Why Is My House Colder Since Temps Are Up?

It just feels colder.The temperature hasn't really changed inside.You say that you haven't touched the thermostat, so I think that you are just a little slower adjusting to the change and it feels cold.

Consider the effects of humidity. A wet cold feels much colder than a dry cold.

I can't speak for your house, but in my apartment I experience the same thing you described. It's because there are hot and cold areas of my house. The thermostat happens to be in a cold zone, so when it's very cold out, my thermostat keeps the heat going. The rooms I use most are towards the back of the apartment and are smaller so they are bit warmer. When it's very cold out, the heat runs a lot and these rooms are probably around 75-80 even though the themostat in the front of the apartment is set at 70. On milder days, the rooms are about 70 like the rest of the house because the heat isn't on nearly as much so the radiator in a small room effect is less.

If you want a tip to feel warmer without messing with the thermostat, avoid caffeine. Caffeine causes constriction of blood vessles in the extremities which results in a general feeling of being cold.

If caffeine is out, how about brandy?

Brandy would have the opposite effect, since alcohol dilates blood vessels, resulting in more blood to extremities and an overall feeling of warmth.

Indeed it is likely that your house is colder. I have pondered this considerably since I have designed thermostat controls for living-spaces. What I believe happens is the result of numerous features of the system. Virtually all thermostats have a hysterisis function that creates a dead-band to prevent excessive equipment cycling. So at 70 degrees the equipment comes on and at 72 it goes off. Also, all but the most advanced systems are constant output and so operate in essentially a duty cycling mode. When it is cold outside, the equipment provides heat more often. The heat is provided at a temperature higher than ambient (how much so depends on the type and other variables and this may cause a variation in the effect). The higher temperature infusion drives convection that tends to equalize the temperature throughout the space. The more frequent the operation the more even the temperature distribution between the thermostat and the outside walls. When the outside temperature is closer to the thermostatic set-point a larger temperature gradient tends to develop between the thermostat and the outside walls in between heating cycles thereby lowering the average temperature as you move away from the thermostat. So depending on where you are, how well the space is insulated, what type of heat you have the effect may be more or less pronounced.

"Could be real" above also works and is an example of what can happen when a system is not ideal due to large imbalances in the thermal characteristics of a living-space or the design of the heating system.

Part of the reasoning is in the construction of your house. If it follows typical construction it will have a concrete foundation of some shape and size, a standard construction wall with a vapor barrier outside and possibily inside and in some cases a brick wall of some size outside the house wall. All this boils back to basic thermodynamics that certian materials store heat/cold and have a differant transfer rate to reach equilibrium temperature. The net result is that as temps increase outside you have the ground that is still retaining colder temps that is transferring to the foundation which in turn passes it on to the house insides. And yes hot air rises and cold air falls however as the cooler air enters the house it displaces the relative warmer air thus causing a cirulation of the air to reach an equalibruim!

Hi, What is the relative humidity in your house? If it is too high then you may have condensation building in your insulation and saturating it with water. If this is happening it will drastically decrease its insulation value. Also it will rot the walls, windows and structure of your house out! As someone else noted here, it also affects how warm/cold it feels. What type of heating do you utilize? Most (older) thermostats (for gas furnaces anyways) have what they call a 'PreHeat' setting under the cover of the thermostat. It does just what it says it does, and allows you to make some adjustment to the amount of time the heat will be on before the thermostat closes the gas valve and thus turns the heat generation off. Good luck with this.

Do you have forced air heating? If so, is the air circulation furnace filter clean? We use a permanent passive electrostatic filter that costs nothing extra to operate, is very effective and is reusable. Many houses, especially older ones, have hot and cold spots in them. Our furnace motor has 4 speeds, and I have it set up to run on low speed all the time. This keeps the temperatures more equalized throughout the house in both winter and summer. Look for an external switch marked 'Manual' & 'Auto', your thermostat may even have this switch on it. The manual mode keeps the fan running all the time. If your (forced air) furnace doesn't have this installed, it is quite likely that it could have one put on it quite readily.

The main reason is that the penetration of heat through the ground is a slow process characterized by lag. Since most houses are not insulated from the ground much, the ground outside which has lost much heat during the unusually cold December is still absorbing heat from the ground directly in contact with your house, especially underneath the house.

Lower humidity does contribute to a feeling of being colder, too. Moisture evaporates from the skin faster then. The cold ground, especially in a basement, on a concrete slab, or in a craw space tend to condense and absorb moisture in the air, lowering the humidity.