Are all houses just cold?

[Anonymous]

We all wear Ugg slippers all day. And a sweater. I am a cold person but I rarely feel cold. We keep it at 68.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this issue despite having the latest heat pumps, etc, so when we built our house in 2020, we opted for all natural gas heating and a steam humidifier. made a huge difference. heat pumps always feel slightly chilly unless you put on the heat strips which is expensive and defeats the whole purpose of a heat pump.

Houses get dry in the winter because outside air leaks in. A house built in 2020 to then-current standards of tightness should be tight enough that it doesn't need a humidifier in winter. In the Washington, DC, climate a heat pump has no problem keeping a modern house comfortable all winter.

The problem is that most homebuyers don't know enough to care about things like insulation and air sealing, and even if they did it's very hard to tell by looking at a finished house how good a job the builder did. Builders know that most buyers won't care, so they skimp. It's rare to find an inspector who will hold a builder to current energy standards.

So we end up with uncomfortable houses.

[Anonymous]

Overhead fan in the open area? You can usually set a fan to run counterclockwise (or clockwise, I forget) to push the warm air down during the cold months. In warm months, the fan should rotate in opposite direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Houses are like snowflakes, every one is unique.

That said, a house built today, following modern codes and using modern techniques, is going to be much more comfortable in the winter. Modern codes call for houses to be pretty air-tight, and that air tightness should be tested during construction using a blower door. Good modern windows don't leak cold air and aren't cold to sit next to when it's cold out. The same with doors.

A well-engineered heating system will distribute the heat evenly throughout the house.

The temperature in a house will be determined by how much heat is dumped into it. How comfortable the house is depends on how evenly that heat is distributed.

Unfortunately, if a house wasn't built to be comfortable it's a pretty big job to upgrade it.

Airtight also means more humidity trapped, which affects wet bulb readings and how a place feels (usually colder in winter and hotter in summer) so a humidity regulator is necessary in modern pods that don't breathe well.

Mold is also big issue in modern houses.

This. I've done the Passive House program and after weeks of ingesting their material, I'm convinced there is a lot of problems with their philosophy.
Basically, they want you to live in a ziploc bag with specific controlled holes for fresh air.
I'm an architect and have worked on traditional homes and extremely modernist commercial buildings. The building wrap for airtightness is a problem. If it's on the wrong side of insulation, the condensation will drip on the wrong side and you have a disaster slowly brewing (think about how a glass of ice water sweats in humid weather). It's also a problem in wrapping, i.e. imagine gift wrapping a modern building with extreme angles. The wrap can't by nature be clean, you'll need lots of glues and adhesives to deal with the funky corners, angles and window openings. Glues and adhesives almost always eventually fail.
And then there are all the silicone and acrylic sprays on modernist flat rooves. The roofers are under strictures about how and where they spray because it's airborne and can land on cars. Guess where else it can go - the local inhabitants breathe it in. Once a upon a time most rooves were sloped to shed water. Now we can entertain a flat roof and assume water will never pool and always move towards the gently sloped drain.
So all these modern plastics - they are a wonder and a pose problems. A layperson friend asked me why buildings are only guaranteed for about 20 years these days. I think this is why.

The IRC now requires that houses be sealed to 3 ACH50 or less. If you don't believe in air sealing, do you design houses that aren't code-compliant?

Well, I never said I don't air seal. I find it problematic because so much can go wrong. One major firm looked at my drawings from another major firm where we had a big deal envelope consultant and said it's going to fail because the materials weren't right (steel stud = cold metal sweat).
And then recently a separate envelope consultant recommended a standing seam roof right on top of the membrane and plywood sheathing and I had to ask - isn't there supposed to be an air cavity below the seam roof for condensation and heat buildup to escape? A week later they came back and said, yes, add a 1" cavity.
I wondered why we were paying this consultant fee when I, with just a few months of PH training, noticed that blatant error.

So we have these clowns who are called envelope consultants on big expensive projects. And the builders won't guarantee anything beyond 20 years because that's probably how long it takes for the damage to reveal itself. It feels like the blind leading the blind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thermostat says 72. It’s on the main level. I bundle up and just bought a long ugly fleece robe with a hood. Windows and doors are new. Decent insulation in the attic/crawl space. House was built in the late 80s.

