Do all American homes have a central heating system with a ‘thermostat’ situation or is that just a rich American thing?
Is it expensive to run and does it heat all the rooms in your house or can you like adjust the setting to only heat bedrooms or something. Do you generally leave it on overnight? Is it on all year around? Gas or electric? How much does it cost a month to run?
Sincerely, a confused cold New Zealander whose bedroom gets down to 50 degrees in winter.
Edit: for context, central heating is very rare in NZ. Here it doesn’t get nearly as cold as some states in America, in the Deep South it can get to freezing overnight and only increase by a few degrees during the day. Homes are not insulated or glazed.
38 comments
Some have the central heat. My bill can be between 100 and 200 a month.
Yes it stays on overnight. Depending where they live. We got most climates here.
Some use space heaters. Some radiators.
Most do use electric or gas. Very few fireplace heated.
We are all over the spectrum
We have furnaces that heat our entire house. A few of my neighbors still use wood burning stoves though. You leave it on when you need it. Mine is off rn because summer. It costs too much each month.
It varies.
My home does not have central heat and basically has electric space heaters installed into the walls in each room with their own temperature control.
I have a central heating system. I don’t need to use the heat function tho bc I live in south Florida & that would suicide. When I lived in central Florida (where the temp could drop to 30 which is cold TO ME), we’d just turn the heat on to around 75/77 which is nice & during the night, we turned it off and bundled up in blankets & slept in socks
Many homes have central heat, more so than have central a/c. Those that don’t are insulated with the bones of the homeless.
Every place I’ve lived has had central heat, but it never gets used
We use electric heat and close off vents to certain rooms to save money.
We also use a wood burning fireplace to keep downstairs warm and give the electric heat a break sometimes.
I think central heat is the norm.
But, depending on type of housing and location, other means would *not be seen as unusual or unexpected.
EDIT: missed the “not”
My house has central heat and cooling however i rarely use the heat… It doesn’t get cold enough for that to happen. I wouldn’t say its a “rich” person thing, but it’s definitely a luxury depending where you live.
Most have central heat and air. My house has an all electric heat pump for heat and air. 1600 sq ft $120 month
Most Americans have a central heating. All rooms are heated although often some are warmer than others. Cost depends where you live.
I would say most homes have a central heating system. There are typically air vents throughout the house. If you want a room to be less hot, you can close the vent(s) in that room. But no, you can’t selectively choose which rooms the heat goes to. Most people only use the heat when it’s cold out, so winter and sometimes mid to late autumn depending on where you live. Typically the heat would stay on overnight too. Some heating systems use gas and some use electric. How much it costs depends on where you live, what company supplies the gas or electric, what you set the temp at, how often you use it, and how big your house is.
I’ve personally never needed a heater much.
I grew up in a hot climate, so not much need for heating when I was growing up. When I moved to a much colder state? The snow itself acts as a bit of a buffer. Snowfall can absorb a truly crazy amount of odd temperatures, in both directions.
The “catch”, so to speak, is a relatively new phenomea that are sometimes called “polar vortices”. Sometimes speculated as an odd consequence of global warming, it’s essentially arctic air that rolls down in a huge sub-zero blast.
There’s really nothing to do about those. You just suffer through them for a few days.
Generally with central heating. My house growing up had that and a traditional wood furnace in the family room
I live in a part of the country with cold winters, not having central heat would be very strange here. My house has several heating zones which allow us to set different thermostats in different parts of the house to different temperatures. My house also has thermostats with timers so we turn the temp down during the day while no one is home and down a little overnight.
Essentially every house has central heating.
The type of heat varies, but central heating started being installed in American homes as a standard feature over 120 years ago
Obviously not “all” Americans have anything. It depends where you live and what type of domicile
Pretty much a thermostat that controls one of several types of heating source.
Natural gas which I believe is now the most common. Heating oil. Or electric.
Some supplement their heat with a wood burning stove. Some that live a more traditional lifestyle use a wood burner for all their heat.
Most older homes around me use steam radiators, which is most known for in NYC apartments, given I live 10 miles from there
almost every home has heat. in Wisconsin especially. it’s a legal requirement here for landlords to make sure properties have functioning heat. our heater actually broke this winter, and our landlord rushed over several space heaters and sent maintenance right away. it gets so cold here sometimes that it could kill you.
bill in the winter is about $200, but we turn it off in warmer months.
So I studied abroad in New Zealand in Dunedin which has a similar climate to my home in Seattle. I froze my ass off there. One thing I noticed is that your homes have very limited insulation, which makes heating way more expensive.
