random curiosity

[ratcreature]

It isn't all that cold here, but I dislike wearing socks indoors, and am not that fond of wearing layers constantly either, OTOH I'm not thrilled with huge heating bills and rather enjoy getting a little of my advance payments back. So winter is a time of constant compromise and dilemma. Also blankets. Unlike socks I don't mind using blankets. So now I'm wondering how cold (or comfortably warm) other people are at their place. (If it's summer right now where you are, just remember your last winter.)

Poll #9180 your winter heating: toasty warmth or extra sweater?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 53

View Respondents

How much do you heat your place?

View Answers

I don't need to heat at all in my climate zone, it remains comfortable all winter.
0 (0.0%)

I don't (or can't) heat at all, and just tough out the cold with extra sweaters, socks, thermal underwear, blankets etc.
1 (1.9%)

I heat only some rooms, and these not quite as warm as I'd like to save energy/money, and use some extra sweaters, socks, thermal underwear, blankets etc. when necessary.
14 (26.4%)

I heat only some rooms, but these are as warm as I like it.
8 (15.1%)

I heat all rooms when I use them, but not quite as warm as I'd like to save energy/money, and use some extra sweaters, socks, thermal underwear, blankets etc. when necessary.
9 (17.0%)

I heat all rooms comfortably when I use them, and only turn down the heat when I'm not there.
6 (11.3%)

I heat all rooms, but not quite as warm as I'd like to save energy/money, and use some extra sweaters, socks, thermal underwear, blankets etc. when necessary.
13 (24.5%)

I heat all my rooms as warm as like it. Saving some money/energy is not worth being uncomfortable at home.
1 (1.9%)

I heat all rooms as much as possible, but still need some extra sweaters, socks, thermal underwear, blankets etc., because winters are just that bad here.
1 (1.9%)

Comments

[laurajv]

We also have automatic thermostats, to turn things up and down depending on if we are there/time of day. But we never turn the heat completely off when we're not there -- partly bc we have pets and partly bc it takes so long to warm back up. (we own a largish house that is about 110 years old, but has been insulated; the 3rd storey is a master suite but obviously we're only really up there at night.)

[saraht]

My answer is not quite accurate--I prefer a cooler temperature, so I often don't heat because I hate getting up to fiddle with it. And at night I turn the heat off entirely. I love to sleep in a cold room under a big down comforter.

[bluemeridian]

We have a small living space and one thermostat, but it's behind the television, so if the television is on, then it can get quite cold in the back of the trailer. Because of it, there is a small space heater back there that I can plug in if I'm in the back and D's up front watching television. Mostly I keep the overall temp down to save money and turn it down even lower at night for comfort since I sleep with 3 heat producers! I've actually been really comfortable this winter, since the new meds are causing my body temperature to run a little higher than it does on its own.

Usually, I'm going to add layers before I turn up the thermostat, in part because I don't trust my body's temperature sense but also, most definitely, from a savings perspective.

I should add that I have a whole arsenal of tricks to warming my core temperature up when I feel cold despite the warmth of the room, so that's a whole other subject. :D

[musesfool]

I don't have control of the heat in my apartment -the radiators go on and off as the super wills. I will say that I think generally it would be warm enough, but the air conditioner in my bedroom is mounted improperly, so even when it's covered over, cold air still gets in. The bedroom is far colder than the living room, but when it's really cold, it's cold in the whole apartment, so I spend a lot of time in fleecy hoodies and socks.

[astridv]

Heat is included in our rent so we don't have to worry about costs though of course we try to conserve heat for environmental reasons. But my main room where I work in is always as warm and pleasant as I like it.

We never heat the bathroom since it's not worth it, for the little time it's occupied. (Sometimes you'll here a little curse coming from in there.) We only heat the kitchen very occasionally, since it's tiny and the stove usually creates enough warmth.

I don't heat my bedroom except for 10 minutes or so when I'm going to bed - my feet can touch the heater and I have balmy warm feet all night. (Hate going to sleep with cold feet. The never ever warm up on their own!)

[ilyena_sylph]

I have central heating, so I don't so much have an option to only heat some rooms. Though we do have all the vents closed in the basement apartment since no-one's in there.

I was raised on wood-furnace central heat, and my mother is terribly cold-blooded. so she keeps her place about 74F (23C?). Moving to somewhere with gas heat and a heating bill hurt.

