I resist it for as long as I can - mainly because I like the house cool, and I like having the windows open and hearing crickets at night, and bird song at dawn.
However, for at least the last week, it’s been getting down into the '40s F at night, and we’ve been having a lot of rain so it’s chilly-damp as well. I’m OK at night, just an extra quilt and the small dog under the blankets with me to stay cozy. But I do like it warm in the morning when I first get up and shower. So I’ve been cranking the heat up a bit early in the morning.
Tonight we are maybe going to get down into the 30s so I set my thermostat (it’s older and not programmable) to 60 for the night. I like winter and get stupid excited at the first snow, but it’s always sad to see summer winding down - have to put the vegetable garden to bed, dig out the winter clothing and put away summer clothes (did some of that this morning), change the furnace filter (did that too). And the guy who cuts my lawn called earlier and asked if I needed my grass cut again yet, because it “might be the last one for the year.”
Yes, my heat went on for a couple of nights. The temp here got down to 36F the other night. Very little frost though. The ground was still to warm. The air is back on as the weather the last two days has been as perfect as it can get with highs in the mid-upper 70s. More cold coming this weekend.
I used to be brave about the coming cold, but now I’ve got some arthritis and I don’t want it starting to act up until, oh, January if I can help it.
Yes, we have. Some of my shrubs have first damage already.
However, we don’t really turn it on or off. We set the lowest temp we like and the highest temp, and turn it on auto. The AC and heat just go on as needed. I didn’t realize the heat was on the other day until I walked by a floor vent.
I have stupid shitty fall allergies so it’s not in my best interest to have the windows open too much this time of year.
So I’ve been putting it on at night and flipping on the AC in the afternoon. Inbetween I have the windows open for an hour or so (I work at home so I’m her 24/7)
Turned it on earlier after a mild day followed by a cold night. Mainly I wanted to make sure it was working after being off all summer. This is nothing, it doesn’t really get cold here until December.
And yeah, it’s going to be tough on RandMcnally for a while. After just one year in California I came back to New York in October and thought I was going to freeze to death. Waiting until October to turn on the heat seems to be common here in New England.
It doesn’t really matter to me what the temperature is, I don’t like weather in general.
I refuse to turn on the heat until opening day of deer season, October 25th this year. Totally arbitrary, but that’s when I feel like it’s really fall and I have to give in. If the house gets below 50 before then, I might cave in, but not likely.
Not yet, but only because turning on the furnace means rearranging the bedroom furniture. We have a baseboard register on one wall and a window on another. In the summer our dresser is in front of the register so we can have the AC unit in the window. Winter means dragging the AC up to the attic and moving the dresser in front of the window so that the register isn’t blocked. All of this wouldn’t be necessary if our bedroom was square but it’s an old house and the closets were added on later. They stick out into the room instead of being built into the walls.
RandMcnally, you’ll get used to it. Back in the 1980s I moved to Colorado after seven years in California, and was absolutely miserable the first winter. Almost thirty years on, I’ve become very used to the cold and mostly enjoy winter weather. A lot of it is how you dress.
I also realised that if I kept my heat in the house low-ish, and went out for a walk with the dogs first thing in the morning in the cold, I was “inoculated” against the cold for the rest of the day.
Old house here too, so no AC except the bedroom window unit. And the yahoos who remodeled and moved the bathroom (or added it) decades ago to the rear of the house didn’t put a heating vent in there! Nor any electrical outlets, so plugging in a space heater involves extension cords and such. So after a morning shower, I scurry back into the front of the house where it’s warmer to dry off.
If I were home all day it wouldn’t be bad, but the chilly and damp are annoying me too much this year, so I turned it on on the 15th. Very low, and only when I’m at home, but after a night under three blankets while wearing socks and a sweater AND my jammies and still shivering, I decided that I’m too old to play this stupid “how long can you hold out?” game. I want to be comfortable. For the first time in my life I can go about my business in a state of comfortable undress and I want to take advantage. I’s not toasty in here with the heat on, but just those few degrees has made a world of difference. My basement gets wet every time the sky clouds over, and it needs to dry out. One of the advantages of living in an advanced society is being able to control the temperatures of our homes, and I’m gonna do it. My thermostat is about 50 years old, maybe this year I will invest in a programmable one.
I tried. Last week we had a string of days with highs of 10C and lows near freezing. I fired up the boiler and turned up the thermostat, only to have the circulation pump motor do nothing but emit a bunch of smoke. Fortunately a replacement wasn’t too expensive and was easy to install, so the system is working now. It’s warmed up, though, so I shut the boiler back down.
I’m sure ours has been on. The overnight low on my porch was 1.6 C and I assume it was lower in the garden. I picked a load of beans and tomatoes yesterday, but assumed they would not actually freeze. But the house thermostat is set to 20 and I assume it went on, although I haven’t noticed the radiators obviously hot.
The past winter, spring, and summer were all much cooler than usual. Especially the summer. I have a large exhaust fan (no air conditioning) that I have often run for weeks at a time, nearly. This year I actually had it on maybe 4 times.
Have had several fires in the wood stove this week. Just to take the chill off. But this morning was the first I put on the furnace, brrr. It’s gonna be a long winter, I think!
I’ve turned the electric AC/dehumidifier/fan/heater in the living room on in heater mode a few times in the morning. Still haven’t lit the pilot light for the gas heater, that’s not until October dagnabbit!
I never turn my heat off. It’s set at 70 F year round and comes on as needed. I first noticed heat in the rads some mornings towards the end of August v
Nope, no heat yet. No need - Leet the Wonder Dog[sup]TM[/sup] is my large hairy hot water bottle at night, and during the day it isn’t that cold (in the 50s mostly). Today upper 70s.
I will prepping the snow blower this weekend, which guarantees at least a month of 80[sup]o[/sup]+.
