What do you set your thermostat to?

[Laurlor]

What temp. do you heat your home to in the winter if you have central heat? Both at night and during the day?

DH and can't agree, and can you believe it's him who wants to keep it high? He doesn't like heavy blankets or wearing warm clothes at night and it's making me :mad.

[jewelmcjem]

You should do a search, this thread comes up every year. Everyone's "That is way high" temp is so different, lol! We keep ours at 65° unless someone is bathing. Then maybe 67°. I've tried to ooch it a little lower, but I get too chilly.

[appalachiamama]

65--we have natural gas and it is super warm! :phew

[Drew]

65 at night and 74 during the day when we're home. I like warm. :shifty

[mykidsmom]

62 day and night. I'll push it up to 65 if someone complains...

[2sunshines]

Right now we're doing 66 all the time.

Last year we did 62. It didn't save us much money over 66. :shrug3 So this year I've just kept it at 66.

[DoulaClara]

:hug2 My DH and I are exactly the same way! I think it's because he's in a warm office all day. We have a programmable thermostat, and so we compromise by- he sets the temps, and during the day, I manually change it to a much lower temp, and by the time he gets home, it is back up to where he likes it. IMO, the temp downstairs especially is exactly the same at 64 as it is at 68, but only without the heater kicking on every few moments.

So, technically, it's set to 66 during the day (and 68 during some points of the day on the weekend) and 64 at night. During the day, I manually click it down to 64 (or lower if I'm not going to be home) and then the next time the clock clicks over to the programmed time, it automatically goes to where DH set it.

[jenn3514]

63-65 during the day, 60 at night.

[AdrienneQW]

I used to keep it at 58, then last winter decided I didn't want my family to be chilly in our own home anymore. ;) Bumped it up to 63, and haven't noticed any difference in the bill. Now it's kept at 63 all the time, unless I bump it up when the kids are bathing.

[Heather Micaela]

What temp. do you heat your home to in the winter if you have central heat? Both at night and during the day?

DH and can't agree, and can you believe it's him who wants to keep it high? He doesn't like heavy blankets or wearing warm clothes at night and it's making me :mad.
TBH I am like your dh. Regardles of how cosy my body is, I want to get up and go to the restroom w/o getting chilly and I want my FACE warm (yet not smothered by blankets. 74 is my perfect comfort level. 70 and above I can tolerate with layers. Under that I am misereable and mean. Could you find a happy medium between your comfort level and his? So if you prefer 65 and he 74, you do around 70?

You are local to me, so I am guessing budget is not as huge a concern as in other places. If budget IS an issue close the vents in unused rooms at night. :)

[Laurlor]

So I read DH the replies because he didn't believe me before when I told him that most people don't keep it this warm, and he said we could try it...he couldn't believe how low you all set your thermostat (actually, way too low for me too!). We've been leaving it at 68-69 at night, and 69-70 during the day. I'm just thinking of trying it at 65-66 at night.

TBH I am like your dh. Regardles of how cosy my body is, I want to get up and go to the restroom w/o getting chilly and I want my FACE warm (yet not smothered by blankets. 74 is my perfect comfort level. 70 and above I can tolerate with layers. Under that I am misereable and mean. Could you find a happy medium between your comfort level and his? So if you prefer 65 and he 74, you do around 70?

You are local to me, so I am guessing budget is not as huge a concern as in other places. If budget IS an issue close the vents in unused rooms at night. :)

Honestly, I LOVE it warm...I'm just trying to cut costs because my DH doesn't think much about budgeting. We just moved and our house has all single pane windows, so the heater is running all the time. I wish we could afford new windows!!


Thanks for all the replies!

[Charlie U]

68 - 69. :shifty

Our furnace is wildly inefficient, and with the outside temperatures varying, we found that keeping the house between 68 and 69 keeps everyone the most comfortable.

Dh is adamant about not dropping the heat at night. Which I really don't mind. I struggle with insomnia quite and I'm quite often awake at 2am or later. We do like being a bit on the chilly side at night, so we sleep with one of our bedroom windows slightly open. :shifty

eta: because of the position of our thermostat, having an open window upstairs does not cause the heat to kick in.

[Heather Micaela]

So I read DH the replies because he didn't believe me before when I told him that most people don't keep it this warm, and he said we could try it...he couldn't believe how low you all set your thermostat (actually, way too low for me too!). We've been leaving it at 68-69 at night, and 69-70 during the day. I'm just thinking of trying it at 65-66 at night.



Honestly, I LOVE it warm...I'm just trying to cut costs because my DH doesn't think much about budgeting. We just moved and our house has all single pane windows, so the heater is running all the time. I wish we could afford new windows!!


Thanks for all the replies!
I am cold blooded:giggle
One thing you should do ASAP is get plastic shrink wrap for all your windows and leave it up through March windy season. It not only cuts out the draft, but creates a level of insulaton. It is a PITB to put up but it has done an AMAZING job of keeping my house warmer w/o the heat always running. And that is with the kids having stupid louvered windows. (Seriously who ever thought that these were a good idea.) Since we rent and could not change things even if we could afford to, I was very happy to find this solution.

