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Our furnace doesn't work, but it's okay because we don't even think about it unless the house gets down below 60F, which is almost never. Otherwise we naturally put on warmer clothes in cooler weather, and lighter clothes when it's warm. The idea that a house interior should be exactly the same temperature all year round is a little weird. There is an acceptable range which varies with the seasons.
Southern California here, so November or December through March is when some people use heat. A lot of people get by without; we're not the only ones.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
Our furnace doesn't work, but it's okay because we don't even think about it unless the house gets down below 60F, which is almost never. Otherwise we naturally put on warmer clothes in cooler weather, and lighter clothes when it's warm. The idea that a house interior should be exactly the same temperature all year round is a little weird. There is an acceptable range which varies with the seasons.
Southern California here, so November or December through March is when some people use heat. A lot of people get by without; we're not the only ones.
Jeebus! 60°F is frigid for an indoor temp. I remember the first fall/winter I lived on my own, I had to cave and turn the heater on around Thanksgiving when my indoor temp dropped to 70°F (let alone 60°F)!
Jeebus! 60°F is frigid for an indoor temp. I remember the first fall/winter I lived on my own, I had to cave and turn the heater on around Thanksgiving when my indoor temp dropped to 70°F (let alone 60°F)!
I think you're a bit of an outlier in this regard. I suspect by far the majority of people would consider 70F a comfortable indoor temperature.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,530,928 times
Reputation: 9169
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
I think you're a bit of an outlier in this regard. I suspect by far the majority of people would consider 70F a comfortable indoor temperature.
To be fair, you can't even AC your home/apt to 70 in summer here without spending a fortune in electric bills. So these days, we set our t-stat to 73°F year round
I live in a 40 unit, 4 story, 60 year old apartment building. I'm on the second level, and have neighboring apartments above, below and on both sides. I hear almost no noise from adjacent apartments due to the thick concrete walls, floors and ceilings, plus insulation in my ceiling. My apartment is about 520 sq ft (50 sq meters), and the outer walls are over 1 foot thick of concrete and insulating blocks. Each room has a wall panel near the window, connected to hot water heating pipes. The heat radiating out of the hot water panels is silent, and gradually heats up the room. The hot water is heated in the basement in a heat exchanger, which is connected to a city wide steam pipe system. That means no gas or oil fired boiler is needed for the building heating system, just some water pumps to keep the hot water circulating to the heat panels. The heat exchanger keeps the basement toasty warm too.
The apartments above, below and on the sides are also good insulators. Heat from the apartment below keeps my floor reasonably warm to walk around in socks. Wearing outdoor shoes indoors is forbidden in my lease, so socks or "house shoes" are the only options. The floors are tile in the kitchen, entrance hall and bath with laminate in the bedroom & LR.
Most places in Germany, heat is needed from early October to end of April or early May. I almost never use the heat in the bedroom, and the kitchen heat panel gets turned on for a couple of hours in the morning and occasionally in the evening. The bath and living room heat panels are on thermostat timers, set for 18C / 64F from 10pm to 6 am, and 22C/72F for the remaining hours of the day. When I am indoors, it rarely feels chilled or too cold. I usually wear blue jeans and a t-shirt and a long sleeve shirt over the t-shirt, no sweater or sweatshirt.
My heating is included in the "all-in" rent I pay for the apartment (about $800 USD / month including all utilities, internet, cable TV, furnishing and kitchen needs). It is a really nice apartment, and I've lived mostly in apartments during the past 40+ years in the US by comparison. The great heating system sure makes it more pleasant to live in a cool weather climate. It is more comfortable than living in a place with a short cold weather season, but in a home or apartment with poor insulation and heating like are often found in the southern parts of the US.
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