To be fair, you could wear winter gear 24/7. I lived like that for a bit. The real reasons we need heating are structural decay and pets. Pipes burst below 55 and pets don’t do well below 65.
There are real reasons to heat your house besides just wanting to be warm.
“Pipes burst below 55°” hahahahhah what now? “Pets don’t do well below 65°” what the crap is this nonsense. Pipes will burst after they freeze with water in them at a temp at or below 32°, the majority of breeds of dogs and cats will be just fine until it is freezing out, some dog breeds are okay below freezing.
Not everyone has a husky or Maine Coone for a pet. You wanna see what happens to a tropical bird at 45F? It will literally stop eating and starve to death.
And the pipes aren’t getting 55 degrees of heat. They’re getting whatever bleeds into their space and whatever the water is doing.
Even plenty of dogs do not do well in low temperatures. I have a half-chihuahua/half-dachshund. He doesn’t have a very thick coat and he hates wearing sweaters so much that he will literally lie there and refuse to move until we take it off. We’ve tried multiple times. We’ve waited like half an hour and he won’t move, he’ll just lay there and whine until we take it off.
I can’t force a dog to tolerate clothing and it’s not like I knew he would refuse to wear a sweater when I adopted him considering it was in the summer.
Pipes are often in crawl-spaces or other outer extremities of structures indirectly heated by the warmth coming from the living spaces of the structure, so 55F is a good rule of thumb in some climates.
The pipes bursting below 55° rule of thumb is because cold water is at ground temperature (aka very cold in the winter) and the pipes tend to be at the edges of living spaces so will be much cooler than the living space. Additionally, it doesn’t need to fully freeze to burst, just enough to create a blockage temporarily.
Basically, you never know what bizarre choices were made in the utility layout of the home someone lives in so giving a rule of thumb that has a comfortable safety margin is the safest bet
Wait till you hear about infants. They are so tiny a human, they can’t deal with the low temps anywhere near as well as an adult, one of the kids that died in the TX freeze was 7. I’m sorry his family didn’t know about body heat and keeping children in the middle of adults to keep warm. I seriously feel grief over this specific loss of life. I just lived in very cold climates that you forget people who never had to learn how to live in extreme cold just don’t know about the basics. Don’t get too close to the fire, don’t sleep alone.
To be fair, you could wear winter gear 24/7. I lived like that for a bit. The real reasons we need heating are structural decay and pets. Pipes burst below 55 and pets don’t do well below 65.
There are real reasons to heat your house besides just wanting to be warm.
“Pipes burst below 55°” hahahahhah what now? “Pets don’t do well below 65°” what the crap is this nonsense. Pipes will burst after they freeze with water in them at a temp at or below 32°, the majority of breeds of dogs and cats will be just fine until it is freezing out, some dog breeds are okay below freezing.
Not everyone has a husky or Maine Coone for a pet. You wanna see what happens to a tropical bird at 45F? It will literally stop eating and starve to death.
And the pipes aren’t getting 55 degrees of heat. They’re getting whatever bleeds into their space and whatever the water is doing.
This is basic adulting shit.
Even plenty of dogs do not do well in low temperatures. I have a half-chihuahua/half-dachshund. He doesn’t have a very thick coat and he hates wearing sweaters so much that he will literally lie there and refuse to move until we take it off. We’ve tried multiple times. We’ve waited like half an hour and he won’t move, he’ll just lay there and whine until we take it off.
I can’t force a dog to tolerate clothing and it’s not like I knew he would refuse to wear a sweater when I adopted him considering it was in the summer.
Pipes are often in crawl-spaces or other outer extremities of structures indirectly heated by the warmth coming from the living spaces of the structure, so 55F is a good rule of thumb in some climates.
The pipes bursting below 55° rule of thumb is because cold water is at ground temperature (aka very cold in the winter) and the pipes tend to be at the edges of living spaces so will be much cooler than the living space. Additionally, it doesn’t need to fully freeze to burst, just enough to create a blockage temporarily.
Basically, you never know what bizarre choices were made in the utility layout of the home someone lives in so giving a rule of thumb that has a comfortable safety margin is the safest bet
Wait till you hear about infants. They are so tiny a human, they can’t deal with the low temps anywhere near as well as an adult, one of the kids that died in the TX freeze was 7. I’m sorry his family didn’t know about body heat and keeping children in the middle of adults to keep warm. I seriously feel grief over this specific loss of life. I just lived in very cold climates that you forget people who never had to learn how to live in extreme cold just don’t know about the basics. Don’t get too close to the fire, don’t sleep alone.