Why does the house feel colder when the sun goes down even when the heat thermostat temperature remains the same?

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It’s been getting colder where I live. I leave the heat on the same temperature all day and evening. However, as soon as the sun goes down, the house feels cooler. Why is this?

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Even though the temperature inside the house may be the same, the temperature of uninsulated (or poorly-insulated) building components can be considerably lower. Heat from your body will radiate towards colder objects, making you feel colder.

Also, depending on the configuration of the heating system, a room may be several degrees warmer or colder in some areas than other areas.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Life is not a video game with fixed stats. The temperature shown by your thermostat will not be the same temperature measured in every corner of your house. The sun is going down and the heater is trying to stay at a consistent temperature according to its thermostat. But it’s always playing catch-up with the naturally colder spots in your house.

Anonymous 0 Comments

This varies a lot with the house and thermostat placement.

My thermostat is in a central hallway where it’s shaded from any sun, but several rooms have large windows. Those rooms are warmed up by the sun during the day but the A/C doesn’t kick on because thebthermostat isn’t in one of those warm spots. At night, those rooms cool off a lot with the sun effect gone even though the thermostat is on the same setting.

Similar thing happens in the winter. The outlying rooms with big windows lose a lot of heat through them, but the thermostat is in the middle of the house farthest from those changes. So those rooms get a little help from the sun during the day but get chillier at night.

You kinda have to think through those factors for your own house but hopefully the example makes sense. A reasonably accurate thermometer will let you walk around the house and see differences like that if you’re really curious.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you leave your blinds open during the day, the sun actually heats up your house because of its’ rays. The rays are literally light, and when it shines in your house it heats it up. This is the main reason. The second reason could be psycholgical. When you see the sun set you anticipate cooler weather, same with when you see the sun come up and feel the suns rays you anticipate warmer weather. So when the sun sets, your body pretty much expects it to become colder, so you feel colder even with the same temperature. A lot of it is in the head.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The sun heats your walls and your walls radiate heat inside with infrared radiation. The change in the heat being radiated to you from the walls is why it seems colder though the air is the same temperature.