I'm seeing someone who does not have the heat on at ALL in his house. He works 6 days out of the week and is never there so I can see why he does it, but I turn into a popsicle whenever I get there. He turned on the fireplace for me last night but that was only minimal comfort. At least bed the bed was warm, but it makes it REAL hard to get out of when you know it's cold outside of the toasty covers.

Don't space heaters and wood stoves count as "having heat"?

I live mostly without heat now, but I live in LA so that's cheating. At my New England college, though, I lived in dorm with varying amounts of heat, so I can identify with wearing two sweaters, long johns and fingerless gloves inside.

I keep my heater set to 55 or 60 on most days. It's easy enough to do when the daytime temps hover around that. If I get cold at home, I throw on my terry cloth robe, which seems to insulate heat far better than a blanket.

I couldn't imagine living without heat where the daytime temps hover below freezing. I live in the South, so I'm throwing on sweaters when it dips below 70 degrees. And also panicking about my pipes...

Yes, space heaters and woods stoves count. My fiancé heats his house with a wood furnace in the basement and a wood stove on the first floor.

I keep the thermostat set at 55 in the winter unless I have guests. I could live colder than that, but I definitely don't want to!

We currently heat with a wood furnace and a gas furnace as a back-up. I couldn't live without heat. I have Raynaud's disease and live in the Midwest, so fingerless gloves just wouldn't cut it for keeping my hands warm. My husband might be able too, though. He's much more muscular than I and runs a higher body temp. (mine hovers around 96.8 or lower usually).

My first thought was "won't their pipes freeze?" but the article mentions electric pipe heaters.

Is there nothing else that would break from the cold?

I'm all for throwing on an extra sweater and keeping the thermostat down, but I know from experience that some electronics don't work outside in the winter and musical instruments don't take too well to outside concerts in the snow.

Could not do it. Ever.

I wish I could. I live in an un-insulated building in the middle of Alberta (where it gets extremely cold in the winter) so I have to be careful of the pipes such. But, I do try to keep my apartment fairly cool and prefer to wake up to a chilly apartment.

We keep our heat set at 46, and our apartment temp hovers around 54-56. We live in new England, so it's definitely cold here. My fiance and I didn't have much choice when we moved, and after a while we got so used to it. Our bedroom is above the hot water heater and boiler in the apartment building, so that room is nice and warm. And we wear sweaters and curl up with a blanket to watch TV. We do turn on the heat sometimes to warm up the apt, usually for about an hour or so, but never above 60. Now when we visit my mother (who keeps her heat high) we are dying, and have to sleep with a bedroom window wide open. My grandmother always told me you sleep better with a cool room and a warm bed, and I believe it.

I live in the Bay Area and I've been looking to move to Half Moon Bay, waterfront. I am amazed at the number of house rentals that do not have ANY heat, and it only gets as low as the mid to upper 30s there. I can't imagine being in New York with no heat. That's insane! Why people??

We did it up until December when we moved. Rice bags and lots of blankets quickly became our best friends!!

I live in canada, and it isn't unheard of for it to get all the way down to -50 Celsius where I'm living(I think it's -58 in Fahrenheit) Although usually in the winter it's about -20 to -10(-4 to 14 Fahrenheit) so I don't think I could do it and stay alive really.

I've done it twice in Ohio winters, and I can't say I recommend it. Getting chilled to the bone outside, and coming into a house that's 40-45 at best, and waiting for a space heater to warm the room up, is a nightmare. Trying to cook real meals with cold hands? Getting a glass of water at night? GETTING OUT OF THE SHOWER? It's an unfriendly lifestyle. Haha.

And honestly, if you don't blast your furnace 24/7, and you weather-seal your windows and stuff, your wallet and the environment will be happy.

I live at the beach in Southern California, and there are times I use my (radiant) heat. I can't even fathom living someplace cold and not using heat of some sort. Not good for one's health, not to mention comfort.

If you really mean no central heat then, yes, I've done that. We lived in a 300 year old house in Dublin for a while with one wall heater upstairs and one down. Our flat was small but even then it was always COLD. No insulation and crumbly brick between us and the outside. My favorite thing to combat it was a heated mattress pad on my sons bed, I used to love to cuddle up for a story in his toasty warm bed! I will admit though that now I love having heat and keep my house warmer than I should probably.

Um... its like -3 outside right now. Yes, I need heat. I keep it at 60 and have a heated matress pad.

I've lived almost all my life in Europe (moved to Canada six months ago tho go to grad school) and never had central heating there. Granted, the temperatures rarely went below 5 Celsius, but it still sucks coming home and it being only 3 or 4 degrees warmer than outside. But it's manageable, if you're not below freezing temperatures for too long ;)

I've had lots of apartments with no central heat, just baseboard electric heaters. We insulated the windows and it was plenty warm, even in deep Midwestern winters.

I live without heat in my NYC apt. The prior tenant had taken out the radiator to save space and I didn't have it put back in. But I live over the boiler; between that and the pipes carrying heat to the other apts it gets warm enough. There are some nights that are cold and getting out of the shower is annoying enough to remind me to go to the gym in the morning.

I've lived without any heat at all before. We had a woodstove, but there were many winters where wood was scarce, and therefore too expensive. It was miserable, and no one could convince me to go completely without heat again.

However, I do love woodstoves. I would love to have one if I lived in a small house, that would easily stay warm with one.

Right now, we have baseboard heaters, andwe keep our heat on 55-60 degrees which is the lowest our thermostat goes (we rent and have no control over it.) Our place is a bit drafty so we wear wool socks and like to snuggle with blankets. We do turn it up for four hours ever night, to 65, because once the sun sets it gets extremely cold here in New England, but turn it back down when we sleep. If we find ways to insulate the apartment better, we may be able to keep it cool all the time.

As a lifestyle choice, no, I wouldn't do it. We spent about 3 weeks to a month in the dead of winter last winter with a broken, and then removed for repair, HVAC. It was COOOOLD, especially with kids. The maintenance company seems to have a habit of at least a week of no heat in the whole building about 3 weeks after they switch over to heat for the season. We also spend some time in an unheated seasonal place well into October when night temps are pretty chilly.

I made a habit of cooking hearty, stove/oven requiring breakfasts (egg casseroles, oatmeal, etc.); we spent a good chunk of the day out; we all 4 slept in the small bedroom, which was pretty toasty actually with all the body heat. We got dressed in the bathroom after taking a hot shower/bath. Some of these we still do, like cooked breakfasts, which lets us turn down the heat at night.

I think this is more possible in New York, in apartments in the middle of a row of apartments (less exterior walls).

We don't have central heating. Mainly because we're students so we don't have money for it. We also have an apartment on the top floor so not much heat from the neighbors. We get through with lots of blankets and sweaters, and gloves for typing.

No, but it's set pretty low as the heat is on as well as the blanket and the sweaters and the thick socks. We're in Dallas, so we try to be good by setting the a.c. to a more reasonable level, but I'm not equipped for the cold. (P.S. Any clue as to where the rug in the picture came from? It's lovely.)

I heat with wood, with a Monitor stove for back-up, set at 55°. It works like a charm and I can be warm in a half-hour when I want to be! As for using space heaters, that just seems like a lot of electricity. . . There are cheaper and more effecient ways to heat a space.

We try to go without heat until it's below 40; my hot water bottle is never more than a foot away at any time. I'm thinking of inventing a hot water bottle suit, and a person-shaped hot water bottle to snuggle in bed.

I generally don't use heat, since the master bedroom is on the 3rd floor and several degrees warmer then the ground floor.