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[Yardlie]

On 1/18/2014 kaybee said:

On 1/18/2014 Retired08 said:

On 1/18/2014 kaybee said:

We have hydronic heat in our house (Wisconsin) we keep it set at 68 and I wear shorts and tanks all winter. Nothing beats hydronic heat. It's like having your home wrapped in a hot water bottle.

I've never heard of hydronic heat, but it sounds like a nice warm heat (although 68 still sounds cool to me, it seems to be the normal temp for colder climate homes).

Hydronic heat is basically just hot water running through pipes and ours is in the baseboards. It's efficient because when it reaches temp and shuts off the water remains warm and pushes the temp up another degree or so before it drops and turns on again. Our thermostat is set at 68 but the thermometers around the house read about 75.

**I grew up in a house in California with little insulation and forced air and was cold all of the time.

That's what we have too. I never knew it was called hydronic heat though. LOL! I always call it gas heat or hot water heat because the water is heated by gas. Learn something new every day.

I can't walk around in shorts and a tank top though. I dress in layers and wear long underwear every day in the winter. Usually our house stays very warm as my father had it extremely well insulated, but three days at -30 below zero was more than it could handle. We dragged out the space heaters.

When I lived in the Twin Cities, I had forced air heat. The "hydronic" heat is much better than the forced air...definitely much more even distribution of the heat.

Some of these posts are making me chuckle. Someone asked why people in the North keep their heat at 68 degrees. Well...it's to keep the heat bill down.

[gotogal]

I live in North Georgia and it's not so bad. And this is coming from someone who was born and raised in Southern California. We leave out thermostat at 67 in the Winter and 78 in the Summer. Our Fall weather is really beautiful.

[Vivian]

Propane...for heat and for our gas top range. We keep the thermastat at 68 here in upstate central NY. The tank is many yards away from our house. If it's terribly cold, as in polar vortex, we crank the heat up to 70 by day but still 68 by night. My daughter in Florida keeps her thermastat at 80, to save on air conditioning costs. I find it intolerable. When we visit during the warm months we stay at a nearby hotel so that we can turn down the temperature.

[151949]

I live in SW Florida and we had frost today so it is unusually cold. However, we have a 4 year old home so it is well insulated and just turning on the heater on our electric fireplace is all that is necessary to warm the place up. When we lived in Pittsburgh we used to be sooooo cold - the windows were so terrible that we would have ice on the window frames on the inside - my sheers would actually be frozen to the window. We replaced those windows and the sliding door and the cold house turned into a toasty warm one with no drafts. that was the best money we ever spent.

[RedTop]

We live in southern WV and use electric heat through a heat pump. Our thermostat is set on 72 year round. Our home was built in 1981, so we are well insulated, and we replaced our windows nearly 10 years ago. For supplemental, or emergency heat, we have a wood stove in our basement, which we rarely use. Our house is warm, and we have no drafts. We are pretty much always in short sleeves, although I often feel the need for a sweater, or even my robe over my clothing; because I tend to be colder than everyone else, which is something that has changed since my knee surgery.

A heat pumps efficiency drops in extreme cold temperatures, unless you switch over to emergency heat which then delivers warmer air from the heat exchanger on the inside furnace. Anytime our temperature drops into single digits, I switch over to emergency heat until the cold spell passes. There is a noticeable difference in the electric bill when we have been using emergency heat as much as we have had to this winter. I expect our bill will be over $300 this month. I pay extra on my bill year round, to cushion the bigger bills we have from December - April.

[PhatCat]

When we had the artic air cold snap last month I ran the pellet stove, the central air heat and had the electric heat itself on in the kitchen. My bill went from $192 to $307 this month. I don't know how other people manage to stay warm. Between 2 bags of pellets a day (around $8 a day) and then the electric, its around $550 for the month of December :-(.

[PhatCat]

On 1/19/2014 RedTop said:

We live in southern WV and use electric heat through a heat pump. Our thermostat is set on 72 year round. Our home was built in 1981, so we are well insulated, and we replaced our windows nearly 10 years ago. For supplemental, or emergency heat, we have a wood stove in our basement, which we rarely use. Our house is warm, and we have no drafts. We are pretty much always in short sleeves, although I often feel the need for a sweater, or even my robe over my clothing; because I tend to be colder than everyone else, which is something that has changed since my knee surgery.

A heat pumps efficiency drops in extreme cold temperatures, unless you switch over to emergency heat which then delivers warmer air from the heat exchanger on the inside furnace. Anytime our temperature drops into single digits, I switch over to emergency heat until the cold spell passes. There is a noticeable difference in the electric bill when we have been using emergency heat as much as we have had to this winter. I expect our bill will be over $300 this month. I pay extra on my bill year round, to cushion the bigger bills we have from December - April.

Redtop. We have a Carrier system. Heat and "EHeat". I was told that "eheat" meant electric, so you are saying the "e" stands for emergency and that is cheaper? I will try it. Thanks for that info

[RedTop]

FATCATinCT,

To clarify: Our thermostat settings for heat are designated as heat and emergency heat. The emergency heat setting delivers electric heat from the heat exchanger from the inside furnace unit--this is your electric furnace option. It is not cheaper, but it is warmer heat, and using this option takes a load off the heat pump in extreme cold temperatures. Hope this helps.

RedTop

[eddyandme]

I have radiators in most of the house; baseboard in the rest. Oil's very expensive here. Upstairs it's set at 63, main floor is 65, downstairs is 62. Have insulated windows throughout. The sunporch has large glass insulated windows on 3 sides (faces west). Added custom insulated shades and one of those wood-looking insulated doors with just a craftsman window on it - has helped to keep heat in/out depending on season: one radiator in there and ceiling fan. When needed have those a/c's you push up to window 2 upstairs set on 78; one on main floor in bedrm me and my dog sleep in set on 68. Even when cold now, had furnace upgraded, I'm comfy in just a jersey or lite long-sleeved tee, but Jade ((my lab) gets a little warm sometimes; so she likes to go out in her yard for awhile, eat some snow and relax! Sometimes, open the kitchen door and let the warm air from the back porch in - not heated and just "insulated" shades, again windows all around, but it faces south: Jade and I both enjoy that - I don't feel so closed-in and she loves to look out the porch door (we live atop a hill) and check out the neighborhood. Life is good!

[Mominohio]

We have electric baseboard heat in north central Ohio, and keep about half the rooms set at 60, and no heat on in the others. Sometimes we run a Duraflame heater in the living room (that will warm the kitchen and dining room as well, if left on full time), and I bake and cook a lot that helps keep the main floor warm.

We wear layers, socks, and I have now resorted to a pair of inside only shoes. If we sit to watch TV or read, we cover up with a throw.

It does depend on the type of heat you have, just how warm the house feels. Natural gas, propane forced air furnaces are warmer, and any type of hot water radiator heat is the very best. Lots of folks here use outdoor wood burners that circulate warm water inside the house, and those are nice too.

The older I get, the less I want to be in this climate, but do love the season changes.