<p>Kathiep–it’s mostly for heating bills around here. We’re at 64 during the day, 62 at night. Drafty old house–even with this, I shudder to think what our next bill is going to be. We keep piles of lap blankets around the downstairs.</p>
<p>76 to 80 degrees</p>
<p>I like WARMTH. </p>
<p>In my defense, a temp of 76 to 80 means our family saves money most of the year rather than spends it.</p>
<p>We aim for 68 in the morning and evening and then try to keep the furnace off during the middle of the day. Brrr.</p>
<p>I was just visiting my D who is living overseas and just has a small space heater. She has the greatest thing though, a heated mattress pad. She cranks it up to high before bedtime and it is quite amazing. I’d love to get one but my cold-sleeping husband would hate it.</p>
<p>66 when we are home and 56 when not.
9’ ceiling and two story entrance really bring up the bills.</p>
<p>Heating season- 70 days and 65 nights. Air conditioning season- 75 (and the humidity matters). Slippers and sweatsuit (H) or sweater over long sleeves in winter. T-shirt and shorts summers. Down substitute comforter in winter, lesser one transitional weather and light blanket in summer for sleeping. Use throws/small blankets when lounging in winter. I know plenty who keep their homes colder, but I like to be warm. Son, with heat provided in rent apt, turned up our thermostat to 72 last December- it felt too warm (and it got turned down with the warning to leave it as programmed, he can wear long limb covering clothes). Comfort zone requires dressing for it, acclimatization (adjustment period) and body insulation (think fat). We also notice that it feels cold around the time the sun sets/stops hitting our house- the house starts to cool down before the furnace adjusts to the lack of extra heat.</p>
<p>Consider how you feel outdoors in various temps (and humidities- we keep ours around 40%)- I don’t want to feel I need a jacket indoors (65 too low), but do consider needing long pants and a sweater appropriate. We’re the ones who use an air conditioner in the south when the locals are comfortable.</p>
<p>How many of you saw the family in DC who checked into a hotel when the power was off in their house and the temperature dropped to 60 ?</p>
<p>I thought that was pretty wimpy.</p>
<p>Set at 70 and never varies all year.</p>
<p>We set it to 68 during the day and 55 at night. Right now we have my 94 year old mother-in-law visiting, so we set it to 70-72 all day and I am hot. I don’t understand how that 72 degrees would feel really cold in the summer if the AC was set that low.</p>
<p>67 for both day and night–we try not to move it up or down. We have a digital thermostat, which I love, but it is not the programmable type. We figured that the moving it up and down causes a lot of dollars spent vs a steady temp.</p>
<p>63 day
58 night</p>
<p>We wear lots of layers, and we use ceramic tower space heaters to warm up the rooms we’re in when we feel cold. We turn up the thermostat to 67-68 when we have guests.</p>
<p>Works for us because we’re heating cheapskates. Our winter gas and electric bills are usually hundreds less than those of our neighbors.</p>
<p>63night, 65-67day. I wear long underwear and a jacket indoors. Cold blooded. HATE winter. Looking for a cheap apartment in Mexico for next year. . .</p>
<p>In summer my AC is 78-80.</p>
<p>Puzzled - we have a heated mattress pad with 2 controls. I heat my side up before bed (it has a preheat setting), then turn it off to sleep. Hubby likes to sleep with his side on lowest setting. You can get them at any department store.</p>
<p>Smart thermostat situation: a nursing home dining room I saw with a half dozen dial-thermostats along the dining room wall. People went up and adjusted them often.
The director told me there was no wiring behind any of the dials.</p>
<p>Upstairs (bedrooms) thermostat is 58 and downstairs is off. But honestly it really never gets much below 65 as we live near the coast and have very good insulation. Doesn’t hurt that I’m totally hormonal and there’s generally no such thing as too cold in my mind. The kids try to sneak it up now and again, but I turn it down and tell them to put on a sweater. We don’t have air conditioning so summer is what it is and it’s usually fine with a week or two needing fans.</p>
<p>Now don’t be hating on me for the mild climate – I’ll trade your heating bill for my mortgage any day…</p>
<p>68 during the day, might go up a degree or too if it’s unusually cold and windy out, down to 64 at night. In summer, 77-78. I got a super high efficiency HVAC unit last year and my gas bill was HALF as the same period last year (when I kept that gas guzzling heater at 65). Got a 1500 tax credit for my purchase!</p>
<p>I have a twin rancher with a flat roof. Had $1200 worth of insulation put in at the same time as the heater. Will take years to pay for itself, but will be a good thing to have when house is sold. Bedroom over garage is no longer much colder than rest of house</p>
<p>LOL, p3t! Your story reminded me of the thermostat we had in my lab whan I was a graduate student. The thermostat’s knob was missing (on purpose, so no one could mess with the settings), but the students discovered that things present in every chemistry lab could be used to solve the missing knob problem. If the lab became too hot for their tastes, and the hot air was still blowing out of the vents, someone would take a heat gun and blast the thermostat to trick it into “thinking” that it needed to turn the heat off. If the room was too cold, the solution was to cover the thermostat with wet paper towels and then squirt some acetone on them. The evaporating acetone would create a pocket of cold air around the thermostat, and the heat would come on! I was warned that liquid N2 and dry ice were too harsh for this ancient device :D</p>
<p>OK…amendment…today there are supposed to be 40 mph winds…so I just turned the thermostat UP. that way if the power goes out…it will take a little longer for the house to cool down.</p>
<p>Thumper, no fireplace??</p>
<p>I’ve got lamb shanks in the crock pot and lots of stupid things to do – taxes, finaid, call some friends – but I sure hope we don’t lose power. That would put a crimp in my plans.</p>
<p>The problem with an open fireplace is that it takes more heat out of the house overall than it provides. Traditional fireplaces are very inefficient and, while they keep the immediate area warm, are largely for aesthetics. If you have an insert, that will help, and I understand that some fireplaces draw air from the outside rather than the inside so that would help.</p>
<p>Ours are programmable. Downstairs is 70 during the day, upstairs is 70 at night. I don’t like to be cold, and I’m not a huge fan of blankets - too claustraphobic. Fortunately, our house is well-insulated.</p>
<p>In the summer, the A/C is set to about 78-80. Our utility bills remain pretty constant summer/winter. Spring and fall are lower.</p>
<p>The story about the heated mattress pad reminds me – My first year of college was during the Carter energy crises, and the dorms were frigid. I remember doing homework with coat and mittens on. But I had an electric blanket. Before I went to bed, I would lay out my clothes for the next day - on top of the sheet, but under the blanket. When I woke up the next morning, I had nice warm clothes to wear!</p>