[Kingcoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', 'S')eriously... This is so stupid. Stop blasting carbon into the atmosphere, build alternatives, and then enjoy vast amounts of clean dirt cheap power.



Or if you are talking cooling, why not go for district cooling? It's dead easy technology. A cooling plant, insulated pipes to every house et voila!

[Leanan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'R')ather than controlling our behaviors (with the threat of the police force if we refuse), how about broadcasting a "price" signal instead? When capacity is reached and the price spikes, "smart" thermostats automatically turn it down.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'I')'ve noticed that you really don't understand the layout of the US, Starvid. You live in a geographically small country with high population density, which allows these strategies. The US, in particular, SoCal, is so sprawled out that district heating/cooling would probably not be a viable option. While I agree that concentrating populations is a much more efficient way to live, that simply isn't the reality in much of the US.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'R')ather than controlling our behaviors (with the threat of the police force if we refuse), how about broadcasting a "price" signal instead? When capacity is reached and the price spikes, "smart" thermostats automatically turn it down.

[cube]

Every time my home state gets mentioned on this forum it's usually another example of a slow die-off, power-down, infrastructure collapse thread. Is there a pattern here?

Remember folks California is the richest state in the richest nation the world has ever known. If we're having problems because we can't "afford" to maintain our infrastructure (power grid) hmm it makes me wonder?

Richard C. Duncan was right....the first major energy crunch will happen in California and it will be an electricity crisis.

[Twilight]

This makes an awesome bedtime story.

"...and if you don't do conservation, the liberals will come and mess with your thermostat."

Priceless.

[smallpoxgirl]

Reason 3,348,224 not to move to California.

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'R')emember folks California is the richest state in the richest nation the world has ever known. If we're having problems because we can't "afford" to maintain our infrastructure (power grid) hmm it makes me wonder?

[aahala]

Other than the technology, I don't see much new here.

By a variety of federal laws, the grid overseer has the right
(and the responsibility) to alter, increase, decrease, blah,
blah, blah, eletrical generation, to add, cut off users in order
for the grid to work properly.

[WisJim]

They already do that with business and commercial customers. Where I work, the power company can shut down the air conditioning chillers if they need to in order to avoid passing their peak genrating capacity--otherwise there would be a choice of brown-outs or starting up less efficient smaller generating plants that use natural gas fueled engines.

Makes sense to me, although I always thought that electricity should get more expensive the more that you use, rather than cheaper, to discourage wasteful usage.

[FreakOil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', 'F')reakOil
Let's take away the right to be stupid, sounds great, who gets to pick? Do crack head females get sterilized? Do third generation welfare families get the same? Do YOU get to pick?

[wisconsin_cur]

So my wife is a part of a forum that is comprised mostly of mothers and she asked them the following two questions. She wants to compare their answers to this question with yours.
What is the normal temperature of your house? (feel free to distinguish between night-time and day time)
and, what is the lowest temperature that you feel comfortable at (again feel free to expand on the answer to include how you dress around the house)?
I told her that if she wants to ask anymore questions she will need to register and do it herself (this is the second wife inspired post). I suggested keeping with the dog theme ("curs_bi&$#) but she didn't like that too much. Maybe "curs_hotchick"?

[Don35]

Programmable thermostat. At night it is 55, morning 70-72 (I hate to get out of the shower wet and cold), daytime when I’m at work 55, evening at home 68. Now a disclaimer: my apartment is old and leaks like a sieve and STAYS cold no matter what temp I put it on. I just wear a sweater in the evenings.

[billp]

We have a microcontroller controlled heating system too.
We heat with natural gas in abq, nm.
Furnace comes on at 05:30.
When it goes off depends on outside temperature ... and wind.

13 degrees F outside, it runs for about 1.5 hours. Then goes off. But comes on later.
At about 27 degrees F, it runs for about one hour. Then comes on later.
We have microcontoller thermostat set for about 50 degrees F at night.
Only when wind is blowing does furnace come on in the night.
All of this [heating and cooling the whole cave] may not last too longer in the future?
cheers

[Windmills]

Living in Arizona, we shut off the climate controls for the winter. It's not like we're going to die of anything an Arizona winter can throw at us. Sometimes it gets cold enough to see our breath in here, but usually only a few times each winter. We turn on a small space heater in the bathroom twice a day for a few minutes; once for a doo doo, and once at night to take showers. There's an electric blanket on the couch.

Other than that, it's incidental heat from bodies, movement, and appliances.

If it gets cold, we just put on more layers.

[Terran]

Over here on the west coast, the temperature is fairly mild in the 50s for the winter. I only heat my room, using a convection heater. I keep the temperature at 76*F during the day, and keep at at 72*F at night while I'm asleep. I don't like waking up to cold mornings.

[WisJim]

We keep our house between 64 and 70 degrees F. We heat with wood, using a forced air furnace in the basement. We also have a wood cook stove that we use if it either gets cold (below zero) or isn't cold enough to use the furnace but we want some heat for a bit. Otherwise having both wood fired heat sources going at once can get it in the mid 70s in the house, no matter how cold outside, and that's warmer than I like. If it gets sunny out, our sunroom/greenhouse which is attached to the living room, gets toasty and keeps most of the house warm as long as the sun shines. Come evening, we shut the insulating curtains on the sunroom windows and close the door to the house. We're in Western Wisconsin, down the road a piece from the Wi-Cur.

[one_more_day]

I am home almost all the time. My thermostat stays at 62 F.
I feel comfortable at 65 and above, but since my house has lots of air leaks, I would almost double my bill to get the extra three degrees.
I have been working on insulation ever since I bought this place, I just still have a lot of work to do.

[kjmclark]

We're in Southern Michigan. We have a gas furnace, a programmable thermostat, a wood stove, and the house is fairly well done for passive solar on those rare winter days we actually get some sunshine.
The thermostat is set to 55F overnight, but the furnace only rarely actually comes on at night. Around 6am it goes up to 63F (I vary the time depending on overnight low so that it manages to just reach 63F by 7am). We then wake up and fire up the wood stove, which we use (along with something yummy baking in the oven sometimes) to keep the house between 65 and 70. Around 8pm we let the stove go out for the night.
[Edit - here's a funny story. As noted above, most of our heat is from the wood stove. Last month the gas/electric utility estimated our usage since we never saw the meter reader. They just did a reading this morning. Turns out the gas company *owes us* $73.50 this month!]

[MarkJames]

Here in the cold Northeast I generally keep my home, vacation homes, businesses and heated rental properties around 70 to 72F when they're occupied, around 60F when unoccupied and keep unoccupied rooms around 60F. All rooms have their own hydronic heating zones.
One issue many of our fuel and heating customers have is that their homes only have a single hydronic heating zone, so they're heating unoccupied space and occupants can't set the heat at their individual comfort level. It's common to see tenants in heated apartment houses and buildings without zoning or thermostatic radiator valves regulating heat by opening the windows.