What do you keep your thermostat on?

[Kdawg532]

no, just an extremely effeciant trane product our e bill is only 200 a month in summer and 240 in winter

 

[skippy]

71 to 73 winter,78 day,73 night summer and ebill averages 160 summer,gas about 80 to 120.

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

Owning my own house for the first time with gas heat, what should I keep my thermostat setting on? I've had it turned off until today when I work up it was 65 in the house. I turned the heat on and set it to 69. Within 5 minutes the house was up to 69 degrees!! I can't believe how fast it warmed. The furnace is a 92+ efficiency according to the label.

I don't want to be uncomfortably cold, but I can't afford a $300 gas bill.

Would supplemental heat like electric space heater help or hurt?

92% furnaces are very efficient in terms of fuel consumption when compared to older 60% or even 80% gas furnaces most people are still using. Infact, they are somewhat rare down here in the south due to our mild winters. I would keep the heat set no warmer than what I had to for the first month until I got my first bill. What region of the country do you live in?

 

[rboyer]

The heat for my apartment is included in my rent. The other two apartments next to mine (one unoccupied for years) and the two stores down below me are all heated by the same boiler and the thermostat is in the one store. Because the one apartment has a third floor to it the steam has to work it's way up to there and there are times when I have to crack a window because of how hot it can get. Even though the boiler is less than two years old it's a pretty inefficient system but it keeps me warm.

 

[97BlackBetty]

We have a fire buring in our fire place right now and it is a comfortable 78 degrees in our living room! I am actually sweating. How ever the girl that lives above us is going to be mad because our thermostat controls her heat because there is only one funace between the two units. Otherwise we leave the heat set at 68-70.

 

[Ozwynn]

74* and I suck up the the $240 bill. Like will I have youngins that don't keep their blankets on.

 

[Mutant Pony]

60 degrees here. If you think that is to cold you are a wuss! The less temp change possible when you go outside the better. Once your body aclimatizes to it, it doesn't feel cold at all. I have two little ones running around naked half the time (1 and 2). We can't stand other peoples houses that are 70 or more. We don't visit much anyway.
Besides it is far cheaper to rap in a blanket or put on a sweater.

 

[Jspafford]

73 in winter
66-68 in summer

Do you have your numbers reveresed??

 

[BlackBII]

I keep mine at 65 in the winter, the furnance is Off in the summer.

I used the electric space heaters alot last year, had an older home with ineffecient furnace. It was cheaper to keep the furnace at like 63-64, then use the electric heater to heat the room i was currently in.

 

[AllanD]

50degF

My thermostat controls my oil fired boiler for my baseboard hot water heating system.

The boiler generates enough "waste heat" without running the circulation pumps to keep the house "warm enough" for roughly three months per year, while it heats (very efficiently) my domestic hot water.

I often switch that to OFF when nobody is going to need (or use) hot water
because running the boiler to maintain the tem of water offends my sense of
frugality.


During the cold wether months I heat with COAL.

Running my basically oversized Harman (handfired) coal stove
keeps the house comfortably warm without running the forced
air fan on all but the coldest winter days with the stove running
at the minimum level to maintain combustion

a cord of hardwood
a Ton of Coal
a tank (375gal) of heating oil.

all three have approximatly the same heat value.
The difference is in economics.

I don't have 40+ acres of hardwood forest
I don't own my own oil well
I DO live in "Coal country"

a cord of wood costs $150-$175 around here.
a full tank of oil at $3.79/gal is $1400
a ton of coal is $129

I can maintain ~75F all winter long for only about $250 on coal.

Actually attempting to maintain a lower temperature causes the
fire to self-extinguish.



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[Simple_serf]

Wow...I knew someone who had an old Harman Coal stove... haven't seen one in awhile.

We had an old one in the basement of my old house...never used it and it was burnt out.

It's been awhile since we priced coal... We live in Soft/Hard maple country, and I work for a maple producer, so I get all of the thinnings I want.

Last tile I looked into coal was for an old steam engine we were going to have on display...Ended up running it on wood, because it was what we had on hand.

 

[AllanD]

OLD?

My harman coal stove isn't even 10years old.

they still make them.

Here in Pennsylvania (where they are made) they are quite popular

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[ak96]

ours has been set on 75* since mid september when it started getting cold, now with it in the low 20s at night i'm glad its warm

we have base board heating insted of forced air.