I have a question...
...for those of you who have more experience with keeping your houses cold in the wintertime. This past winter is the first time we've kept our house at 65 degrees or less, and I do think that my body adjusted to that(not as much as I'd have liked, though!). As a result of that adjustment, temperatures that used to seem cold to me don't seem so cold anymore. For instance, we used to keep our house at 70 degrees all winter long, and that used to feel cold to me. However, the current weather conditions here are keeping our house right around 70(with no heat), and I don't feel at all cold. I'm walking around wearing one shirt, one pair of jeans, and no socks or slippers, and I feel completely comfortable.
This has made me wonder if my body will have an especially hard time adjusting to the hot summer weather that's coming since it became accustomed to a lower temperature than usual over the winter. Do those of you who keep your homes fairly cold over the winter notice that summers are particularly miserable, or does your body adjust fairly quickly?
Just so you know, we do use our AC in the summertime(going without AC entirely would be bad for my piano, and besides, I become rather crabby if my house is allowed to soak up every bit of humidity from the air...I hate humidity!) but we keep it set at 80 degrees usually. This means that my body is going to need to adjust to a 15 degree temperature difference(from 65 to 80).
So, all you that routinely freeze your buns off over the winter, tell me what the summer holds for me!
We live in SoCal and keep our temps at just what you mentioned. 65 in the winter and 80 in the summer. The outside temps fluctuate from about 50 to 110 degrees (daytime temps). We don't have much of a spring in the sense that we can be 65 degrees one day and hitting 100 by the end of the week. We do go through a period of adjustment and are pretty miserable for about 2 weeks. I just keep reminding myself of the money I'm saving. At least I live where it is hot enough that I can always take a walk outside. Within about 10 min, that 80 degree house feels mighty fine. 😉
I have never liked, or have gotten used to summer.
I hate the heat and I hate the humidity because I sweat very easily and feel uncomfortable within seconds.
So either way, cold, warm.. whatever.. I never get used to the summer no matter how warm I heat the home.
We keep our house at 60-65 degrees during the winter in Wisconsin and 55 at night. We have been doing this for years and I have found that our body temperature adjust quickly. The house temperature fluctuates with spring so I think that helps us to adjust. In Wisconsin we have already had 80 degree days and then 40 degree days within the same week. We try to keep our air at 80 degrees or so in the summer and use fans. The way our house faces it stays sweatshirt cool until mid June but we have to change when we go outside because it is so much warmer out there.
Hi Kristen, I stumbled across your blog the other day and have been hooked ever since! 🙂 Last night I made homemade bread for the first time ever, thanks to being inspired by your blog!
Just wanted to share that. I look forward to your postings in the future!
Jess
I keep my house at 63 in the winter and 73 in the summer. I just can't STAND the heat anymore! In fact, now even 73 feels too hot sometimes, so I think I'm in for a tough summer. I've resigned myself to paying big electric bills for the next few months. I figure my cheap bills from the winter will offset the cost...I hope anyway.
I adjust every year just fine. It may take a wee bit, but our bodies are pretty adaptable and if you stay to hot, think of all the pop ices and and ice cream you can get with the $$$ you saved. ; )
We keep it around 62 in the winter. I like layering and don't mind the cold. I have alot of trouble adjusting in the summer. I hate the heat and humidity!!! We run our air conditioner almost non-stop because we are in a second floor apartment, and above us is a flat, black top roof that soaks up the sun.
Well, things are a bit more extreme for us I suppose. Our house stays at about 65 in the winter during the day - thanks to our wood burner - but we bank it down hard at night and have the heat set to go on if it gets below 48 so we don't freeze our pipes (most nights in the winter is DOES kick on round about 4 am - but we never really notice thanks to the wonder of a heated mattress pad!) and in the summer we only use air conditioning on the most extreme nights in our bedroom. We do fine 90% of the time - only when the humidity gets extreme along with the heat do we find reasons to work in the bedroom!
For us, its just a workaround kinda thing. I really only use the oven at night, tons of crockpot/grill/cold meals, the fans work all the time, and we have 2 2 gallon jugs for ice water in our fridge at all times. I don't think the cooler winters will effect you all that much, really. It all comes down to how temps effect you regardless.
I'm also in Wisconsin. We kept our thermostat at 55 during the day and 50 at night so I'm not so sure how August is going to feel. We rarely use our a/c since it's an ancient wall unit and only really cools the living and dining rooms. I tend to open the windows at night using window fans to bring the cooler temps in and shut the windows first thing in the morning to keep the heat out.
This summer, at least, my husband won't be sleeping days so we won't have to use an air conditioner in his upstairs bedroom. It's conceivable we could use his to replace Old Frosty downstairs, but I still hate to use it unless the heat index is over 100.
It it gets too bad, we generally go shopping or to the library where it's cooler.
I live in the South with only three baseboard heaters for a 700 sq. ft. 1/2 duplex. Winters the house are between 60 and 65. At night I turn off the living room heater and close the door. In the summer I run the ceiling fans. I don't turn the air conditioners on unless absolutely necessary and that is after I am down to my birthday suit. When they are turned on I set them for 80. My electric bills run about $35.00 per month.
I had never heard of a heated mattress pad but I will be getting one for this winter. Maybe I can turn another of the heaters off.
I acclimate every year. I have a harder time dealing with the warm spring days as I am getting used to warmer temps, than I do to the actual hot summer days.