Main level is somewhat open, and the kitchen area has sliding glass doors (3 panels) with a second story of 3 panel windows directly above it. That’s by far the coldest area. Not sure if there’s anything we can do the keep the glass from being so cold.

Bedrooms do have space heaters for when it’s really cold but I try not to sleep with them on.

72 is cold? are you in DMV? my house at the moment is 66, heat is off. i will set for 63 when we go to bed. it's not cold. we are in moco

Omg. I’d be miserable if I had to live in your house. We set ours at 75-76! NP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thermostat says 72. It’s on the main level. I bundle up and just bought a long ugly fleece robe with a hood. Windows and doors are new. Decent insulation in the attic/crawl space. House was built in the late 80s.

Main level is somewhat open, and the kitchen area has sliding glass doors (3 panels) with a second story of 3 panel windows directly above it. That’s by far the coldest area. Not sure if there’s anything we can do the keep the glass from being so cold.

This sounds like your problem. I grew up in a house with two-story rooms. All the heat goes up into that second story. No way to make it warmer. When I bought, I ensured that we didn’t have any two-story rooms.

Bedrooms do have space heaters for when it’s really cold but I try not to sleep with them on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This sounds like your problem. I grew up in a house with two-story rooms. All the heat goes up into that second story. No way to make it warmer. When I bought, I ensured that we didn’t have any two-story rooms.

There are, of course, ways to make it warmer. Simply pumping more heat into the room will make it warmer.

Stratification -- big temperature differences between the top and bottom of a room -- is usually caused by the exterior walls being leaky and allowing cold air to infiltrate. The cold air sinks and pushes the warm air up. Improving the air sealing will reduce stratification. How practical that is depends on how the house is constructed.

[Anonymous]

Are all houses cold? Absolutely not.

If a house isn't comfortable, is it feasible to make it comfortable? Well, that's the real question. In some cases it's a simple fix, in others it means redoing big portions of the house.

[Anonymous]

My 90s house is always cold. I blame the walls and windows. They’re garbage. Just really cheaply made and built.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not wearing silk long underwear and a cute beanie hat? Is your house well insulated?

People think it's the windows, but check your attic insulation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thermostat says 72. It’s on the main level. I bundle up and just bought a long ugly fleece robe with a hood. Windows and doors are new. Decent insulation in the attic/crawl space. House was built in the late 80s.

Main level is somewhat open, and the kitchen area has sliding glass doors (3 panels) with a second story of 3 panel windows directly above it. That’s by far the coldest area. Not sure if there’s anything we can do the keep the glass from being so cold.

Bedrooms do have space heaters for when it’s really cold but I try not to sleep with them on.

I grew up in a house like that. It will never be warm because the heat rises and then goes out the window. You can hang insulated blinds over the upper windows which will help some, but it will never be warm. When I bought, I refused to look at anything with too many high ceilings or open concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like my house to be warm in the winter. I always thought my dad was just being frugal when he told me the heat wouldn’t go up more and just get another blanket.

Now I’m a grown up with a grown up house and swore I would keep it was warm as I want. Since moving in we have upgraded the HVAC and gotten new windows. And I’m still cold. What am I doing wrong?

Have you had your health checked? Maybe you have low thyroid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like my house to be warm in the winter. I always thought my dad was just being frugal when he told me the heat wouldn’t go up more and just get another blanket.

Now I’m a grown up with a grown up house and swore I would keep it was warm as I want. Since moving in we have upgraded the HVAC and gotten new windows. And I’m still cold. What am I doing wrong?

Gain some weight.
Natural insulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like my house to be warm in the winter. I always thought my dad was just being frugal when he told me the heat wouldn’t go up more and just get another blanket.

Now I’m a grown up with a grown up house and swore I would keep it was warm as I want. Since moving in we have upgraded the HVAC and gotten new windows. And I’m still cold. What am I doing wrong?

Gain some weight.
Natural insulation.

There’s some truth to this. DH lost a lot of weight is now cold all the time. I’m officially in menopause now and I’m hot all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like my house to be warm in the winter. I always thought my dad was just being frugal when he told me the heat wouldn’t go up more and just get another blanket.

Now I’m a grown up with a grown up house and swore I would keep it was warm as I want. Since moving in we have upgraded the HVAC and gotten new windows. And I’m still cold. What am I doing wrong?

Gain some weight.
Natural insulation.

+1. Get off the GLPs.