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For reference, how low have you gone, bloke?

bloke wrote: The utility company charged me over $400 for gas, and we had extraordinarily mild temperatures last month.

Sometimes what they are doing is charging you an average based on all the users in your area or your previous usage for that month last year and not what you actually used now. Or they only read the meter once every few months. This hit me hard when I lived in Rochester NY. No matter how much I turned down the thermostat, I was having $600 heating bills. After three months I made them come out and read the meter, and lo and behold, the charges should have been about half that.

Don't know if that is your situation, but a phone call to the kindly gas people may be in order.

bloke wrote:If you live in Europe, what is your customary indoor wintertime temperature?

I would say that typical indoor temperature in Iceland is around 18-20°C in schools, shops and such, 21-23°C in people's homes and 27°C or above at my grandmother's. This is about the same in winter and summer, since outdoor temperatures here rarely go above 25°C or below -10°C.

Wow, that's cold. I can't do less than 72. The gas bill was about $525 last month, and promises to go up this month. But I just can't live that cold...

Around here (say Holland & Belgium and the parts of France & Germany I've been to) the normal setting is 20 C when you're at home, 15 C at night or when you're out for houses with central heating (80% of households).
The house we live in now has large single pane windows, no insulation and only 1 gas heater for the entire building which we keep on setting 4 when we're at home and 2 when we're not. Keeps the living area temps just agreeable.
2 Electric heaters ($$$$$) keep the temp of son's room and our study from being in the single digits. We're hopefully moving to a house with central heating and insulation this summer, so we'll be able to cut the cost of heating enormously.

Of course drafts and the type of heat produced by your heater can greatly influence the percieved temperature, and change the heaters' settings one or two degrees up or down (Which can account for a significant change in fuel consumption)

finnbogi wrote: I would say that typical indoor temperature in Iceland is around 18-20°C in schools, shops and such, 21-23°C in people's homes and 27°C or above at my grandmother's. This is about the same in winter and summer, since outdoor temperatures here rarely go above 25°C or below -10°C.

During my visits to Iceland and Norway I was always surprised at how hot your houses, schools and shops are.
One time when I was in Norway in the winter it was -25 outside and +25 inside... Cold enough to freeze your toes of and hot enough to strip down to a T-shirt and still break out in a sweat.

Yeah it's amazing how fast that old temperatures you thought were cold (68 degrees) become warm. I keep the house at 60 and 68 feels way to warm now.

Here's a good one for you. In November I bought a new commercial condo building for my antique cars (1930 - 1935) and sports cars (1950's). The space is designed for businesses like auto repair/heating air conditoner/tool and die etc. It has 22 foot ceilings and an 18 foot garage door. The door is insulated as is the building. I've installed ceiling fans and use the space for both storage and restoring cars (my hobby not business). The temp is set at
55 and the doors are rarely opened.

I just got my first bill for December -- $8000.00 :-O for 2000 square feet! I expected a couple hundred at most. The builder assures me it must be a faulty meter.

(OK, I know we're not in Europe) We have 3 zones in the house, one for the downstairs, one for the upstairs, and one for the finished third floor. The 3rd floor thermostat stays on 62 all winter. The second floor (with the bedrooms and 'tuba' room) is at 72 when getting ready for work in the morning or bed at night, and 67 the rest of the time. Downstairs is set at 70 during the day and 66 at night. My highest gas bill for heating was $400, with more typical, even this year, being between $250 - $350, for a 3800 sq ft house.

We keep the thermostats on 76 to 78 during air conditioning season.

Indoor temps in Sweden? About -5C:

http://icehotel.com/

bloke wrote:

bort wrote:Wow, that's cold. I can't do less than 72. The gas bill was about $525 last month, and promises to go up this month. But I just can't live that cold...

Unless you have health problems, I would bet that you could indeed "live that cold". ...

Shoes and two shirt layers are needed. ...