We have a thirty degree difference between our day time highs and lows year round. I tak advantage of this in the summer by opening the windows as soon as I wake up to let the cool air flood the house. I close the windows AND the blinds around 11:00 a.m. to hold in the cool air and put off using the air conditioner as long as possible. However, we have very low humidity. I am not sure I would do this if we lived east of the rockies.
We have our house around 55-60 in the winter and around 80 with the AC on in the summer and we're fine. We acclimate well. The only thing I can't handle is humidity! 🙂
To adjust to the hot weather, just make sure you get out in it and sweat. You should get a little used to it after a week or so. I live in an area that routinely has triple digits in the summer, and I don't avoid the heat. I can't say I ever like it, but I get OK with it and just use the AC in the late afternoon and early evening. Almost never through the night unless there's a bad heat wave.
I've lived in Minnesota as a post-college adult for almost 5 years now. I lived in North Dakota when I was a kid, also for 5 years. In ND, the outside temperatures ranged from -30F to +90F over the course of the year. Minnesota is similar, but I live in the Twin Cities, so it usually doesn't get below -20F.
We've always kept the house cool to cold in the winter. It usually takes me a good 2-3 weeks to adapt to warmer temps in the spring. In fact, 75F feels more uncomfortable in the spring than 85F does later in the summer.
My no-AC tips for staying cool:
1. Drink lots of ice water - your internal temp will dip after a good big glass of cold liquid, making you feel cooler.
2. Rub ice cubes on the inside of your wrists if you feel overheated.
3. Fans! For an extra kick of cool, wash your face in cool water and then stand in front of the fan to let it dry.
4. If you can, take a siesta in the hottest part of the day and do something quiet.
I figure if the Amish can adapt to summer temps with no AC in their long-sleeve outfits, we can adapt, too.
I live in Wisconsin, and we keep our heat at 61 during the day, 64 in the evening when my husband is home, and 55 at night. We have a central air unit, but it doesn't work, so we don't have air conditioning (and considering that we lived here for 3 years before we even tried to turn it on, we aren't replacing it anytime soon). We did buy a small window unit for our bedroom, and if it gets horribly hot, we shut up our bedroom, turn it on, and all of us will sleep in there (the boys bring in the camping cot or thermarest pads).
We also will hang out in the basement or walk over to the pool, or go down to the lake to cool off. If we are super uncomfortable, we go to the mall or library. We grill out a lot more too, to avoid heating up the house.
Incidentally, in my experience, sadly the heat negatively effects one's *ahem* love-life.
I live in Massachusetts. We freeze in the winter and broil in the summer. I'm going to get an AC for my room this summer since I sleep a lot better with it on.
The way to do it is gradually. I worked for 2 straight years outside everyday in the south and noticed that I slowly acclimated to the cold as it slowly cooled in the fall and vice versa in the spring as it slowly warmed. So, take a cue from nature (aka, where we came from) and try to make your changes gradually from one season to the next (then be sure to pack a sweater where ever you go in the summer because most businesses crank the AC so cold you will really feel the difference!). Good luck!
We keep our house at 55-60 during the winter and at 70 in the summer, but only in the evenings. My husband hates the heat and humidity so we have to keep the temperate lower in the summer. I work from home and don't mind the heat much during the day. I adjust pretty well because I wear a lot of heavy clothes during the winter and if it gets too cold in my office I use a space heater while I'm in there. I'd rather just heat the office than the entire house and it saves us a fortune on our gas bills.
I am so glad to see I am NOT the only one that keeps the heat at 60-62 during the winter! My friends think I'm nuts..they don't have to pay my gas bill 🙁 I have an older home...so I don't want or like paying a large gas bill. The summer I keep it around 72. I have two small fans that I use in the kitchen while cooking. Other than that, your body does adjust 🙂
LOL Jenny! Fortunately, our bedroom is downstairs, which means it stays fairly cool down there(it stinks to sleep there in the wintertime, but in the summer it totally rocks!).
I have trouble dealing with heat (and yet I live in Houston - brilliant), but I've found that if I run fans in the rooms we spend the most time in, open the windows to get good air flow and minimise my use of the oven (this one is toughest for me, because of bread), that I'm able to keep reasonably cool for the most part. We've had a couple days already where we closed the windows and cycled the A/C a few times to generally cool the house down, but overall I've been okay with the fans. I might invest in a larger fan to use once it really gets hot here (I think we've topped in the high 80s or low 90s so far).
I've also tripled my water intake.
So, yeah, I'm adjusting to the heat, but not NEARLY as quickly as I adjusted to the cold.
In the summer, I often put my crock pot, bread machine, and/or rice cooker outside, rather than in the house. My kitchen has large south- and west-facing sliding doors, so it's routinely 5-10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.
We live in Oklahoma. Seems like i'm always cold in the winter and miserable in the summer! Didn't seem like it used to bother as much before so i thought maybe it had something to do with age! LOL Summers here are very hot and humid. We do keep the thermostat at about 65 in the winter, but we have a wood burning fireplace and about 72 in the summer, any higher than than that and i'm miserable. I can stand to be a lil colder than hotter and have just decided to pay a higher electric bill in the summer to stay comfortable!
I live in N. Ga- we keep the thermostat at 80 or so in the summer & keep the ceiling fans going. An unless I am doing laundry or cooking, it feels fine to me. But, I don't like the cold, so I have not tried lowering the thermostat in winter yet, except for a few degrees at bedtime. (My daughter kicks covers off no matter how cool it is, and the rest of us have electric blankets). But during the day, I haven't diped below 68. Space heaters use a lot of energy, so they just aren't an option for us like the ceiling fans in the summer~