Furnace control is as much a slave to fashion as, uh, fashion is.
This year the politically correct temperature is 68 during the day and something like 60 overnight.
We will all be swearing on a stack of Bibles that is what us good little boys and girls are doing.
Meanwhile behind closed doors in our own little homes the never-ending battle between the blue-fingered babes and the sweaty animal guys will continue unabated.
My aunt keeps her house at 60, and we all consider her borderline crazy. Though her heating bills are enviably low, especially considering the giant old house she lives in.
I've lived in places that were impossible to keep much above 60 without running gas fires on full belt for way longer than is good for you. Victorian tennement flats in Glasgow with huge gaps around the ill-fitting wooden sash windows, etc.
However, I wouldn't do so out of choice.
72 is far too hot for me though hence, to echo 4 above:
"in our own little homes the never-ending battle between the blue-fingered babes and the sweaty animal guys will continue unabated."
We've got a heat pump. As a nerd, I appreciate the physics behind it. What I don't appreciate is the periodic "defrost" cycle that it has to undergo. When that's happening it doesn't work very well, and we end up with an apartment in the 50s for an entire day.
The thing about the advice from Minnesota is that it's from Minnesota. Come on, people.
Look, there are several factors here. 1) Do you have much natural insulation: i.e., are you fat? If yes, lower is OKer. 2) What do you like to wear around the house? Some people feel cozy in a sweater, pants and socks; I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round. 3) Are you an immigrant? If yes, you have to crank the heat, because this is the land of fucking opportunity, and damn if you haven't made it, motherfuckers.
Natural gas looks to be so expensive here that frugal-to-freaky is reasonable. I'm trying to see if I can get the gas company to set me up on a furnancing plan.
i'm moving my blog crush from FL to ogged. a man who keeps his thermostat at 55 is not normal. though i suppose it would provide opportunity for me to wear my fuzzy earflap cap more often.
Wood stove. For approximately $500 and an axe, you can be the person everyone is glad is around after the storm. Keep your wood pile elevated to prevent wood rot and rodent infestation, find a safe place to dump your ashes, and enjoy your extra heat source.
My husband is an HVAC tech, so of course we have wood heat. I live in a 100 year old home with an old gravity furnace downstairs and a standing furnace upstairs. We rarely turn on the downstairs one, and the upstairs one supplements only when someone is home. Wood heat is still a viable option in this day and age.
No, we don't pay for our wood. We keep our eyes peeled all year long for stormfall trees, etc, and when we spot some we offer to haul it off for free. After seasoning for a bit at my father in law's (he has some acreage) we cut it up and bring it home. And I don't have to wear layers unless I want to.
aw, thanks ben! i hadn't seen that comment. i have a feeling i'd spend more time reading the insurmountable amount of comments here if i knew there was a chance of being flattered in them.
and tommy: what do you expect. it is 64 degrees in here, and THERE IS NO FOOD TO EAT. also, the coffee is cold.
Alright you guys, while she's in the shower: quit screwing this up for me! I've got a detailed plan drawn up for psychologically destroying Catherine, then rebuilding her personality from scratch (the new one will be pretty much the same as the old, except it'll make me sandwiches more often).
It might not look like I'm making progress. But believe me, after the lukewarm coffee she's pretty close to snapping.
I live in the mountains. One winter I lived in a hundred-year-old house 4500 feet above sea level. I left the thermostat at 50 all winter (low as it would go) and still paid a hundred bucks a month. I was fine, my Christmas guests from San Diego were not.
A flat-broke ex went that whole winter without turning her heat on.
I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round. 3) Are you an immigrant? If yes, you have to crank the heat, because this is the land of fucking opportunity, and damn if you haven't made it, motherfuckers.
ogged, the first part of that makes me want to despise you, because I now live in a world where central heating is a goal, rather than a reality, and because I fucking gag every time I visit one of my siblings in the winter (we turn the heat on once in the morning and again at night, but that may be old Europe). but you nailed it with the second part of that post. you sound just like a dominican doctor I used to know. "Are you cold,please, Meester Snees?" he would say. "Because I can quite 'appeely turn the 'eat up eef eet give you more comfort."
