The Thermostat Wars

Okay, for those of us in states that have Seasons and Weather it's getting to the point where we're faced with the decision of wearing a sweater or turning on the heat. In households with more than one person, this usually degrades in to The Thermostat Wars.



So what's yours set at? And what does your roomate/flatmate/significant other keep changing it to, apparently in a desire to drive you insane and/or into bankruptcy?

70. All the time.

And I live alone so, I'm the only one who annoys myself.

[Edited on Nov 15, 2004 by Dejajeva]

I don't have a thermostat. I have night-storage heaters. I've turned one on to keep the cat happy. It's set to "2", but when it gets colder I'll set it to "3".

I wear thermal vests and a few jumpers.

we live on the second floor of a duplex, and the entire building shares a thermostat. i freeze my ass of during the day when i'm home with my little one because the people that live downstairs (where the thermostat is) aren't home, and my husband and i wake up in the middle of the night to an 87-degree bedroom.

it's off, i prefer wearing a Tshirt+sweater+vest+blanket over hearing my parents nag about the bill one more time.
consider it a silent, very well wrapped protest, mostly i'm not cold at all except my hands which are freezing, especially late at night.

The thermostat in my house is set to 20 but it only comes on at 3:30pm with me being home al day I freeze my balls off untill then.

mine is on 60 right now, it usually stays right around there,I have two wood burning fireplaces in my house.They can keep the place pretty warm, and keep the bills down a little.

Ugh ... I've been having this arguement with my mom for a month now.

She thinks it is cold inside ... me and my dad say it is fine.

We have it set at 68 right now and she says that is fridgid. She wants it up around 72.

She is nuts.

She can wear a freaking sweater.

We were playing this game in work all last week. It's turning into a 3-way battle between Blood Bank, Coagulation and Haematology. No-one seems to be winning.

*Edited for tenses*

[Edited on Nov 15, 2004 by WaTed]

The thermostat wars are fairly calm at home. It's at work that the nuclear weapons come out. I want it to be about 65-68 degrees all the time. The girls, however, seem to be experimenting in atmospheric conditions not normally found outside of equatorial herpetology.

Hahaha. Saern and I do this all the time. I'd be comfortable with it set at 60 in the dead of winter, and she'd rather have it around 80. We have a very old house without insulated windows, and her bedroom doesn't get any heat since it's above the basement and porch.

Our compromise is 70 degrees, since our last heating bill was $50 (it was set at 73). Since the billing cycle only included one week of heating, and it isn't even below zero yet, we realized we needed to figure something out. I'm a polar bear, and she's an iguana, so we conducted thermostat experiments all last week when it got into the low twenties at night.

She wears a sweater and thermal pants around the house, and I wear a tank top and light pajama pants. It's working so far. Once she gets an electric blanket, we'll probably set it even lower. I grew up in a cold house in northern Michigan, so I prefer it to be a bit chilly. I've been known to sleep with a window cracked in the middle of February.

[Edited on Nov 15, 2004 by Sorcha]

It hasn't been a problem in my new place yet, but my last place... different story.

One of my roommates and I ALWAYS turned the thermostat right off, even in winter because both of our rooms were always too hot. Our other roommate would crank it up to somewhere around 25 C. This would cause my room to hover somewhere around the 30-35 C mark which means I was sweating, just sitting in my room in the dead of winter. It was a constant war over the thermostat. If it even began to get cold the temperature in the house would jump and sane roommate and I would be scrambling for the little dial. Needless to say all this constant heating and shutting off was hell on our heating bill. Thankfully the place I'm in now is a decent temperature and so far there have been no arguments over the heat.

When I lived in a raw loft with a big gas heater, I always always always kept it at 60, because that shit gets EXPENSIVE. I'd just wear a hoodie or whatever around the house.

And EVERY SINGLE TIME I came home, my roommates had it turned up to 75. Which basically meant that it was constantly on.

My gas bill for 3 months was $1200.

We just have a couple of little space heaters that are on for most of the day if it get cold. The g/f is constantly cold, but I can sit around in a robe and some socks and be pretty happy.

I like it set at around 55 or 60 all year round....I love coldness

Since I work at home, I'm resigned to just bundle up rather than run up a huge bill. Luckily both kitschy and I are the snuggly type that like having heavy covers on us - so having it warm at night really isn't an issue.

Right now we just don't even have the heat on - but it's dipped below 64 degrees inside, and I'm contemplating turning it back on...

[Edited on Nov 15, 2004 by Idjiit]

what's a night-storage heater?

70 all the time. i work at home.

We've agreed to 64 or 63 degrees. We havn't turned our heat on yet though. We use kerosene heat in the meantime.

I like it cold because i'm thick blooded(i guess). It'll be -20 out and i'll have it set on 65.

In January I shall become a refugee of the thermostat wars.

Jersey is too fucking cold, I'm moving to San Diego

It's a synonym for fucking expensive to run, fucking cold and fucking inflexible.

We get cheap rate electricity in the UK at night. Storage heaters heat up a load of bricks, which let out the heat during the day. At least that is the theory.

Hmm, everyone in my house seems to agree on this pretty well I suppose. We usually have it somewhere between 70 and 74 degrees F during the winter and between 65-68 during the summer. Our house stays decently warm by itself even though I live in CO. As long as you don't open an outside door or something for a good period of time, our heater stays off. Of course, we have taken some measures to ensure that the house stays warm by itself too. That's just something you do when it's cold 8 months out of the year

Yes, they're hot as hell in the morning, and gradually lose heat, so that you can come home to a cold house after a hard day at work. You go to bed freezing, and wake up at 3am hot as hell.

They have two dials: Input and Boost. Input sets the night storage temperature, 1 to 5. Boost is a special, more expensive, heat now setting. Also 1-5, but remember that you're heating up a load of brioks and not using the cheap electricity either.

If you move more than three feet away form them you can't feel the warmth. Mine are mostly bolted to exterior walls and I don't think they're insulated behind, so I'm paying to heat up the outside of my home. The pigeons love me.

I hate them. Luckily, I don't feel the cold, so it's okay.