Fifty-fucking-eight? Are you kidding? I'm with w-lfs-n on this one: 65 is the minimum sane temperature, but 72 is preferred.
But might I recommend more stylish North Face clothing...
Nah, you can be frugal down to 63.
Labs, at the temperatures you're contemplating, I hope you're buying thermal undies in bulk.
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.
The minimum temperature is dependent upon whether your house has a fireplace.
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.
Here's what a Minneapolis newspaper's advice column has to say. Short version: below 55 you're a baby killer.
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.
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 w-lfs-n said.
Anything below that is technically illegal, yo.
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.
Here's another standard: food should fucking spoil if you leave it out of the refrigerator.
I'm strictly boxers and t-shirt year-round
That sounds incredibly wasteful.
Aha, I thought I'd posted about this before.
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 always thought that the word was furnace. Is furnance a common alternate spelling?
A furnace/finance portmanteau, could be.
17, indeed, I was mocking Labs. And after he called me teh genius!
I keep it at 58 and carry a ceramic space heater around the house with me.
re: 9. YES, it sucks. it is effing freezing in tommy's apartment right now, and it's 64. FL, you are officially insane.
Why won't Tommy let you turn on the heat?
(just going to throw that out there)
no it's on, just their heat pump cycle thing that he talked about above. or else punishment for ever having moved away.
Of course ogged thinks catherine is an unattractive monkey, unlike me (unlike my thinking, not unlike me in looks).
My place is warm
Only when you're thinking dirty thoughts. How long can you keep it up?
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.
You might need to clarify what you're asking, SB.
Hey, Tommy, thanks for the code, sucka.
Ben, you're already Susan's blogcrush.
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.
I wish I had a wood stove. So warm, plus bonus wood fire comfort smell.
God dammit! She hadn't even been back for 24 hours before giving her internet heart away (again!). That's somewhat faster than expected.
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.
You know, internet hearts can be given away wherever. She must have waited to get back to send a message.
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.
Geez, Tommy, what is this, School of The Americas style hospitality?
Watch out, Catherine, Iranians aren't any better hosts for the holidays.
Anyhow Ogged, she won't give you a handjob, even if you show her your butterstick.
kriston: heh. well, i'm going to go take a shower - if the water is not perfectly calibrated, goddammit, THAT'S IT.
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.
re 28-- Labs will still have me. I'm not fickle!
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.
49, it's Christmas with the Iranians after all!
I've got a detailed plan
Does it involve your butterstick?
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.
Oh, and since I moved somewhere with insulation, 58.
Clearly Fontana Labs needs to be looking into ways to kill the furnace without leaving evidence.
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.']
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."
...makes me want to despise you...but you nailed it...
That's what this blog is all about, baby.
Of course, ogged might live in Miami or some such.
i am not your baby, ogged. i tried to suckle from your teat, but you turned away. You. Turned. Away. [sob]
My bad, snees. Next time, it's all yours, baby.
see you at the mineshaft, when it'll be your turn to suckle. baby.
Proving only that ogged is not snees' wet nurse.
apo, sorry you were turned away first. i guess w-lfs-n has a rightful claim on that ogged mantit.
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.
You linked to the wrong comment, silly apo.
actually, apo, i hear your participle ain't so dangly as you claim it to be. just sayin'
You linked to the wrong comment, silly apo.
Pwned!
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.
So give your body time to adapt.
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).