Snees, this entire scenario pivots on whether Ogged is more bear or bird of prey. 'Cause if it's the latter, he wouldn't be suckling, but regurgitating for you.
OK, I just woke up to a very cold house and the fancy-schmancy temperature thing on my clock -- one of those Brookstone things that has 32 flavors, 17 white noises, and prints out your grocery list -- says it is 67. 67. And I want to crank the heat and get it to 72. How are you still alive and functioning with your inside temp in the 50s?
This is probably obvious to everyone but it took me until my 20th year to figure it out so here is my observation.
I had a great summer job at a machine shop, but the darn shop was pretty much an un-air-conditioned pole barn. The temperature got above 150 in the rafter, which is when the blowers kicked on thinking the dang heaters had been turned on.
Anyway, my epiphany was learning that after a couple of weeks I got used to it. Yes, I sweat a lot but my body pretty much adapted to the heat.
The same thing happens in winter.
The killer is when you get a sudden shift in temperature. Sit in a 70 degree theatre in the summer and freeze to death. Sit in air-conditioning all summer and go outside on an 85 degree muggy day and burn up.
Reaching way back to 11 – I have the inverse belief. After sweating my ass off in NOLA, "making it" means being able to crank the AC as high as I want. Success feels like 65 degrees.
Since residential buildings in NYC are required to be heated to a minimum of 68 degrees between October and May, I've been known to run the air conditioning in winter (or leave the windows wide open when it's snowing out).
65.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 9:55 AM
Fifty-fucking-eight? Are you kidding? I'm with Wolfson on this one: 65 is the minimum sane temperature, but 72 is preferred.
But might I recommend more stylish North Face clothing...
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:00 AM
Nah, you can be frugal down to 63.
Labs, at the temperatures you're contemplating, I hope you're buying thermal undies in bulk.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:01 AM
Furnace control is as much a slave to fashion as, uh, fashion is.
This year the politically correct temperature is 68 during the day and something like 60 overnight.
We will all be swearing on a stack of Bibles that is what us good little boys and girls are doing.
Meanwhile behind closed doors in our own little homes the never-ending battle between the blue-fingered babes and the sweaty animal guys will continue unabated.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:02 AM
The minimum temperature is dependent upon whether your house has a fireplace.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:03 AM
My aunt keeps her house at 60, and we all consider her borderline crazy. Though her heating bills are enviably low, especially considering the giant old house she lives in.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:07 AM
Here's what a Minneapolis newspaper's advice column has to say. Short version: below 55 you're a baby killer.
Posted by oceanic | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:14 AM
I've lived in places that were impossible to keep much above 60 without running gas fires on full belt for way longer than is good for you. Victorian tennement flats in Glasgow with huge gaps around the ill-fitting wooden sash windows, etc.
However, I wouldn't do so out of choice.
72 is far too hot for me though hence, to echo 4 above:
"in our own little homes the never-ending battle between the blue-fingered babes and the sweaty animal guys will continue unabated."
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:19 AM
We've got a heat pump. As a nerd, I appreciate the physics behind it. What I don't appreciate is the periodic "defrost" cycle that it has to undergo. When that's happening it doesn't work very well, and we end up with an apartment in the 50s for an entire day.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:20 AM
I take my cue from the City of Chicago heating ordinance: 66 during the day, 64 at night. Therefore, an overall average of 65, like Wolfson said.
Anything below that is technically illegal, yo.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:21 AM
The thing about the advice from Minnesota is that it's from Minnesota. Come on, people.
Look, there are several factors here. 1) Do you have much natural insulation: i.e., are you fat? If yes, lower is OKer. 2) What do you like to wear around the house? Some people feel cozy in a sweater, pants and socks; I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round. 3) Are you an immigrant? If yes, you have to crank the heat, because this is the land of fucking opportunity, and damn if you haven't made it, motherfuckers.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:28 AM
Here's another standard: food should fucking spoil if you leave it out of the refrigerator.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:29 AM
I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round
That sounds incredibly wasteful.
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:33 AM
Aha, I thought I'd posted about this before.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:34 AM
Natural gas looks to be so expensive here that frugal-to-freaky is reasonable. I'm trying to see if I can get the gas company to set me up on a furnancing plan.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:35 AM
I always thought that the word was furnace. Is furnance a common alternate spelling?
