Cold and curious - what is your thermostat set to when you are home?

[DisneyRunner2009]

Earlier in the season it was 70. Now with the deep freeze and snow, Wisconsin here, it's 68. When no one is home, 64. Sleeping is 65. I'm wearing a blanket constantly. I hate sweaters. I just want this winter to be over.

 

[kathie859]

If it's just DH and me home, we set it at 66 during the day and 60 at night to sleep. I prefer a cool room for sleeping with a comfy down cover.

If the grands are over or we have company, I may crank it up to 68. We have a gas fireplace that really puts out the heat in the family room where we watch TV and spend a lot of our time. The furnace is also natural gas.

BTW--I am SO done with winter. Got a few inches of snow this evening to top the several inches of ice we're been cultivating for the last week. Oh joy.

 

[PatMcDuck]

69. Used to try and keep it at 66, but everyone complained. It goes to 65 at 10 pm. House feel colder when it is windy outside, we have crappy windows. (house built 19 years ago, the builder skimped on the windows).

The new HVAC and more attic insulation has cut our heating bills by 1/2, seriously, not kidding.

 

[tvguy]

If it was up to me 64. I find that to be comfortable.

My DH is a different story....He cranks it up to 68 or 69. If it is that warm, I walk around in a t-shirt while everyone else is bundled up.

It's rare that the man is allowed to touch the thermostat.

DW runs the thermostat in our house.

32 years ago, it was 80 when we were awake, and 70 when we slept.

When we had kids, it dropped to 70 when we were awake, and 65 when we slept because neither of our kids would sleep if it was warmer than 65.

These days it's 64 when we are up, and 60 when we sleep, and that is DW's choice still.

Has been cool the past 2 weeks, we have no ceiling in our kitchen open to the rafters, and no insulation in the outside walls due to a remodel. That should change Tuesday after the inspector comes out to look at the rough wiring and plumbing. Nothing like heating a 2000 square foot house plus 2000 square feet of attic above it.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

68 here all the time.

 

[disneyfab]

Usually between 68-72. Mostly around 68 in the winter and 72 in the summer. We also have natural gas fireplaces that we use. At night, I may bump it down to 65-66 in the winter and up to 75 in the summer. We also have ceiling fans in every room.

 

[Maddie2]

We live "up north" and have all-electric heat and keep the thermostat set at 62 during the day and 61 at night. It runs more efficiently if it is kept at a steady temperature.

However, we have large southern-exposure windows and during sunny days, our kitchen, dining and living rooms get up to 67-70 degrees. The other areas of the house stay cooler. It can get a bit chilly in the basement, but a pair of slippers and a blanket or a sweater take care of that.

I am able to come home from work for lunch sometimes and the best thing to do is to lie down on the floor right where the sun in shining in --- ahhh! It "almost" makes me forget about the long winter we are having. Not quite, but almost!

 

[stacielee]

70. If you are comfortable with less that is great. But life is too short to be cold. I'd rather scrimp on other things like cable, eating out, etc... If it meant the difference between being warm and comfortable in my house vs being cold.

I'd have to be pretty hard up to choose being cold. I'll scrimp elsewhere.

This...

I can't stand being cold. I keep the heat at 71.

In the summer, DH says he is not going to be hot in his own house, so he keeps it cooler than I would. But he wears shorts and a t-shirt most of the winter so I won't be cold and can turn the heat up.

And this!

During the AZ "winter", it's 70-72 during the day and 68 at night. During the summer, it's usually around 80 during the day and 78 at night. Funny how that 10 degrees makes a difference during the 2 seasons we have.

DH wears shorts all year, says I keep it too warm.

I grew up in Michigan and moved to Arizona over 25 years ago... that might explain why I like it warmer

Our heat comes from gas, our AC comes from a heat pump and solar panels we had installed several years ago. Our "average" gas/electric bill is less than $100 a month.

 

[kerplop]

We're at about 72 all year round, but we live in Texas and it's hot as cross buns most of the summer. We have average billing, but our 2bd 1,000ft (badly insulated) apartment runs us $150ish a month and to me it's totally worth it. I hate being hot and love being cold, but I live with someone who is the complete opposite so we keep it in the middle there happily.

 

[imabeimabe]

This has been the longest, coldest winter ever and I am soooo ready for spring. We keep it 75 during the winter and 70 or 72 during the summer. We have a high ceiling in our den (23 ft) and I swear it feels 10 degrees colder than the rest of the house. We have a gas fireplace in there and in winter if I'm home, it's on! I can't stand to be cold.

 

[J3nn78]

65 and we are all comfortable. I get hot, especially at night in anything higher than 67

 

[msmama]

65 and we wear layers if it's cold. If I have company I will occasionally crank it up to 67/68.

 

[QVCshopper]

70. If you are comfortable with less that is great. But life is too short to be cold. I'd rather scrimp on other things like cable, eating out, etc... If it meant the difference between being warm and comfortable in my house vs being cold.

I'd have to be pretty hard up to choose being cold. I'll scrimp elsewhere.

