How are you keeping warm?

You know with global warming the warmer winters may be headed your way:) I know when I moved here to NC in 1994 the winters for the first 5-8 years were colder than they have been the past several winters. Could just be a long range weather cycle but who knows:)

We had a few weeks with temps in the single digits here, colder than normal the past 2 years.

Another Floridian here ... air conditioning is on now, but our heat did kick on a couple of times last month when we had two or three nights that got down to 26 degrees!

Thermostat here is set to about 58º. We had a long below zero stretch, where I did bump it up to 62º for a bit. With layers of clothing, and blankets to wrap up in when I sit to watch TV, it's really not too bad! Besides, my house is old and drafty, and has no insulation in the outside walls, it's really not worth the cost to try and get it any warmer in here.

Deb

my electric blanket died so I'm back to my hot water bottle on my feet at night. It has been down to -0
this winter.

The hot socks are home made. I imagine you might see them for sale somewhere but I haven't seen any that are as good as what we make ourselves. We buy an inexpensive pair of knee socks or similar, with a close weave, buy the wheat berries at the store, fill the socks and then sew the opening shut. We have been doing that for about 8 years or so. I keep two in my bed and so did my DD. While one of our sons loved them and the other was too hot for them. DH is also too hot for them. Sometimes they stretch out and get 'pilly' after awhile and then we just replace them. They can be emptied into the compost pile too. They are so inexpensive to make and easy. Fun to try to find bright wacky colors or dark neutrals for the fellows. We often make new ones for Christmas gifts. If you don't want to sew, you can keep them closed with a thick rubber band too, but with repeated microwave trips, that doesn't last too long.

You heat them in the microwave about 3 minutes tops for each one. I have a duck down comforter on my bed and with two hot socks I am never cold any more. Sometimes I get warm enough to get out of the covers to cool off for awhile..lol. They last a fairly long time too, if they are covered by something that insulates them, like a comforter, two or three hours later they are still a little warm.

They are very portable and make the trip to the couch or even inside a coat when you are out shoveling on a very cold day. In the car when it is just warming up, under a coat. Great for sore muscles too.

As you can see, they are very popular at our house and have become a family joke...lol....because they have become so indispensable. 'Where's the hot socks?' Is a popular phrase here.

lisabeth

We have hydronic heating (air is heated over coils from the hot water heater), which is actually an energy efficient setup. Thankfully we have a battery operated automatic thermostat. The heater is set for 55'F after 10pm, 68'F beginning at 5:30am, 66'F beween 8am and 6pm, back to 68'F from 6pm to 10pm.

If I'm feeling comfortable with the temperature and the heat comes on, I can manually adjust the temp a few degrees lower. Some days 67'F is comfortable. Other days that is too cold.

My utility bills shows we are using less than half of our baseline quantities for electricity and gas each month. The Kw and therms per day are lower than last year, but the cost is definitely higher.

We keep our natural gas wall unit heaters, one at each end of the house, set at about 65-68 during the day if we are home. At night or when we go out, down to about 60. We also have two wood stoves for when it is really cold and they heat the house better than the gas heat. One is large and heats quickly. The other is small but has a fan and uses less wood. Then, we have recirculating oil space heaters which we use at night, one for our birds near their cage and one for us in the bedroom. We have a couple of rooms we usually close off and keep cooler, too. We dress fairly warm and use blankets if we are sitting around. My D.H. turns the heaters down and I turn them up!

I keep it at 60 - night and day.

I (usually) have a sweatshirt on and sit under a blanket. I got sick of DH complaining (yes it is colder over the garage) so I got him a space heater - he's used it once.

lisabeth, I finally found them online. Most are made in the UK and are actual slipper socks with an insert of wheat berries. Unfortunately, they are aromatic, too. Guess I'll stick with my rice pillow and just put it under my feet.

Another Florida person here. I turn the heat on a few times each year but not enough to worry about. Life is good.

Jim

Have you tried wearing two layers of socks with red pepper flakes at the bottom between the two layers? DH says that's the technique that kept his feet warm when he lived in the Berkshires (and he's very happy to have moved home to California).

