Where do you keep your Thermostat set?

Another thing that I've heard is that if you change your thermostat throughout the day by more than 1-2 degrees it negates the energy savings that you would have had otherwise because your furnace has to work harder to make up the change set on the thermostat. That is a big part of the reason that I am trying to work ours down to the coolest temperature that we can tolerate.

I heard that and I'm doing the same thing trying to find the best temps that we can all deal with.

Spot on there owlings, the lack of decent insulation or any inuslation, as with Greek built houses, leads to horrendously hot houses in summer and unbearably cold in the winter. Coupled with Greek heating costs there are going to be many houses here this winter which are colder inside than outside.

I don't know what the situation is in Greece. I do know that older houses will be built with the climate very much in mind and so will have thick walls made of stone (or earth or clay) and small windows, which are cool in summer and warm in winter, subdued in natural lighting at the best of times and plain dark in the winter (by our modern standards). Greece, of course, shares its climate (in broad terms) with the whole of the Mediterranean, California, South Africa and much of the inhabited parts of Australia. It's what's called a 'Mediterranean' climate. People who build new houses there tend to come from (or are influenced by) more northern climates and so like to have large windows. If they studied traditional building and architecture more, they would realise that the thick walls and small windows serve a purpose and aren't simply a function of the building materials available. The same, of course, can be said about almost any new building one finds anywhere. People these days like large picture windows so that they can enjoy the beauty of the scenery whilst snug in their own little environment that they must have cooler/warmer than it is outside. If that is the way that most people want to live these days, fine! It is quite possible to adapt traditional building methods so that the 'vista' that people want is double glazed and so that the thick stone, log or mud walls that are a natural (and very effective) protection against heat and cold can be replaced by lighter, more modern and maybe cheaper materials. Architects, however, sit in their snug, highly expensive and air-conditioned offices and continue to design houses that are completely unsuitable for the climate! When I visited California, very few people had heard of double glazing and insulation. They were (as far as they were concerned) things to keep heat in (something that is rarely needed in California) whereas, in fact, they keep heat out (and therefore would save on air conditioning costs) just as much!

Insulation was one of the things that our house was lacking when we bought it. We have three different attic spaces in our home and have now bought some insulation to fully insulate it all. We've gotten the upper attic done and we are planning to get the side attics done this coming weekend. As far as the temperatures that you've listed, those sound good to me. I am gradually working our thermostat down one degree at a time to get to about 61-62 degrees for the ambient temperature inside the house.

It's difficult to judge when your thermostats have numbers rather than temperature. Room thermometers aren't expensive, however, (maybe £1 each at the most) and two or three would probably give you all the information you need so that you can adjust your radiators accordingly. It depends, of course, on how well suited your radiators are to the size of the room and where they are situated but I find that half way ('3' on my contro individual thermostat valves) is adequate for living rooms and '2' for bedrooms. It's only in very cold (UK) weather that it's necessary to turn them to full (which is '6') ... but just for a boost! It does, of course, depend on the temperature that the circulating water is at. The hotter it is, the less water will need to circulate to raise the room temperature but probably more heat will be wasted in heating things you don't need to heat, such as floors and any other spaces that the pipes pass through on the way to your radiators.

You are lucky in that you don't have to keep the heat in your house going continuously. I've never lived in a house with radiators, so I really don't know much about them.

I know exactly what you mean about using wood for heating being somewhat prohibitive this year. We've been looking for more wood to use in our fireplace and the cost has been astronomical. We've been lucky though in that one of my husband's friends has lots of wood at his place that he said we could have. That should definitely help our heating budget.

That is what I like about it...so it is warm outside my blankets as well. It is only for a couple of hours between 5 and 7 in the morning. So It is not so cold in my house. One of these days I will get one of them fancy floors that heat, it is cheaper and more effective....so it will be good, if it didn't cost so much to install it would be swell. Cheers.

Wow, you really vary the temperature in your house a lot. I, myself couldn't imagine getting out of bed into a 90 degree house. I'd feel like I was in a sauna.

I know what you mean about the way that the bills vary. Our highest heating bill in our house last year was over three hundred dollars, and that was when I decided that we needed to change over to a budget plan, that way I would only be able to get hit with an astronomical bill twice a year. So far on this budget cycle we are gaining credit to go toward the cooler months of the year. Also, we have a fireplace in the center of the house that we've been using on the cooler nights as well.

We have a wood stove, but I am not sure if it works. We have only owned this house for a year and are still finding things out. Once my husband and I get money we will be getting the wood stove looked at to see what we need to do in order to get it working. The people who rented the place before we bought it never used it. Actually they never took care of the house and let ot fall apart.

Here where we live, I see that there are far fewer people that have central airconditioning units than in the neighborhood where we used to live. We moved from a more wealthy area of town to one that is more of a working class area. We were blessed, however, to have a new furnace and central air installed into our house before we moved in. One of the local companies was running a contest and I was the lucky winner. I have, also lived with just fans in a house during my youth and I now realize how uncomfortable that can be.

I am so jealous of you. I'd love to live in a place where the weather was nice all year round.

I wish that we too were able to hold out, but my husband works in a factory where the temperature is rather cold, so he wants to get warm when he gets home from work. We even seem to have a slight war going on regarding the temperature in the house.

If it was just me, I think that I too would do something like what you are doing, but I have the two kids and my husband to worry about as well and they both tend to be cooler blooded than I am.

This fall has definitely been pretty nice, we are in Kentucky and last week the heater was barely running at all because the outside temperature was unusually warm. Now, if we could go through the winter like that I would be a very happy woman.

When I was younger I was just the opposite of you. I was always pushing the thermostat up higher during the winter and it would drive the rest of my family insane.

The current temperature that you are keeping your house at is about the same as where we are right now. However, during the summer we keep the house at a warmer temperature because the ambient temperature is higher.