The other up side is that once you do that, you can run it warm at night and then just turn the thermostat OFF and the temp is more likely to be maintianed. Then if yours has a timer, you could set it to start warming up again right before you get up :)

And is your dh a CA native? I never had to keep heat so low for cost, so the thought of it is crazy.

[Laurlor]

I am cold blooded:giggle
One thing you should do ASAP is get plastic shrink wrap for all your windows and leave it up through March windy season. It not only cuts out the draft, but creates a level of insulaton. It is a PITB to put up but it has done an AMAZING job of keeping my house warmer w/o the heat always running. And that is with the kids having stupid louvered windows. (Seriously who ever thought that these were a good idea.) Since we rent and could not change things even if we could afford to, I was very happy to find this solution.

The other up side is that once you do that, you can run it warm at night and then just turn the thermostat OFF and the temp is more likely to be maintianed. Then if yours has a timer, you could set it to start warming up again right before you get up :)

And is your dh a CA native? I never had to keep heat so low for cost, so the thought of it is crazy.

The plastic is a good idea. I'll have to see if DH will buy in.

Yes, DH and I both grew up in the OC. He's usually okay in the cold, just hates blankets and heavy clothes (probably because he's so used to it being warm here) so he gets cold at night just sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt...DUH!! I wish he would just put on some sweats! :giggle

[tinybutterfly]

We keep ours at 69 during the day and 65 at night.

I'd like it at 68 during the day. Dh likes it warmer.

We all sleep better with it cooler at night.

I LOVE lots of blankets on me! It's cozy. :giggle

[Heather Micaela]

The plastic is a good idea. I'll have to see if DH will buy in.

Yes, DH and I both grew up in the OC. He's usually okay in the cold, just hates blankets and heavy clothes (probably because he's so used to it being warm here) so he gets cold at night just sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt...DUH!! I wish he would just put on some sweats! :giggle
The plastic is fairly inexpensive and available at places like Target, Wal-Mart, and Lowes. However, the dummies at my Home Depot had no idea what I was talking about :rolleyes

And dh is usually warmer than me but only wears boxers to bed, but then STEALS MY COVERS at 3am!! Yeah...sweats would be logical.

[jewelmcjem]

Everyone should post where they're from when they post where they keep the heat set at. If we kept ours at 74, we would have a 1000/mo gas bill! Well, maybe not quite that high, but at 65 it's well over 200/mo for a 1086sf bungalow. Little to no insulation though. We did put up bubble wrap on the windows, it has helped a little.

[MomtoJGJ]

we also keep ours at 65. We will occasionally bump it up if someone is overly chilly, but not too much or the kids complain about being hot :)

[AngelaVA]

68-70 we have not found dropping the temp saves us any money, we like to be comfortable. My kids aren't real big fans of clothing and Mama worries about them being warm ;)

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 AM ----------

The plastic is fairly inexpensive and available at places like Target, Wal-Mart, and Lowes. However, the dummies at my Home Depot had no idea what I was talking about :rolleyes



I think "I have no idea what you are talking about" is the general Lowes/Home Depot customer service strategy. If they pretend you are crazy and they have no idea what you are talking about, they don't have to stop what they are doing and walk around the enormous store to find it. Thankfully not every person there is like that of course.

[jewelmcjem]

Regular old bubble wrap works really well. It doesn't catch what might come through the cracks our around the windows, but it catches the cold right off the glass if you don't have double-pane or low-E windows. I would always get annoyed w/the shrink stuff b/c it would always come loose and the cold would come in anyway.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/insulate-windows-bubble-wrap.html

[Raspberries]

63-65 during the day, 60 at night.

This is about us as well. I actually need it low at night because otherwise its gets TOO hot in the bedrooms.

[expatmom]

Our house is very well insulated, so I only have to turn the heat on occasionally inside despite it being 25F or colder outside. I can turn our heat on by room, so we only heat the room we are in. It is usually somewhere between 64-68F in our house.

[April G]

We have electric baseboard heaters in 6 places in our 1800 sq ft home (none upstairs), and we keep those at 20 celcius (68 F). We supplement our heating with a wood burning stove, which costs us about $300/year for firewood. In addition, we have electric blankets on all the beds cause it can get really chilly in the bedrooms in the winter... This winter has been VERY mild and we will probably have some firewood left over for next year, unless things suddenly get a LOT colder...

Our electric bill is $93/month, and that's with running two home businesses. One is a hair salon that keeps the well pump running regularly, as well as hair dryers, lights, curling irons, straighteners, etc and the other is my business which has the computer and fax/printer running all the time...