And my particular medical condition means I cannot even try and keep my bedroom cool, or I will do nothing but throw up all day.

[thirdblindmouse]

The house I live in was rather awkwardly subdivided into apartments, so a.) I don't pay the heating bill, and b.) even if I could control the heat, I couldn't change it without affecting other tenants, who I know at least in past years have tended to be too cold.

I'm finding it too hot, so I've been blocking off vents as necessary, and keeping the window beside my bed open whenever I'm sleeping too minimize nosebleeds.

[busaikko]

We live in a regular 2-story house, but have a gas fan heater in one room only, and set it to 19 degrees (turning it on and off as needed). Upstairs, we read books, etc. in the futons (lots of blankets and sleeping bags as well!); our bedroom is an unheated corner room, so probably around 2 to 10 degrees? We have a kotatsu in our heated room as well (low table covered with a blanket, warmed by a heating element underneath; the blanket traps the heat in).

I also heat-by-cooking, as the heated room contains my kitchen a large pot of stew can raise the temperature a good bit.

[thefourthvine]

But I should note - okay, yes, we heat the whole house as much as we want whenever we want, but I live in a place where it never gets down to freezing (the last time I think was in the '50s?), let alone colder, and most of the winter the lows are, like, 50ish, and that's at night. In the winter, mostly wear t-shirts in the house, and we often wear t-shirts outside without jackets during the daytime. (I do wear socks most of the time in the house, but that's because it drives me CRAZY not to wear socks inside. Every year it's a big wrench when it gets too hot to do that.)

And, also, I like rooms to be on the colder side. For years we never used the heat at all, because we didn't actually need to, and I hate hate hate the way heat smells. (No, I'm serious, it has a smell. I AM NOT CRAZY WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME THAT WAY?) But then we had the earthling, and while I might have enough insulation, and enough acclimatization, to be comfortable in a house that's 60 (15.5 C), he doesn't. (And now, after years of keeping the house around 70 (21 C), I don't, either. I feel cold at about 65 (18 C) now.)

I felt odd when a person on my friends list did a poll about indoor temperature, and revealed that she kept her house at 78 - 80 degrees year round. That is too hot! Way too hot! Way, way, way too hot!

[lilacsigil]

st_aurafina is generally colder than me, so she has a little portable heater that she uses. We have an electric room heater in the living room only and if it was just me I'd probably only turn it on 2-3 nights a year - instead it's maybe 20 nights over winter. The cats have a heat pad. Most southern Australian homes only have built-in heating in the living room, so this is pretty normal.

The indoor temperature without the heater probably drops to about 8C at the coldest, but usually stays around 13-14C. With the heater, we get up to about 18-19C which is comfy.

[leyna]

I'm in Australia, and my house is mostly open-plan and built for the heat, so no in-built heating. Our winters don't get very cold, but I used to really feel the cold and used portable oil-column heaters around the house, but they just couldn't heat the rooms enough.

I saved up money last year for ducted reverse-cycle air conditioning last year (the ducts are in the roof),and it made such a difference. I'm spending slightly less on heating because the reverse-cycle is more efficient than all the portable heaters. (I'm spending more on cooling in summer, but then the air-con is a bonus which does a much better job on really hot days than the ceiling fans)

[shadowvalkyrie]

I'm not very sensitive to cold, so pretty much the only rooms with constantly turned-up heating are my roommate's (and the hallway, because, annoyingly, all the pipes go through there). The thermostat in my own room is about 17°C when I'm home, and I turn it down when I leave for work.

Visitors tend to complain, but I like cuddling up cosy with extra sweaters and woolly socks, or a blanket, so... :D

[krait]

I voted for "all rooms, as warm as I like it" because that's what I generally end up going for, but I often start out intending something more like all rooms, but not quite as warm as I'd like to save energy/money or even only some rooms, but these are as warm as I like it.

[auburn]

Heat some rooms, warm as I like it

But, you see, as far as everyone else is concerned that's cold, because I like bundling up in a sweater, blanket, thick socks. As long as my fingers aren't too numb to turn a page or type, I'm a happy camper. (Amusingly enough, I'm never a happy camper - 'bugs, dirt, rocks, campfires mean smoke in your eyes, what is this no electricity crap, I'm outta here...')