7 Things Alaskans Never Do to the Bedroom Thermostat at Night

🔗 Every method I use to keep a normal house warm for less, written down in one book: https://genehalvorsen.com/ The thermostat is a switch, not a gas pedal, and most of what people do to it at bedtime makes the house feel colder and the bill bigger. I drove heating oil around North Pole and Fairbanks for thirty-seven winters, and the gray smudge on the wall beside the dial told me more about a house than the furnace ever did. Seven things we don't do to the bedroom thermostat at night, in order, starting with the free ones: what to leave alone, where the dial is lying to you, what two degrees really means, the four-dollar one, and the last one that isn't a setting at all. Nothing here is equipment. Renters: set the dial, leave the rest of the equipment alone, and ask the landlord in writing. I wrote the rest down in A Thousand Cold Houses, 25 methods with a checklist in the back: https://genehalvorsen.com/ In this video: ✓ Never crank the dial up at bedtime to warm the bed ✓ Never drop it way down for the night ✓ Never keep touching it ✓ Never trust the number in the hallway ✓ Never leave a lamp, a TV, a wet coat or a floor register Cheap first. Then expensive, if you still need it. One rule when you seal or change anything: you seal around things, never over them. Dryer vents, bath fans, and flues stay open. Anything that burns fuel needs air and an alarm: air coming in, exhaust going out, and a carbon monoxide alarm on every level of the house and outside the bedrooms. If you're an older adult, the National Institute on Aging says to set your heat to at least 68°F. Chapters: 0:00 The smudge beside the dial 0:53 1. Don't crank it up at bedtime 2:04 2. Don't drop it way down overnight 3:14 3. Don't keep touching it 4:23 4. Don't trust the hallway number 5:02 The honest part 5:37 5. Nothing warm beside it 6:49 6. The batteries 8:02 7. A hole, not a setting 9:17 What it costs and the order to do it Tell me in the comments which one you're doing first, and how old your house is. Twenty-four more methods like this one, each with a price on it and a house where it mattered, are in my book, A Thousand Cold Houses: https://genehalvorsen.com/ Keep the heat where you paid for it. #thermostat #bedroomtemperatureatnight #heatingbill #nightsetback #programmablethermostat #furnace #coldhouse #winterheatingtips #alaskawinter #drafts #ropecaulk #saveonheatingoil #genehalvorsen