Posted by bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:01 AM
A furnace/finance portmanteau, could be.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:03 AM
17, indeed, I was mocking Labs. And after he called me teh genius!
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:07 AM
I keep it at 58 and carry a ceramic space heater around the house with me.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:23 AM
At least, I don't feel crazy.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:24 AM
re: 9. YES, it sucks. it is effing freezing in tommy's apartment right now, and it's 64. FL, you are officially insane.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:30 AM
Why won't Tommy let you turn on the heat?
(just going to throw that out there)
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:32 AM
My place is warm, Catherine.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:34 AM
no it's on, just their heat pump cycle thing that he talked about above. or else punishment for ever having moved away.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:35 AM
My work here is done.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:35 AM
Of course ogged thinks catherine is an unattractive monkey, unlike me (unlike my thinking, not unlike me in looks).
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:36 AM
My place is warm
Only when you're thinking dirty thoughts. How long can you keep it up?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:38 AM
i'm moving my blog crush from FL to ogged. a man who keeps his thermostat at 55 is not normal. though i suppose it would provide opportunity for me to wear my fuzzy earflap cap more often.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:38 AM
Flattery has gotten me nowhere.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:38 AM
You might need to clarify what you're asking, SB.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:39 AM
Woohoo!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:39 AM
Hey, Tommy, thanks for the code, sucka.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:40 AM
Ben, you're already Susan's blogcrush.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:40 AM
Wood stove. For approximately $500 and an axe, you can be the person everyone is glad is around after the storm. Keep your wood pile elevated to prevent wood rot and rodent infestation, find a safe place to dump your ashes, and enjoy your extra heat source.
My husband is an HVAC tech, so of course we have wood heat. I live in a 100 year old home with an old gravity furnace downstairs and a standing furnace upstairs. We rarely turn on the downstairs one, and the upstairs one supplements only when someone is home. Wood heat is still a viable option in this day and age.
No, we don't pay for our wood. We keep our eyes peeled all year long for stormfall trees, etc, and when we spot some we offer to haul it off for free. After seasoning for a bit at my father in law's (he has some acreage) we cut it up and bring it home. And I don't have to wear layers unless I want to.
Posted by odanu | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:40 AM
I wish I had a wood stove. So warm, plus bonus wood fire comfort smell.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:44 AM
God dammit! She hadn't even been back for 24 hours before giving her internet heart away (again!). That's somewhat faster than expected.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:44 AM
Wood stoves kick ass. Splitting wood is just about the only exercise I get, apart from trying to stay between the baby and the pissy cat.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:45 AM
You know, internet hearts can be given away wherever. She must have waited to get back to send a message.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:47 AM
aw, thanks ben! i hadn't seen that comment. i have a feeling i'd spend more time reading the insurmountable amount of comments here if i knew there was a chance of being flattered in them.
and tommy: what do you expect. it is 64 degrees in here, and THERE IS NO FOOD TO EAT. also, the coffee is cold.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:47 AM
Geez, Tommy, what is this, School of The Americas style hospitality?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:50 AM
Catherine, he wants you to confess!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:50 AM
Watch out, Catherine, Iranians aren't any better hosts for the holidays.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:52 AM
Cheap shot, smasher.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:53 AM
What you mean is: Pwned!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:54 AM
Anyhow Ogged, she won't give you a handjob, even if you show her your butterstick.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:55 AM
kriston: heh. well, i'm going to go take a shower - if the water is not perfectly calibrated, goddammit, THAT'S IT.
Posted by catherine | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:56 AM
I'm working on implementing Sam K's solution. It turns out that a house that is completely impossible to heat can be an issue even in Texas.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:56 AM
re 28-- Labs will still have me. I'm not fickle!
Posted by Mark | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:57 AM
Alright you guys, while she's in the shower: quit screwing this up for me! I've got a detailed plan drawn up for psychologically destroying Catherine, then rebuilding her personality from scratch (the new one will be pretty much the same as the old, except it'll make me sandwiches more often).
It might not look like I'm making progress. But believe me, after the lukewarm coffee she's pretty close to snapping.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 11:59 AM
49, it's Christmas with the Iranians after all!
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 12:01 PM
I've got a detailed plan
Does it involve your butterstick?