Clearly, I could live with it colder...I choose not to. I don't like wearing bulky clothes and when I'm around the house, I like wearing shorts and no shoes. So, I guess it's a matter of not being able to dress this way and set the thermostat lower at the same time. I'm sure this probably sounds stupid, and really, I guess it is. Just what I'm used to though, and if I have to pay a little more for it, I'm okay with that for now.

Here in the US, the folks who heat with oil and gas have really been hammered with price hikes. (I don't know what the prices on coal have been doing).

A lot of heating with electricity is done in the Pacific Northwest (lots of hydro projects). Electricity hasn't had the huge jumps like the fossil fuels, but has had a slow, steady increase in prices.

When the wood stove needs help, we'll turn on the heat pump (basically an air conditioner run in reverse). It's a lot more efficient than ordinary electrical resistance heating. The benefit is that in the summertime, it functions as central air conditioning.

Had a joyus cooling and heating experience this year thanks to the missus fighting breast cancer and all the drugs that went with it.
Once the hot flashes kicked in (WHOOOOOOOOOAA Nellie!) she couldn't have the house cold enough! I thought I was gonna just shut down the fridge and freezer and hang meat in the living room. Then in the middle of it all she got a blood clot from surgery and was put on blood thinners from July till November. She kept promising me how I could keep the heat down this winter and make up the increased cooling costs.
Well 5 months of thinning out her blood have caused the shivers to kick in. I'm holding the heat at 70, but just barely. I and the Kids are always being asked to check for drafts and open windows. Heat in Dec was over $250...Thank God for global warming.
The sad thing is the next series of drugs they want to start her on in May cause......HOT FLASHES! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!

oh, she is recovering nicely and her hair is now nearly as long as my USMC regulation style.

I keep my house at 63 at night and 65 when we're awake. I still got a $439 gas and electric bill for January!

corbasse wrote:

finnbogi wrote: I would say that typical indoor temperature in Iceland is around 18-20°C in schools, shops and such, 21-23°C in people's homes and 27°C or above at my grandmother's. This is about the same in winter and summer, since outdoor temperatures here rarely go above 25°C or below -10°C.

During my visits to Iceland and Norway I was always surprised at how hot your houses, schools and shops are.
One time when I was in Norway in the winter it was -25 outside and +25 inside... Cold enough to freeze your toes of and hot enough to strip down to a T-shirt and still break out in a sweat.

Yes, the indoor temperature has a tendency to rise when the outdoor temperature drops. I'm not sure how the Norwegians heat up their houses (I would guess electricity) but ca. 90% of Icelandic houses are heated up by geothermal water. Most of the remainder uses electricity and only a few hundred houses use oil or coal - mainly very remote lighthouses and summer cottages. Nearly all houses have double glass window panes and insulation in both walls and roof.

The good thing is that heating by water is quite cheap, I don't think my combined water and electricity bills have ever gone above $100 for one month.

finnbogi wrote: Yes, the indoor temperature has a tendency to rise when the outdoor temperature drops. I'm not sure how the Norwegians heat up their houses (I would guess electricity) but ca. 90% of Icelandic houses are heated up by geothermal water. Most of the remainder uses electricity and only a few hundred houses use oil or coal - mainly very remote lighthouses and summer cottages. Nearly all houses have double glass window panes and insulation in both walls and roof.

The good thing is that heating by water is quite cheap, I don't think my combined water and electricity bills have ever gone above $100 for one month.

We're allways told here that although we're in a much warmer part of Europe than Sweden and Norway, we actually spend a lot more on heating because of the cr+& way our houses are built.
Most people here build their own house, unlike in Holland (where I'm from originally) where almost all houses are buit in whole blocks by a single contractor, mostly one appointed by the local government.
Belgians are seemingly only concerned that their new house is bigger and more splendid (or kitsch in 90% of cases) than their neighbours' and will save on every other aspect of the building to achieve this, and putting stuff into their walls and roof which nobody can see is considered a waste of money.
Only last month some rules came into effect here to guarantee new houses have at least a minimum standard of insulation. The 1950's house we're renting now is of a pretty standard type, and we're throwing heat through the roof and windows by the bucket...