How warm do you like to keep the house?

[Sprinter]

I ask this because it is an important part of the equation when new members ask for advice about stoves and installations.

Before we moved here and installed this stove, we were dependent on a thermostat and a fuel bill. Being naturally frugal, I tried to keep the thermostat at around 70F. But now with the wood stove and plentiful fuel available, we have come to be spoiled at around 74 or 75 with occasional nice accidents above that. But I know that some like it in the mid 60's F.

So, I'm curious to see where others find their comfort level.

 

[JA600L]

70-78. I don't like wearing long sleeves or blankets.

 

[prezes13]

74-76anything over 77 is too hot for me

 

[firefighterjake]

72.6 degrees F.

 

[ohiojoe13]

I have a ranch house, Usually upper 70's in the stove room. Then about 72-74 in the hallway which is about the middle of the house and about 67-70 in the back bedrooms.

 

[LowbanksArcher]

Thermostat's set at 65. Anything over 70 is gettin too warm

 

[edyit]

personally i prefer it in the 70-74 degree range, my wife on the other hand says its cold if it dips under 76, i just let it rip and lounge on the couch in shorts

 

[Huntindog1]

70-72

 

[StihlKicking]

About 72

 

[vasten]

For me it depends. If my furnace is running, then 62-68, usually closer to the lower end of that. If my wood stove is running mid 70's.

I find that the radiant heat is more comfortable than a furnace, and mid 70's is very comfortable to me. When the furnace is running and it hits 70-72 I find it to be too hot and dry. I also notice when the furnace is running overnight we all seem to wake up with stuffy noses and dry mouths and my little guys asthma and allergies are going nuts.

 

[HighTon]

I shoot for 72. Over 75 is too much for me and the wife.

 

[jotul8e2]

I go by the thermostat, which is located in the small area way accessing the bedrooms and bathroom. Anything over 70 degrees there is too warm for comfort. The bedrooms at that point will be a bit cooler, and the great room with the stove will be rather a lot warmer.

To me this variance in temperatures is one of the great charms of a wood stove. I can come close to the stove if cold, and away if too warm.

 

[mellow]

68 if I am running the heat pump. 70-76 if running the wood stove.

 

[ElmBurner]

My family likes the chance to wear flannel pants and sweatshirts and stuff in the winter, so we don't get above 70. That's about all I can maintain during the week, as I am going about 8-10 hours between re-loads.

On the weekends, when I can feed the stove, I keep it around 70 - 72 and run the furnace fan to balance out temps in the house.

 

[Seanm]

We have two thermostats in the middle of the house on both levels with the wood stove in the corner of the rec room downstairs. Our comfort temperature is 74 upstairs and downstairs will often be around 78 and roasty toasty where I sit downstairs next to the wood stove and I often kick off the socks and put on shorts when I get home from work. Its funny you ask this question because last night I was just to tired to bother with an overnight burn so I let the fir run its course and woke to a cold stove, and a cold house and the forced air furnace on which is set to a bone chilling 68 and yes I have pants and socks on.

 

[Squisher]

The warmer the better imo. I try to keep it to about 73 in the furthest/coolest reaches of the house where our bedrooms are and 73+ in the rest. Sometimes it's to much for me, I just step outside for a minute or three.

 

[Dobish]

we set the thermostat for 68 when we are home during the day, 62 when we aren't. 64 at night when we are sleeping. That means that the upstairs is about that, and without the wood stove going, it will be 58 in our basement/living room when we get home. With the stove going, we will get it up to about 72 in the stove room, and that will bring our bedroom up to around 60 and shut off the thermostat until around 3am.

 

[Squisher]

Wow. That's chilly!

 

[Dobish]

Wow. That's chilly!

during the day, when the house is in the sun, it will stay around 65-66. Given that it is an old log cabin, and the insulation is not the best, we don't want to spend our entire paychecks on the heating bill! We dropped our bill by about 30% with a programmable thermostat, new windows, and sealing up some drafty areas (there are still plenty!)

Since installing the stove, but keeping the thermostat programming the same, we have dropped an average of $60/month on our bill. We don't keep the fire going all day, and the stove room will heat up within an hour or so. I think the only way I could get our house to be consistently over 72º would be to install 3 wood stoves. My wife would love the heat, but she would not enjoy stacking that much wood!

 

[branchburner]

In winter, we now like the mid/upper 70s. In summer, we like the lower 70s (which we try to maintain by ventilating the house during cool nights and shutting it up during hot days).

Before the wood stove, we settled for upper 60s in the winter, though with forced hot air our toes stayed mostly in the 50s while our eyes dried out. But more than the air temp, it's the feel of radiant heat that makes the stove 100x better than the forced air. (Number of winter colds in the household went down a lot, too)

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Heating from the basement, my goal is to get the upstairs main floor cruising at around 75 F and just consider myself a dang good caveman if the main floor is cruising at 77 F... As some others have mentioned, we usually get home (around 5:00 pm) and change into shorts and tank tops first thing (well I just walk around in me long-johns), and then I head downstairs to fire up a small burn in the stove to keep things toasty until it's time for to set the overnight burn.....

 

[Woody Stover]

it is an old log cabin, and the insulation is not the best

Similar setup here. With the cat stove it's pretty easy to stay right around 70 in the main living area and a few degrees cooler in the bedroom. 70 is tee-shirt temp for me. It was 50s and wet outside yesterday, and I fired a short load about 24 hrs. ago when it dropped to 66 in here. Still about 69 now but dropping into the mid-40s tonight so I'll probably fire a short load tonight. Seems like it may be an early spring here, and that regular burning is about over.

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Seems like it may be an early spring here, and that regular burning is about over.

 

[Woody Stover]

Don't worry; It's a long way from NB to southern IN.

 

[begreen]

Usually around 71F in the house and ~73F in the living room where the stove is. Last night I messed up. Daytime temps were 47F and falling by evening so I reloaded with 6 large splits. That was a mistake. A system blew in and temperatures outside started to rise. By 9pm it was 76F in the living room and I was down to a t shirt. I slept with just a sheet for a cover. It was 52F outside at 6am.