I would

Quote from: RE on Sep 08, 2023, 07:44 AMNot in March!  Then it's leaving.  ;D Only 6 months to go!

I'm the same way about heating, though not with a wood stove.  I set up my living space about 15' square, in the old days with my office chair in the center, now with my electric wheelchair.  Swiveling around 360 degrees are my computers, my recliner,  shelves with stuff I use on them and my bed which I no longer use for sleeping, I just throw clothes, lap blankets and go bags of various kinds I use when I go out. When I was living in my own place, I set the apt thermostat at 55 and kept an electric space heater under the desk in front of me, pointed out toward my feet.  The desk kept the heat from going up so it all radiated towards me.  If it was really cold outside, I would put a lap blanket on over my knees and the space heater.  I only had to turn it on for a few minutes each hour to keep warm.

Here in the Gulag, they keep the whole building a pretty steady 70, so I have the maintenance guys turn off the valve for the radiator in my room.  The ambient heat from the rest of the building coming into my room from the doorway (I keep it open) is enough on all but the coldest days.  On those days I turn on the electric space heater rather than getting maintenance to come turn the valve back on.

Definitely way too many people with central heating in large McMansions use double or triple the amount of BTUs they need to stay comfortable in the winter.  Turning down the thermostat, closing off rooms you don't use often, wearing warm clothing in layers and using space heaters right or electric blankets and heating pads in your own spot in the McMansion are easy fixes that cost next to nothing.  Really, your home only needs to stay warm enough that the pipes don't freeze.  In the not too distant future, people will be doing this by necessity of course.

RE

I would speculate people would be more likely to shrink the house size or increase the density of people in the house. There is an argument to double insulate existing houses; basically creating a super insulated subspace in an existing house. Very doable with existing tech and resources. It would support doubling up in existing houses as well. I really am proud of our new place but honestly it is not an easy to implement solution for everyone.