Hosting Thanksgiving? Here’s why your house can’t decide if it’s hot or cold

Here’s a fun one for anyone hosting Thanksgiving: a house full of 20 guests gives off more heat than a space heater!!

So, why is Uncle Dave sweating at the table, while the kids upstairs are digging for extra blankets?

Let’s figure it out BEFORE the doorbell starts ringing:

Why does the dining room get so warm?

Every person gives off around 100 watts of body heat, so a crowd of 20 puts out roughly 2,000 watts. A typical space heater runs at 1,500. Add the oven and every burner on the stove going at once, and the main floor warms up fast!

So why is the rest of the house cold?

Your thermostat can only feel the room it’s in. When the party heats up the area around it, the thermostat thinks the whole house is warm and stops calling for heat. That’s great for the dining room…not so great for the upstairs bedrooms or the basement rec room. The front hall gets it too, since every new arrival lets in a blast of late-November Milwaukee air.

What can I do about it?

A few easy fixes for the big day:

• Set the thermostat fan to ON so air keeps moving between the warm rooms and the cold ones. (Then back to AUTO once everyone goes home!!)
• When the dining room gets stuffy, flip on a ceiling fan instead of turning the thermostat down, since turning it down only makes the cold rooms colder.
• Keep the folding tables and extra chairs away from vents and leave the bedroom doors open.

And if your furnace hasn’t had its tune-up yet this year, get one on the calendar before Thanksgiving week fills up.

What if some rooms are always cold?

If the upstairs or the basement stays chilly even on a quiet night with nobody over, that’s not the party. Your furnace might need a repair, or if it’s been struggling for a few winters now, it might be time to talk about a replacement.

What about the guest bathroom?

With 20 extra people in the house, the guest bathroom is going to get a workout. Keep a plunger in every bathroom (your guests are way too polite to ask for one!), and if a toilet or drain still won’t cooperate, our drain cleaning team can clear it out.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Capital! Need your home ready for the crowd? Call us at 262-220-7020!