Winter Heating...Do you have rules about using it?

[MamaLema]

I love saving money, but I don’t cheap out on heat. Ours is set at 72. Our only rule is we program it to be pretty low at night because we don’t want to be hot when we sleep.

 

[jsmith]

The only rule is that DH who spent 3 years in the middle east refuses to be uncomfortable-so we use the AC when its hot and heat when its cold. Heat has been on and off since 1st of September because we have had two winter storms-and AC on in between because it was over 85. We keep the house pretty cool-68 is the max in winter-but set AC to 76 in the summer.

 

[Skippy918]

I caved and turned the heat on on Monday cause a cold front blew throw and the temp went down to 37. I woke up to the house at 65 degrees so I turned the heat on. I live in Texas and we completely skipped the nice weather. Went from 90s last week to 40-50 this week.
I grew up in ny, and they have rules for when landlords have to turn on the heat and it’s regardless of what the weather actually is. We had steam heating in the apartment I grew up in. I think there’s more involved with having to get that system up and running. It’s annoying cause you’ll get that freak heat wave in December and the heater will be on so you’ll be sweating. Happened at a few places I worked at too.

 

[DVCjj]

My rules for winter heating: NEVER do a thermostat Program. Both DH & I hate when the temperature changes at night due to a Program and screws the NEST up. (we are not techie so it drives us crazy). We live in the frozen tundra of the Midwest and I am always cold. Now I've been diagnosed with R.A. and I'm even colder. DH totally understands (though won't move but WILL snowbird this year) and I get all the heat I want. Plus a heating pad on most of the day/night.

When I cat sit at my DD's house, the rules are change the Program to be a constant temperature where I personally can go up or down as needed.

And yes, as DVC owners who go usually 4 times a year, the sensors drive us crazy. I usually book at BWV even though I own at BCV/Poly because BWV still has older thermostat that can be controlled better than the rest. When I travel with DD2, she needs heat also. Not air conditioning directly blowing on her.

 

[Meriweather]

When we turn it on (not yet.....I think the AC is going back on tomorrow), it is set at 72 and just stays there for the couple of months it is on

 

[DisLiss]

Our "rules" are mostly in jest and therefore have nothing to do with saving money.

We really like to hold out for Nov. for the heat, despite living in a state where we'll dip below freezing & see snow before then, just as a sort of "No, you can't make us give in, Mother Nature!!!", fist-shaking-at-the-sky sort of thing.

We also like to constantly give one another rules about the laundry room, because it's the smallest room and the heat fluctuates like crazy in there because one person turns up the heat and then it's surface of the sun hot in 10 minutes, and the next person swoops in and lowers it to nearly nothing, then it's freezing, and the cycle goes on an on, all the while we try to give arbitrary thermostat commandments to one another about the magic number we each think will work best in there.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Presently the heat is set at 68 and the a/c is set at 77 (it's been 78 in the past). We have a programmable thermostat and don't tend to mess with it much of the year just let it follow the schedule other than every now and then up a degree or two or down a degree or two for a time. Some years it's been just too hot and other years too cold so more adjustments have happened during those years. Some years like this year has been mostly mild so it hasn't been too too bad.

We do have a humidifier with a summer and a winter setting; I forget the exact information at the moment but there's a suggested temperature/relative humidity for when to switch from summer to winter listed in our manual. You can also control the percentage of the humidity, which we have adjusted over time.

Most often we will wait a teensy bit to switch over from one to the other but like last week we had a mid-80s day and the heat has been going for a bit (it was cold beforehand already for a bit) so the a/c was switched back on then the next day it was 40s so it was back to heat. I doubt the a/c will switch back on even though next week we may get a day in the 70s but we'll see.

I do use the double-side gas fireplace insert when I'm downstairs and a bit chilled rather than turning on the heat because I don't need to heat the whole house for that reason, likewise I can go upstairs in the master (which has 2 vents in the room) and use the fake fireplace (looks like a mantle with wheels underneath it to move it more easily) from time to time up there.

And with that I need to get a filter for the furnace tomorrow it's time to replace!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Our thermostat is fully automatic. Whatever temperature it is set to, it will turn on either the A/C or furnace, whatever is needed to maintain the set temperature. At times, the AC is running in April, and sometimes the furnace is running in August.