ETA: I live on the Canadian west coast, so we don't get brutally cold winters or loads of snow like the rest of Canada. :)

[Laurlor]

Last night I got DH to agree to turning it down to 66. I put an extra blanket on our bed (he wasn't happy, but then agreed it didn't feel too heavy after he got in). He said it was fine until he woke up at 6 a.m., put his foot out of the covers, and decided it was too cold to get up...so he went back to sleep!! He's SO silly about all this!! :shrug3

[Heather Micaela]

Last night I got DH to agree to turning it down to 66. I put an extra blanket on our bed (he wasn't happy, but then agreed it didn't feel too heavy after he got in). He said it was fine until he woke up at 6 a.m., put his foot out of the covers, and decided it was too cold to get up...so he went back to sleep!! He's SO silly about all this!! :shrug3
Or he really is cold :shrug3. I would be miserable at 66 - honest. Can you put the thermostat on a timer so it starts warming up around 5:30? Then once everyone is up you can turn it back down.

[mamacat]

68but it only keeps our house warmed up to actually about 65-67 on really cold days.

[mamaKristin]

I keep ours between 64 and 68 in the winter. Generally 64, unless we are having a cold snap (temps below -30). I don't know how my children can be comfortable playing in the basement in next to nothing when it's winter though, they don't seem to mind the temps either way in the day :shrug I do run a space heater in the girls bedroom at night though, their bedroom is the coldest.

[jewelmcjem]

I've come to realize that people feel what they feel. If they think it's cold -- it is! It may not feel cold to me, but they are cold. Who am I to tell them they're not cold, or that it's not THAT cold, or that they are silly?

[hey mommy]

Since S's birth, it's been set to 72 day & night. Before that, we turned it on when ever we got cold.

[WeeMonsters]

We set ours to 64 during the day and 60 at night. We have space heaters in our rooms and before the baby monitor broke (when we were able to keep the bedroom doors closed at night) I would turn the heat down to 50 at night. We live in the lower midwest US and average winter temps are in the 20's at night, not too cold, but not warm either. The space heaters help a lot for the bedrooms, especially ours which is on the nw corner of the house and often gets to be about 50 degrees during the day no matter what the rest of the house is! But, honestly, I'd rather wear a sweater and have the house be on the cool side cause I run hot!

[Can'tTurnLeft]

We keep ours at 64 in the winter, and there is no heat at all upstairs. We live someplace that doesn't get super cold, and if it does get cold we all have a "sleepover" downstairs and can be a little warmer and make fun memories with the kids :yes We just got new windows today, so I'm excited to see how that helps things!

[Pragmatist]

We keep ours at 68 during the day and 65 at night.

[Drew]

Everyone should post where they're from when they post where they keep the heat set at. If we kept ours at 74, we would have a 1000/mo gas bill! Well, maybe not quite that high, but at 65 it's well over 200/mo for a 1086sf bungalow. Little to no insulation though. We did put up bubble wrap on the windows, it has helped a little.

We live in a north-west suburb of Chicago. With out heat at 74 during the day and 65 at night the worst our gas bill gets is about $200 in January. Our house is 2700 sqft-ish but we have really good insulation and a high efficiency furnace.

[hey mommy]

We have had ours set 72 for the past month & our gas/electric bill was $167. We live in CA. in an 1187 sq. foot house that is about 15 years old.

[Heather Micaela]

We have had ours set 72 for the past month & our gas/electric bill was $167. We live in CA. in an 1187 sq. foot house that is about 15 years old.
That is similar to what my parents pay keeping theirs at 73 but I think theirs is closer to 1500 sq feet and much older.

The difference is that the oldest windows in the house are about 3 years old and some are less than a year. We also have a more mild climate.

[mykidsmom]

We have had ours set 72 for the past month & our gas/electric bill was $167. We live in CA. in an 1187 sq. foot house that is about 15 years old.

That was typical for us when we lived in Cali. We kept it set at 72, and our bill was around $178.00 each month for a 1600 sq. ft. house, with cathedral ceilings. Our home now is the same size (all the same appliance energy sources), no cathedral ceilings, not in Cali, about 10 years newer and we keep the temp much lower. It's now around $120.00 a month.

Hmm... In writing this I've realized how factors can effect heating bills... :think

[Elleanne]

In our family the electric bill is on my list of things to pay. We have electric heat and so I always want to keep it about 65. But my fiancee likes it at 70. I admit every time the furnace kicks on my pocket hurts. We tend to go behind each other and change it throughout the day/night. ;)

[Rabbit]

I used to shiver at 74, but we can keep it at 72 during the day now, and 68 at night. We drop it at night because with all five bodies in the bed, it gets hot fast.

[Heather Micaela]

I used to shiver at 74, but we can keep it at 72 during the day now, and 68 at night. We drop it at night because with all five bodies in the bed, it gets hot fast.
BTW I was basing my temps I mentioned on my parents house with central air.

What we do here is 76 in the LR that has a wall unit heater and a bad draft despite efforts. In the bedrooms where the heat does not really get, it is likely close to 68-70 when it is really cold out(relatively speaking) but the jam-packed king bed helps with that :yes