job on the back-burner being as it was a heat issue happening in the summer.

As for running heat, nada. Had a couple days into the 50s°F but this week has been back in the 70s°F and 80s°F. Winter thermostat setting is 70°F when home, 60°F when not. I'm typically in shorts and a t-shirt around the house. </b>Or nothing<b>