Have to keep it super warm for my grandmother -- the home health gals always gripe about it and want to leave the doors standing open, but they're making WAAAY too much Uncle Sam money to think they are 'house guests' here. Propane is a huge rip-off racket -- every year they raise the price "just because we can -- BRU-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" and it's killing us. I just have to heat her living area to her comfort level (between 75 & 80) and let the rest of the house go. There's enough heat coming out of there to keep anything else from any danger of freezing!

So, lisabeth, am I gathering that you don't actually WEAR the socks, but use them like a little heating pad to warm up? I kept picturing a double-layer of socks with the wheat berries bunching up between them.

68° when we're at home, and a woodstove fire for December through February when it goes below freezing.
My Ridgeback has a short smoothcoat, so she lets us know when to start the fire. Sounds like she's mooing - pitiful. We throw a blanket over her, and she loves to roast underneath it.

DH stays on the cold side from meds. So we have to keep the house somewhat warm. Use the pellet stove in the winter (when it gets down to the 30's) in the room where he sits, the rest is cooler.

I SET MY THERMO AT 68 DEGREES.

We keep the gas furnace set to 68 during the day because of little ones and 62 at night. Sometimes when we're lounging around it gets a bit cold but a sweater or quilt helps. When we're up and moving we don't even notice the temp (unless it's too warm). We had a 200 dollar bill for December from not turning the thermostat down at night. Turning it down by just 6 degrees droped the bill 50 bucks. Most people think our house is too cold but we're used to it and have a hard time being at other peoples houses. We also don't ever get sick while everyone else we know sufferes through at least 2 colds during the winter. Yay for conservation!! Advantages all the way around.

We use to use our fireplace to keep warm besides all the electric heaters. Now we use our woodstove, it will just be getting modified this summer to be more effecient for us.

Brrr ... I've been reading where so many of y'all keep your thermostats set at @68 during the cold winter, and that just sounds cool to me, maybe I've been in Florida too long, LOL! Our thermostat is set at 72 all winter and 75 during the summer months. At 7 O'clock this morning our outdoor temperature was 54, inside temp said 72 but I was chilly ... walking around the house with a heavy robe over my pj's, and socks on my feet! My husband left for work with a jacket on, he wears short sleeve shirts year round but does require a light jacket on cold mornings ... some of us southerner's are wimps!

I just can't imagine living where it gets down in the 30's or lower, and stays that way for more than a day or two! Our winters in this part of Florida usually consist of maybe three or four nights that drop into the 30's, usually in late January. Sometimes we go quite a few years where winter temp's don't ever get below 40 at night. This year we did have three nights of 26-28 degrees with freezes and a couple of times where it barely made it out of the 40's all day! Our weather right now seems to be fluctuating a lot. We had a high a few days ago of 84, today is only supposed to be high 60's, it will be back to near 80 tomorrow and Friday is only supposed to be in the 50's. I can't complain though, after seeing the news and what some folks are experiencing I count my blessings!

Hang in there y'all ... Spring is on the way! ^_^ Really! We've been seeing some Northern birds migrating through the area and I've been feeding them every day so they have the energy for the long journey back to your back yards!

Bookerc1.... No, the socks are not worn. They are like a hot water bottle or heating pad w/o the electricity. :-) Not really a pad though, as the wheat berries fill the sock so it is more like a heat tube that is as thick as say a 1 litre bottle of water, but of course, flexible.

Someone also mentioned lamb wool slippers, I use those too and that is another item I wouldn't be without in the winter. They really keep your feet warm and toasty.

I agree with you plantladylin, I must be a real whimp too although I don't live as far south as you do. However, I don't think I could survive the cold cold winters up north or in the midwest. I guess it's what you get use to. We have folks retire down here (mostly in Williamsburg VA) from the New England states and they think it's balmy down here in the winter. Anytime the temp goes below 70 outside, I'm cold LOL We travel south so much (my brother has a place in Bluffton, SC) and plan on retiring in GA soon, so I guess I am getting use to the milder winters.

