To Heat, or Not to Heat, That is the Question

[wonderpony]

That's exactly how I like it; however, my wife complains -- especially about the 62 or 63 degrees during the day.

The nice thing about being single with a cat, is that he doesn't care. I am only home hanging in my house for a few hours at night, after doing barn chores, so I am warm from that. Then, at downtime, I hit the couch on a heating pad for my back, with a wool afghan topped by 13 pound of purring cat.

Those of you who are talking about like 70 at night, I would hate being in your house. I love cold and a ton of blankets.

But, my people are from Minnesota. When I was growing up, I had a mile to mile and a half walk to school, heading north towards Cayuga lake. This was in the 70s and 80s. My friends' parents would give them a ride when it got cold. Because my parents were from Minnesota, I didn't get a ride until it was sub-zero. When my dad was in school in Luverne, the upper grades in his school walked to school until it was -13. When I would go visit my grandparents, who lived in Minneapolis, I stayed in an unheated room, although insulated, in my maternal grandparents' house. I loved it. My grandmother made super heavy quilts out of wool blankets, covered with flannel sheets. I still use them and they are pushing 45 years old.

 

[sibhusky]

When I lived in NJ, the goal was Thanksgiving. In Montana, I've been known to start turning on the bedroom zone in September.

 

[tirolski]

... I love cold and a ton of blankets.
... When I would go visit my grandparents, who lived in Minneapolis, I stayed in an unheated room, although insulated, in my maternal grandparents' house. I loved it. My grandmother made super heavy quilts out of wool blankets, covered with flannel sheets.

Yup.
When we were kids when we stayed at paternal grandmother’s there was no heat in the upstairs bedrooms but the weight of all the blankets/quilts kept us cozy at night. The heat from downstairs rising thru grates in the floor in a couple spots kept it so ya didn’t see yer breath.

 

[Harvey]

I used to fight this battle with the womenfolk. Now that we installed an insanely efficient system, it hardly seems worth the fight. Plus we have two completely separate systems for upstairs and down, sometime cool is on upstairs and heat on down.

 

[Brownski]

I had a similar experience when visiting my grandparents as a kid. Their house was attached to the back of their gas station.

Mohawk River: Kayaking Down Memory Lane

I put my kayak into the water in a place I’ve known my entire life.

nyskiblog.com

I was one of 8 and they would stick all of us in the upstairs which had a double bed in one room and two twins in another room with no door between them. They had the vents in the floor to let the heat up but they would also use them to yell at us from the living room to stop talking at night. With the body heat from all eight of us crammed into that small space like a pack of wolves, I doubt we really needed any heat anyway. Side note: my grandfather’s hunting rifles and shotguns were always visible, stacked inside a tall cabinet that was missing its door and nobody even considered touching them. I don’t even know if he kept any of them loaded or not.

edit: back on topic; I say keep it cold, especially at night, and wait as long as possible to turn on the heat.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Hey Camp. How reliable has the pellet stove been? I hear the hoppers and augers hang up frequently.

So not sure who jinxed who but I just had to replace the auger motor. First money I've spent on it other than cleaning. Motor was 65 bucks and I installed it so not that big of a deal, just a real PITA. She's burnin good now.

 

[Harvey]

View attachment 10895

That's a nice looking stove. Reminds me of a Vermont Castings.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Solar to electric heat? Solar experts, can a person produce enough energy to run an electric heating system in a 2000sq ft house?

 

[Tjf1967]

Yes. You would need

Solar to electric heat? Solar experts, can a person produce enough energy to run an electric heating system in a 2000sq ft house?

You can. Probably need 20-25 panels and a power wall. What about wind? I found a 1600 dollar wind Mil that will power a 2k house with electric heat. That doesn't include a power wall. Everything to get the power into the house though.

 

[Ripitz]

Solar to electric heat? Solar experts, can a person produce enough energy to run an electric heating system in a 2000sq ft house?

If you are talking about resistance heat, you can, but it’s the least efficient and would require the most panels. Heat pumps are more efficient and require less.