Mysteries

January 16, 2009 in Homemaking, Mysteries | 4 comments

Why do I need to lower my thermostat when it is colder outside? 

  1. LB on January 16, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    Do you? Says who?

    Is that why my house is 12 degrees colder than the temperature I’m calling for? Is it my expectations that need to be adjusted downward? That doesn’t sound like a good plan.

  2. Amy on January 16, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    I say so because I meant that it gets too hot in my house whenever the temp outside gets colder. Badly written post.

  3. rootie on January 18, 2009 at 2:09 am

    Pardon my anthropomorphizing…

    If your thermostat is on or near an exterior wall or place where it gets a draft from outside, the thermostat will be colder relative to the rest of the house and in heating itself will overheat the rest of the house.

    If your thermostat is in the center of the house on an interior wall, most likely the opposite will be true, that the exterior walls of the house will “radiate cold” into the room making the space feel colder, but the thermostat will be “warm and happy” in the middle of the house.

    In the office where I work, there are sensors that hang down from the ceiling, and if someone puts a hot computer under one of them, they’ll freeze the rest of the area trying to cool off that one computer.

    rootie

  4. Amy on January 18, 2009 at 11:20 am

    Yes, rootie, that makes sense. That’s why I’ve never understood why people (read: Member of the Cult of Green) think they can tell you the “proper” temperature to set the thermostat. Every house we’ve lived in requires a different setting for comfort, depending on how drafty and where the thermostat is.

    However, ours is now on an interior wall, and this need to turn it down when it gets super cold has been true at every house we’ve lived at that I can remember. My theory is that, when the heat is actually running, the house feels warmer than it does just after the heat turns off. Or put another way, the subjective feeling of warmth is higher when hot air is flowing, even if the temperature is the same. Therefore, when it is colder and the heater is running more often, it feels warmer in the house even if the thermostat says it is the same 71 degrees.

    Or maybe it’s just me.