Central heating is very common in Ohio. There are some houses that use baseboard heating but that’s usually houses that don’t have ductwork.
Central heating here.
We keep our house substantially cooler in the winter. Usually 65° or 66° (as opposed to 72° or so in the summer). No reason not to. We’re already wearing cold weather clothes. And sleeping in that temperature is a delight.
I have central heat and A/C. It runs year round.
My house has [electric baseboard heat](https://www.lowes.com/pl/Electric-baseboard-heaters-Electric-heaters-Portable-space-heaters-Heating-cooling/4294765322) that was put in probably in the 70’s or 80’s. Before they it had oil heat. Electric baseboard is inefficient and expensive. I would love a heat pump. I had to turn on those oil filled space heaters a few times over the winter.
Most homes have a thermostat, the heat itself might be a number of different things. Forced air through vents heated by electric or fossil fuels, hot water radiators from a gas or oil boiler, baseboard radiators run by electric, those AC things for single rooms, etc. Some people have wood or wood pellet stoves but that’s generally seen as a little rustic.
The thermostat takes the temperature of the room it’s in and turns on the heat when it gets below whatever it’s set to. Some people have multiple but I’ve only lived in places with one, usually in a living room or other common area.
It mostly depends on the age of your house.
In the upper South/Southern Appalachia we have central electric HVAC at my house with a propane gas fireplace as back up. The fireplace is for Auxiliary heating on extremely cold nights, back up for power outages, and ambiance.
Our power bill is in a 120-150 USD range throughout the year.
Central heating is pretty much standard in the more northern states. The most common fuel types in my area are oil, natural gas, and wood burners.
Here in Montana all of us either have central heating or a boiler system, both operated by a thermostat on the wall. In newer homes you can control by the rooms. Runs on gas. We keep ours on as early as September and as late as the end of June. I have a 1300 ft² home and my gas and electric are combined on one bill. In the winter the most I pay is about $165 a month. In the summer, about $70. Almost no one in Montana has central air conditioning except for rich people, but it’s really not needed as our summer is so short. We do have a window AC unit that we use a few hours during the day.
I have electric baseboard heaters in my place, controlled by a series of thermostats – 1 thermostats thermostat per room, controlling anywhere from 1 heater (each bedroom and bathroom, basement) to 4 (living room & entry hallway). The monthly cost varies depending on the month, as I can see anywhere from 60°F down to -30°F during the cold months, but tends to be pretty stable compared to some other methods. My highest electric bill for this place was $150 this past January, vs around $75/month when the heat is off.
I have a thermostat for a gas heater and a thermostat for an air conditioner
With a wood stove and propane fired baseboard radiators.
My parents have natural gas fired central air.
My sister has natural gas fired radiators.
My brother has natural gas fired central air.
Dunno about my other sister, never asked.
Our neighbors have geothermal and propane and a wood stove.
Our other neighbors do propane and a wood stove.
We used to have electric baseboards and a natural gas oven that doubled as a heater on the side.
Suffice to say it’s an eclectic mix.
My heat costs $50-150 depending on how much we use the baseboard radiators. We buy two cords of kiln dried wood for the winter and that costs maybe $350 for the whole winter. I also have about three cords of wood I cut and split myself but it’s seasoning right now and will probably be dry enough for next winter.
I grew up in a home that didn’t have central heat and air.
In the winter, we had 2 kerosene heaters that we would place in the hallways while we slept with heavy blankets. During the day, we would move the kerosene heaters to whatever room we were in.
In the summer, we had a window ac unit and put in one room and close the door so that room would be super cold.
Let me say, this sucked really bad.
As an adult I have always had central heat and air and pay less than $200/month. Sometimes as low as $100/month.
Central heat is the norm. Even in warm climates there can be cold snaps, and if pipes freeze it’s game over
Having insulation and some form of heating is a “necessary for survival” thing.
My apartment is heated with propane baseboard heaters, and the cost of heat is included in rent.
The house I grew up in had cast iron radiators similar to [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a1/9e/41/a19e4192e9c4b9526a1fc7e43a6288e4.jpg).
Central Texas
All houses built after 1950s have central heating and cooling.
Some are electric, some gas.
Electric bill for a house is usually 100-250/month. Summer is more expensive than winter.
Depends greatly on where you live. In Hawai’i, no. Generally if you live in an area with a cold climate you’ll have central heating. My house is on a split system with heat pumps, and I have an outdoor wood boiler too. I only use the heat pu.os for heat in the late fall/ early winter as things are cooling down. Once it gets cold enough, I fire up the wood boiler and have unlimited free heat and hot water all winter. Most Americans don’t use wood boilers though.