Again, if you are comfortable at 62... More power to you. As long as your comfortable. But I'd rather save a few bucks elsewhere than deal with a lingering chill.

We scrimp everywhere in life. It's the only way we can save a lot for retirement, kids' college funds, and of course multiple Disney trips this year to take advantage of our premium annual passes.

Really, you get used to 60F. Much below and it starts to feel cold, as proven by three days with no power last week due to ice storms (house was 45F when we left, but a friend's house got to 37F).

Growing up, we had a wood burning stove to heat our entire house in NY. No heating system other than one little stove. As a girl, I spent hours stacking wood, dragging wood into the house, and sometimes slept in my winter coat and hat. Believe me, compared to THAT, my house is warm and toasty. And I'm 37, so it wasn't even that long ago.

 

[Narnia_girl]

I agree that I'm not going to be uncomfortable in my own home, but of course we all have different comfort temperatures. I still laugh when I think about my brother having Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's and saying, "excuse me Mr. Scrooge, could we have another lump of coal for the fire?" (She lives in Illinois, he in Texas.)

Our home is set at 68/69 during waking hours and 65 at night.

 

[level2mommy]

We keep ours at 65 during the day and drop it to 55 after the kids go to bed around 8:30. If we have company I'll bump it up to 68 or so. My family has FINALLY gotten the idea that they need to wear long sleeves at the least when they come to my house! I figure that in the winter you wear winter clothes and the reverse in the summer. I hate it when I go to a random office/store/my MIL's/etc. in the summer time and I feel the need to bring a winter coat with me. In fact, my in laws are soo ridiculous in their temperatures that in the WINTER I'm wearing tank tops to their house and in the summer I wear pants and bring a sweater.

Last winter our daughter was born in early December and we kept the temp at 68 round the clock all winter so we'd be sure she was warm enough without having to risk smothering her in blankets. This year is a significantly colder winter and we are still spending $100 or more LESS each month compared to last winter because we put our thermostat back down to where we are comfortable (not necessarily with the temp but with the cost )

Would I rather it be a bit warmer? Sure. But since it isn't in the budget I don't fret about it. If DH gets a nice raise or if I suddenly win big in my sweepstakes (I enter some every night and actually won a car once which was sold to replace our dilapidated roof), maybe we'll be able to turn it up to a bit more comfortable level, otherwise we've all got sweaters and can layer up and not worry about it. I'd rather save my money for the extravagance of Disney (eventually, Dec. 2015) than on making the house warm enough to wear a t-shirt in 20 degree weather.

I did notice that when we go to my inlaws my kids cheeks are flushed really bright red almost as soon as we walk in (and we dress appropriately for THEIR home when we visit, not ours). To me, that's a real indication it's way too hot!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

Disclaimer: I'm Florida-born and Florida-bred and live in Florida. I wear my heavy coat if it's less than 50* outside.

In winter, we keep our thermostat at about 70. I'm ok in long sleeves and my husband generally is hot-natured and wears short sleeves most of the time. In summer, we keep it around 78*-80* and it's fine. We have a ton of insulation in the attic and that helps both in summer and winter.

I hate being cold. If I lived above the Mason-Dixon line this winter, I'd have already been packed and ready to move South.

 

[travelbug]

62 when home and 58 when away. Perfectly comfortable at 62, thank goodness.

 

[MinnieForMe]

Being cold makes me miserable. I'll gladly pay the bill to keep the house at 73+. It's a big bill because we live in New Hampshire but I'd give up vacations before I'd be cold and miserable every day! Even with the house this warm, I'm cold. I need to wear a sweatshirt. It could be the cathedral ceiling in the family room although we have a separate heater in there. The only time I was ever warm was when I was pregnant and I refuse to gain weight to lower my heat. Ha. Ha.

The good thing is we save money in the summer because we don't have central A/C and we can tolerate the house being hot and it gets hot. It it's 90 degrees outside, it's pretty close inside.

 

[tvguy]

Being cold makes me miserable. I'll gladly pay the bill to keep the house at 73+. It's a big bill because we live in New Hampshire but I'd give up vacations before I'd be cold and miserable every day! Even with the house this warm, I'm cold. I need to wear a sweatshirt. It could be the cathedral ceiling in the family room although we have a separate heater in there. The only time I was ever warm was when I was pregnant and I refuse to gain weight to lower my heat. Ha. Ha.

The good thing is we save money in the summer because we don't have central A/C and we can tolerate the house being hot and it gets hot. It it's 90 degrees outside, it's pretty close inside.

I totally get the miserable part. But for me, cold is easy to overcome with a sweater or long sleeves, although my only concession to the cooler temperatures is I sleep in long sleeve sweats and socks.
What I can't deal with is summer when it is hot. No changes in clothing is going to cool it off enough for me to sleep.

When they enclosed one of the big malls here in the 1970's, their summer time radio and TV ads always ended with "keeping it great at 68" to advertise that they kept the mall air conditioned down to 68 degrees in summer.

 

[3pletprincesses]

We have space heaters as our heating source and we keep it at 17C which I believe is 62F and we like that way.