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 12:07 PM
I live in the mountains. One winter I lived in a hundred-year-old house 4500 feet above sea level. I left the thermostat at 50 all winter (low as it would go) and still paid a hundred bucks a month. I was fine, my Christmas guests from San Diego were not.
A flat-broke ex went that whole winter without turning her heat on.
Posted by ptm | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 12:16 PM
Oh, and since I moved somewhere with insulation, 58.
Posted by ptm | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 12:17 PM
UPDATE: fontana's dead.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 1:08 PM
Clearly Fontana Labs needs to be looking into ways to kill the furnace without leaving evidence.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 1:15 PM
FL:Great. I've just managed to convince myself that I am indeed completely fucking crazy.
Dude. It's like buying one-ply toilet paper. Why bother?
Weiner:It turns out that a house that is completely impossible to heat can be an issue even in Texas.
Lubbock? Cimarron? The (real) Great Plains? The place where it can go from 90F to 27F in 15 minutes?
ash
['Blue Norther, heh heh.']
Posted by ash | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 2:05 PM
I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round. 3) Are you an immigrant? If yes, you have to crank the heat, because this is the land of fucking opportunity, and damn if you haven't made it, motherfuckers.
ogged, the first part of that makes me want to despise you, because I now live in a world where central heating is a goal, rather than a reality, and because I fucking gag every time I visit one of my siblings in the winter (we turn the heat on once in the morning and again at night, but that may be old Europe). but you nailed it with the second part of that post. you sound just like a dominican doctor I used to know. "Are you cold,please, Meester Snees?" he would say. "Because I can quite 'appeely turn the 'eat up eef eet give you more comfort."
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 3:57 PM
...makes me want to despise you...but you nailed it...
That's what this blog is all about, baby.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:00 PM
Of course, ogged might live in Miami or some such.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:04 PM
i am not your baby, ogged. i tried to suckle from your teat, but you turned away. You. Turned. Away. [sob]
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:05 PM
My bad, snees. Next time, it's all yours, baby.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:07 PM
see you at the mineshaft, when it'll be your turn to suckle. baby.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:09 PM
Proving only that ogged is not snees' wet nurse.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:10 PM
Well, that was confusing.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:14 PM
apo, sorry you were turned away first. i guess wolfson has a rightful claim on that ogged mantit.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:17 PM
Snees, this entire scenario pivots on whether Ogged is more bear or bird of prey. 'Cause if it's the latter, he wouldn't be suckling, but regurgitating for you.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:24 PM
You linked to the wrong comment, silly apo.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:31 PM
actually, apo, i hear your participle ain't so dangly as you claim it to be. just sayin'
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 4:40 PM
You linked to the wrong comment, silly apo.
Pwned!
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-22-05 10:03 PM
OK, I just woke up to a very cold house and the fancy-schmancy temperature thing on my clock -- one of those Brookstone things that has 32 flavors, 17 white noises, and prints out your grocery list -- says it is 67. 67. And I want to crank the heat and get it to 72. How are you still alive and functioning with your inside temp in the 50s?
Posted by profgrrrrl | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 6:32 AM
This is probably obvious to everyone but it took me until my 20th year to figure it out so here is my observation.
I had a great summer job at a machine shop, but the darn shop was pretty much an un-air-conditioned pole barn. The temperature got above 150 in the rafter, which is when the blowers kicked on thinking the dang heaters had been turned on.
Anyway, my epiphany was learning that after a couple of weeks I got used to it. Yes, I sweat a lot but my body pretty much adapted to the heat.
The same thing happens in winter.
The killer is when you get a sudden shift in temperature. Sit in a 70 degree theatre in the summer and freeze to death. Sit in air-conditioning all summer and go outside on an 85 degree muggy day and burn up.
So give your body time to adapt.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 8:49 AM
72!
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 7:02 PM
Reaching way back to 11 – I have the inverse belief. After sweating my ass off in NOLA, "making it" means being able to crank the AC as high as I want. Success feels like 65 degrees.
Since residential buildings in NYC are required to be heated to a minimum of 68 degrees between October and May, I've been known to run the air conditioning in winter (or leave the windows wide open when it's snowing out).
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 11-23-05 7:23 PM