Household Temperature

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

in the late arvo or early evening

Arvo, huh? I'm assuming that means "afternoon." Never heard that one before. You Aussies, and your funny words!

[monster]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Monster...mainly for energy conservation since we're not home during the hottest part of the day usually, so if we turn it on when we get home in the late arvo or early evening, we only need to run it for a few hours to cool the house, then the evening breeze usually takes care of the rest.

ooh, an evening breeze, nice

[Iggy]

If left up to my own devices I will have it at 80F in the winter and 75-78 in the summer. My SO likes it cold so we usually settly on 75 all year long. 72 is freezing for me. I have lots of blankets though so I am always under one. Our thermostat is broken right now so sometimes it is boiling lava hot inside and sometimes it is super cold... I think I have found a somewhat happy medium but I don't know what temperature that is really... the temperatures I am giving are from before the thermostat broke.

[Aliantha]

glatt...yep, arvo is afternoon. A variation would be to say to your mate, "Are you coming over this arvy?"

[skysidhe]

I just bought 2 house thermometers day before yesterday. The weather has been uncharacteristically cold and we can't keep a consistent temperature in here it seems. We too have been asking ourselves" Is it cold or is it cold?"

My findings. Night time temperature is 60 degrees. I turn up the heat in the morning and it warms to 70 degrees. I would prefer a temp of 72 but the baseboards don't stop until about 75 which starts to feel like summer temperatures and I get too hot.Sometimes it even creeps to 78 degrees then the heat bill gets too hot to handle. The patio door area stays 60 degrees regardless of the warmth at the interior of the room. The huge picture window here as well feels the chill so this is where our drafts are comming from obviously~! Now my need to know has been answered and I can just put on my warm slippers.

Did any of our answers help juju?

[Stormieweather]

72 degrees. Winter and summer. The only time I let that vary is during spring or fall when the weather is naturally mild and we open the doors and windows. I've found that 72 is quite comfortable for a Florida girl...not too cold and not too hot. It is the same temperature they keep my office and the kid's school so we never have to deal with drastic changes from one to another.

Anyone in the family who feels this is too warm is encouraged to wear less (shorts/tank tops) and anyone who feels it is too cold can put layers on.

Stormie

[Cloud]

I can't vote! (pout). I try to be conservative in my heat and a/c use, but am not sure what temp. It gets HOT here in the summer, and I use fans a lot.

I HATE a hot house at night in the winter, so I usually turn it way down--under 60.

[Hoof Hearted]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

...huge picture window here as well feels the chill so this is where our drafts are comming from obviously~!

We have several windows that let in summer light/heat in the morning and afternoon and two other rooms (office and a bedroom) whose windows let in heat and chill. I solved this by sewing insulated curtains. Double duty for the bedroom as it darkens it in the summer for early sleeping.

[bluecuracao]

I dropped the thermostat cover and knocked the spring out of whack, so now the temperature reads 75 degrees and up. But really, I think it's about 65-67. When the kitty crawls under the comforter on the bed, I know it's dropped below...well, it's too damn cold, anyway.

[skysidhe]

I am wondering if can save electricity by buying a space heater??
Maybe it dosn't make sense? Maybe it does?

Opinions please? I am about ready to set out on an experiment to bring my heating costs down.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

I am wondering if can save electricity by buying a space heater??
Maybe it dosn't make sense? Maybe it does?

Opinions please? I am about ready to set out on an experiment to bring my heating costs down.

Assuming you also turned your central heating way down, your space heater might save you money. Another option is to get a humidifier. Humid air feels slightly warmer than dry air. Helps your skin and nasal passages too. But you would again need to turn down the thermostat to see a savings. And you don't want to overdo it to the point that you get condensation on your walls or all over your windows dripping down to the sill.

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

See, that's how it starts. Oh well I guess, it really can't hurt in parenthesis.... writing the parenthesis is such a pain I'll just leave them out..... Oh, that's too confusing.... hell, I'll just leave the Fahrenheit off.

People should be able to work it out from context, although it is helpful to post the units. 70 C is the temperature of the inside of my car on the hottest day of summer after the car has been parked in the sun all day (I still have the partially melted thermometer), so it's not possible for people to keep their houses at that temperature! So Fahrenheit must be the units. Yesterday evening, that same thermometer reported that inside my home, the temperature was a nice 24 degrees after a pleasant summer's day. For 24 degrees to be pleasant, the units must be Celsius.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's the slippery slope that predicates the total destruction of truth justice & the American way.

No, wait that was Bush.... never mind.

I agree, Bush seems to be doing more to Americans than a working knowledge of the metric system ever will.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But I use Fahrenheit. I think in Fahrenheit. I write in Fahrenheit. Why should I stop and find a conversion table to translate Fahrenheit into Centigrade (Celsius) every time I write a temperature?

Don't panic, nobody's asking you to change. If you ever need to convert F to C, just remember the formula: C = 5/9 (F-32), and the reverse is: F = 32 + 9/5 C. But you don't really need to remember that. Temperate twenties, thermal thirties and flaming forties should be good enough. I don't know where the inside car temperature of 70 C fits on that scale, except to say that 60 C will kill bacteria in hot food, some meats are cooked when the inside temperature reaches 70 C, and had I left eggs inside my car that day they would probably have been cooked. (That gives me an idea for a new and unusual recipe for coddled eggs, along the line of The Manifold Destiny.)