68 by day/65 at night Now the real problem is I can't take the heat of summer!

LOL on what people call cool. I would die at 68!

I keep the thermostat no higher than 60, and sit by the woodstove if I feel cold.

I wear a hoodie...when it's 22 below zero I have my hood on indoors. Keeping your head warm is a HUGE help!!

For me it's not just money, it's the ethics of burning fossil fuel. I also use no air conditioning - ever.

Wearing a hat is a good way to stay warm. I wear one in the house when it is really cold, like in the teens outside. We also put sheets of clear plastic up over some windows and close curtains at night.

I keep mine 65-68. Sometimes I wear a hat inside.
My house is ALL electric... heat, hot H2O... everything.
I'm in a NW corner unit (townhouse/condo) so it's cooler than the other units.
It's nice in the summer though. I never have to run the AC.
I have an electric blanket that I turn on about 1/2 hour before bedtime to warm up the bed. I turn it off when I go to bed. The room itself may be cool, but I'm snug & warm in bed.

I'm SO looking forward to Spring!

Wrench in the works here -with the electric heat I'm OK at 67º - cool, but OK. With recent ice storms and no electric we did wood heat -temps around 58-60º -it was warmer. If I have windows and sunshine (we live in a rancher and the sunlight isn't so great) I tolerate much cooler temps. I was amazed to be more comfortable with the lower temps (with wood heat) though...

So 67º winter
78º summer

Crank up the thermostat 72 daytime 68 night.

Programmable thermostat set to 67 during the day 64 at night, we also have a wood pellet stove so the furnace doesn't kick in all the time.

I've also heard that rice works well in the socks and can be microwaved. Most people use them for sore necks and backs. The heat works great for aching muscles, and the shape helps them stay put around the neck.

Cold and heat are relative. When I lived in Florida, 75'F from the A/C would make me shiver. I put long underwear on whenever it dropped below 72', since I was used to the warmer temps. So I'd be bundled up at the beach and the snow birds would be romping in the water in their swimsuits. When I lived in the Sierras, 68' would have been too hot indoors, since I was used to cooler temps.

We are fortunate to have 3 zones in our small 1940's vintage cape. The mudroom/laundry room, which we added in 2003, has radiant heat in the floor and the thermostat is kept at 60. The first floor thermostat is kept at 66 during the day, but we sometimes turn it up to 68 for the last hour of our evening [we usually close between 10:00 and 10:30 :)] because the living room is cool when just sitting to read or watch TV (thermostat is in the dining room). The second floor which has 3 bedrooms (including the one used for office, computer, etc.) is kept at 65 during the day. The spare bedroom has no heat (leaky radiator has not been replaced), so we keep the door closed during the winter. Both first and second floor thermostats are turned down to 60 for the night.

65-67 and it's plenty warm here. Only from about 3pm-6pm does it feel chilly as we have a lot of south facing windows and the sun does a nice job on the warmth. We also have feather beds, down comforters and eider down comforters. It's plenty warm and cozy here.

72 in daytime, 65 at night - if we need to amend nature. Gotta be colder at night! But it's weird that in the summer, the A/C is set to 78 in daytime, and 71 at night. I can't stand it colder than that.

We have an outside wood boiler.72-74 during the day and 68 at night.We go thru about 22 face cord of wood ,from October thru May ,and the wood runs us about 900 dollars

I keep my thermastat on 70 at all times. I bundle up in the daytime and at night I plug in my electric blanket and stay in the bedroom. The cats like the electric blanket too. :)

Now my electric mattress pad beats your electric blanket....

We keep ours at 60 all the time. I sleep under a sleeping bag (and 2 dogs snuggled close) in the winter.

Amazing how much body heat a cat can give off. Mine puts each of us to bed in turn--goes and sleeps on the boys' bed until they fall asleep, but jumps down from the top bunk and curls up on my tummy when I go to bed. The only one he won't cuddle is my DH, and that's because DH would just push him away.