Ambient Indoor Temperature during this cold winter (Seattle, Sammamish: new house, crawl space)

[dhpeter]

Hi everyone,

I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to see if this normal. My wife and I live in a brand new house (West seattle). It seems quite cold and our little wall heaters are working overtime.

In the morning, we wake up to about 54 degree living room / kitchen without the heater on. The heaters can bring it up to about 67 during the evening.

The floors are cold, our crawl space is insulated. The walls are not cold. The windows/frames are quite cold.

Is this to be expected during this season? I'm from San Diego - I don't know much about cold.

Thanks for the input

[homesinseattle]

What temperature do you tend to keep the heat? Most of my clients seem to be at about 68F. Do you have curtains? They can help hold heat in. It has been colder than normal this year. Perhaps that is it.

[flyingsaucermom]

Sounds about right.

Windows and frames are not ever going to feel warm so don't expect them to. Are they double pane? I would expect for them to be so. We have honeycomb/cellular shades on a few of our windows and I would recommend them if you're concerned. Any south-facing windows should be open during the day (not actually open.. but blinds or curtains drawn up and away) as the sun will help passively heat the home. At night close everything up (curtains and blinds). BTW: You reverse this pattern during the summer if you don't have A/C.

Floors are also cold if you don't have radiant heat floors. Not many people do. I wear socks between Oct-Jun.

Most people seem to keep the heat running continuously. I keep our thermostat set to 60 at night and 65 during the day.

[mkarch]

Very few new homes here are built with electric wall heaters as a primary heat source. It's a cost cutting measure to avoid putting in either a gas furnace or a heat pump. Chances are the builder further cut corners by not sizing them for below normal temperatures, figuring you'll use plug in space heaters during a cold snap.

In this climate you *could* get away with just electric wall heaters if the house is otherwise well insulated and sealed. However in practice you don't see homes being built that way. People opt for a more efficient form of heating if it's important.

So what you're seeing is normal for a house built the way yours was, but it's not the way most new homes here are built.

[franklin42]

We moved from Hawaii and we keep the house at 63 during the day and 57 at night. It's chilly but we like it that way. Can't stand a stuffy house.

[perigee]

New construction and wall heaters, yeah that doesn't speak well of the builder.

I live in an older house, terrible insulation, drafty, but with a newer efficient gas furnace I can keep the house in the mid sixties for around a hundred dollars a month during the winter. You need to invest in thermal curtains, it maybe spendy to out outfit all the windows, but they are great year round, whether at night to stop heat from escaping or in summer to prevent the sun from warming the house.

One thing to look into is a ductless mini split, it can provide heat and AC. They're very popular around the world and am seeing more and more of them stateside, I actually see a lot of them in new construction.

[Jiff]

Dropping 13 degrees overnight does sound like a lot, even with outside temps dropping to 25 lately. Check your attic insulation. Should have at least R30. It might be pretty easy to add rolls of batt insulation up there. Cold window frames, sounds like they're aluminum. Vinyl is better against the cold. As someone wrote, check out a ductless heat pump.

[Hemlock140]

That definitely seems to indicate an insulation or air leakage problem. Our 1978 house is 3,000 sf, in Sammamish at elevation over 500' so colder than West Seattle. With a dual setback thermostat our heat goes off at 10pm, and will not come on until 6am unless it gets below 63 at night. When I get up early it's still been 64-65 with the heat still off. Even last week when we got down to 15-19 a couple of times. We keep it at 69 when we are there and up.

[dhpeter]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I agree this builder definitely cut costs here and elsewhere. Other things you wouldn't notice unless you live in it for a while.

It's still a worthwhile house....it's just a little chilly right now . If we were to be staying here i would add a 5 zone heat pump but i think we are moving back to San Diego late this year.

[cmswazey]

Could be insulation.

We get cold. Just cannot stand it. We put the heat at 63 at night or not home and 74 when up. We're not as bad as my mom, who liked 80 degrees.

When they put in the natural gas venting and stuff (we didn't own it then) they put one vent in the back of the house. And this was before we replaced the cracked single pane windows and got the place insulated. Froze back there! Husband didn't want any more vents under the house, pointing out that it makes it hard to work under there. So after we put in the windows and insulation and new drywall, we put in electric wall heaters as a supplement. Works well.