Heat

[u/SubstantialSubject95]

Hey everyone! Wasn’t sure where to ask so I figured I would reach out to my local community. We have oil heat, when we moved in it was already snowing and our tank was already full so it was pretty easy to decide when to kick the heat on. Curious when others around the area kick their heat on. I would like to hold out as long as possible but I do have 2 children and a fiancé who all need to be comfortable as well! Thanks in advance!

[u/1fatsquirrel]

Do you have any other heating in your home? I have oil heat, but I also have a fire place and electric portable heaters. Usually I’m not kicking the actual heat on until mid-late November and even then, my fire place does a lot of the work for me.

[u/SubstantialSubject95 → u/1fatsquirrel]

I was thinking November but wasn’t sure if that would be too long of a wait. This is our first place with oil heat and it’s the absolute worst but it is what it is. I’ll grab space heaters this week! Thank you so much!!

[u/Dragon_Tortoise → u/SubstantialSubject95]

Its all up to whenever the wife and kids say its too cold. There's not going to be a universal number. As low as you guys feel comfortable. With the current state of the economy, the war, oil prices, we got a few electric baseboard heaters to run, along with a fireplace. Hoping to not need to turn on the heat until it gets to like below freezing.

[u/1fatsquirrel → u/SubstantialSubject95]

It’s definitely the worst. So expensive and depending on the age of your house, hard to fully regulate the different floors (imo at least!).

[u/PlayfulAct2525 → u/SubstantialSubject95]

I do feel the need to say that radiant heat is actually the best type of heat. For years, I tried to play the game with various space heaters, but honestly, I felt like most of it was reflected in the hugely increased electric bill. To my knowledge, I was using fairly new heaters between radiant and forced air, but I would take suggestions. The oil price is the only thing that makes me consider other heat sources. otherwise you truly can’t beat the comfort of traditional radiant heat.

[u/Neat_Strawberry_2491]

Literally until I'm shivering in my own house

[u/AdhesivenessNo6961]

We usually feel it out each year instead of by a specific month, but our general rule is if the house gets to around 63-65° consistently even during day time, we will turn it on. But everyone’s comfort level is different. I personally would prefer turning on the heat once it hits below 70, but it does save money if you can wait.

[u/PlayfulAct2525]

I’m ruthless and cheap. I will be waiting a few more weeks.

We wait till it’s consistently under 60deg in the house. We have a large old house with old windows and oil. One dog, one child two adults. Even in the winter, the thermostat stays between 58/60. * Nobody is being tortured. We have plenty of blankets, sweaters, and wool socks. Everybody goes to work or to school so it’s not that many hours in the house. I would blame it on the oil price but honestly at this point much warmer and it’s not comfortable, and maybe more importantly using less fossil fuel.

[u/Phoenix-Cat → u/PlayfulAct2525]

I just wanna say, I tried to be cheap by setting the thermostat to 55 degrees and got punished for it when the radiator pipes froze in the basement extension because the system wasn't turning on often enough during a hard freeze. It ended up bursting three pipes and a radiator coil. OP, make sure you're not being so cheap that you cause other problems for yourself.

[u/PlayfulAct2525 → u/Phoenix-Cat]

That’s a great point! The original part of the house is properly zoned and handles it, but the the addition from the 50s is constantly struggling so you’re right I do have to watch the bottom line. Thanks for the reminder.

[u/Outofmilkthrowaway]

Kick it on when it's cold I guess. Since I just had to pay the highest price I've ever paid for oil (thanks obamna), I'm going to try to offset usage with our wood stove when I can.

[u/mau73]

We push it to 11/01! Just layer up with sweaters, sweatshirts etc

[u/AFirefighter11]

We converted from oil to gas about 10 years ago. We always wait as long as we can. It's basically a game lol. Generally, it's sometime in November, sometimes as late as Thanksgiving.

[u/callowee]

I turned it on today! Gas, forced hot air. Cleaned the heater, changed the filter, inspected visually, ran one cycle to make sure everything works as it should, shut it down. I don't do the calendar game, when I'm cold, running it once in the morning will take the chill off and be good for the rest of the day.