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Do I have to post the Kelvin numbers too? And what about all the other units of measurement?.... distance?... weight?... volume?

Just post the units to which you are accustomed. As long as you don't mind my posting in Celsius, kilometres and litres when the occasion arises. The only difficulty I have with US measurements is where the conversions are different to British measures, otherwise I can manage them well enough. I know that a mile has 63,360 inches and that the path from inches to miles is an interesting journey with numbers like 12, 3, 5+1/2, 4, 10 and 8 (multiply those numbers together and you get 63,360).

That is what comes of growing up during the time of Metric conversion. My late father loathed Metric, but I learned Metric in school, so it was natural to become fluent in both systems. He was even suspicious of decimal currency when it was first introduced.

[Ronald Cherrycoke]

If you can`t walk around naked (Or a least in under ware) for brief periods during the winter in your house...then it sucks!

[monster]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

The only difficulty I have with US measurements is where the conversions are different to British measures,

Did you know that Americans call imperial measures "English measures"?

That is what comes of growing up during the time of Metric conversion. My late father loathed Metric, but I learned Metric in school, so it was natural to become fluent in both systems. He was even suspicious of decimal currency when it was first introduced.

I learned both at school too, the result is that I mix and match -they work quite well together: "It's 7 inches 2 cm long" it so much easier to visualise than twenty-something cm or 7 and several 16ths of an inch.

[Ronald Cherrycoke]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

People should be able to work it out from context, although it is helpful to post the units. 70 C is the temperature of the inside of my car on the hottest day of summer after the car has been parked in the sun all day (I still have the partially melted thermometer), so it's not possible for people to keep their houses at that temperature! So Fahrenheit must be the units. Yesterday evening, that same thermometer reported that inside my home, the temperature was a nice 24 degrees after a pleasant summer's day. For 24 degrees to be pleasant, the units must be Celsius.


I agree, Bush seems to be doing more to Americans than a working knowledge of the metric system ever will.


Don't panic, nobody's asking you to change. If you ever need to convert F to C, just remember the formula: C = 5/9 (F-32), and the reverse is: F = 32 + 9/5 C. But you don't really need to remember that. Temperate twenties, thermal thirties and flaming forties should be good enough. I don't know where the inside car temperature of 70 C fits on that scale, except to say that 60 C will kill bacteria in hot food, some meats are cooked when the inside temperature reaches 70 C, and had I left eggs inside my car that day they would probably have been cooked. (That gives me an idea for a new and unusual recipe for coddled eggs, along the line of The Manifold Destiny.)

Just post the units to which you are accustomed. As long as you don't mind my posting in Celsius, kilometres and litres when the occasion arises. The only difficulty I have with US measurements is where the conversions are different to British measures, otherwise I can manage them well enough. I know that a mile has 63,360 inches and that the path from inches to miles is an interesting journey with numbers like 12, 3, 5+1/2, 4, 10 and 8 (multiply those numbers together and you get 63,360).

That is what comes of growing up during the time of Metric conversion. My late father loathed Metric, but I learned Metric in school, so it was natural to become fluent in both systems. He was even suspicious of decimal currency when it was first introduced.

The US measurement system is a confusing matter and still holds itself apart from the metric system employed by most other countries. There are a few exceptions. Medical and scientific fields use the metric system, and many items for trade are now measured in the International System of Units (SI), also called the metric system.

The US measurement system is based on the English system, though England has now long since converted to SI. However, the change to SI was not an easy passage in the mid 19th century. At first some of the British resisted the change to the SI measurement system with great force.

Legally, according to laws passed in 1988, SI became the standard measurement system for trade and commerce in the US. SI is also taught in schools at a relatively young age, but it is difficult to make the conversions.

If one initially learns the metric system, it is far easier. Everything is constructed on a base ten approach, so conversion from centimeters to meters is a simple matter. Conversely, the US measurement system is often problematic. It is not consistent in its measurements so conversion is quite challenging.

For example, twelve inches equal a foot, but eight ounces equal a cup. Sixteen ounces equal a pound, but three feet equal a yard. Children must memorize quite a bit to perform appropriate conversions.

Since children usually first learn to measure by inches, the metric system cannot be properly taught until multiplication skills are mastered. An inch converts to 2.54 centimeters, thus anything above ten inches involves two-digit multiplication. This is a skill not mastered by most students until the later part of third or even fourth grade.

If, conversely, the metric measurement system were adopted immediately, children would probably learn it just as quickly as they learn the US system. However, since real-life examples are often included in teaching, this would be difficult to do. If one buys a TV, he or she buys a 20-inch screen, not a .508-meter screen. If one purchases milk, the choice is a quart, a pint or a gallon, not a measurement in liters.

In general, consumer products still adhere to the US measurement system, as well as American cookbooks, so these figures must be known. Essentially, this means US children must learn two measurement systems, and unless they plan to export items, or become doctors or scientists, they may never fully master SI.

Unless the US government insists on the conversion in products, and teaching in the metric system, it is likely we will retain the US measurement system. However, with increasing globalization it makes sense to consider that much of the world, and especially the scientific world, relies on the metric system. Our ability to learn it makes us have that much more in common with our fellow countries



BLAME IT ON THE ENGLISH!