What do you leave your home thermostat at?

[MichelleCarmen]

How warm do you leave your temp at home at?

Since I''m home all day, I leave the temp at 69-70 thinking it''d be okay. Our hot water tank is hooked up to our gas as is our dryer. I got our most recent fill-up bill on our tank and our bill came to $1000!!!! The gas price went from $1.80 to 2.45. Increase of $262.

The bill is due next week. Anyone want to donate to my "cannot-pay-bill" fund????

 

[ladypirate]

Ouch! I leave mine right around 60 degrees--it''s a little chilly, but I just throw on an extra sweater and I''m fine. I''m sorry about the skyrocketing bill.

 

[Elmorton]

62 when we''re not here and 66 when we are, and 62 again when we go to bed. Even with those numbers, our bill was over $200 last month!!

 

[KimberlyH]

Oh no, MC!

We live in Southern CA; it''s typically somewhere in the 60s outside during the day and can be anywhere from 30-50 degrees at night. We don''t use our heaters (we have two, one for each half of the house) unless the temp in the house drops below 60 degrees. We''ve turned the heat on three times this fall/winter. We do use space heaters on occasion and we typically have a fire in our bedroom at night before we go to sleep to warm it up. Our house runs on a propane tank (stove, water heater, heater, etc.) and we do our best to use as little as possible.

 

[mercoledi]

62 unless it''s super cold out. We don''t pay for our heat, our land lady does and we can''t in good conscience keep the place toasty on her dime! We wear sweaters and keep blankets around and do just fine most of the winter.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

60 degrees. We don''t mind the cold and it is SO much better for the enviroment. I never understood why people kept it in the 70s, I would burn up

 

[sumbride]

Our old house is pretty drafty, so we leave ours around 68. I don''t like it to get below 65 because it takes so long to warm up again. I did just buy a programmable thermostat so once I get it installed I hope to fiddle with it during the day and in the middle of the night. I don''t like to have to be heavily dressed in my house... sleeves, sure, but sweaters? eh. Our bill is pretty hefty for the size of our house, but I think the most it has been was $350. Of course, they just announced another rate hike so we''ll see.

We have double-pane windows and brick walls, but there is little to no insulation installed, particularly in the basement. Our entryway has a tile floor that is SO cold! Underneath it there is no insulation and it is right up against the stone wall of the basement which is as cold as the ground. I''m not sure if I can add insulation under it and change that or not. Originally that part of the house was the vestibule and was outside, but they closed it off and took away our vestibule so it is inside. I wish we still had the double-door thing that many houses here have.

 

[turtledazzle]

In the winter we keep it around 66 degrees ... in the summer around 75 degrees.
I use blankets/throws in the winter and DH uses a fan in the summer.

Sorry for the rate hike!

 

[laine]

Wow, I thought I was doing well, till I see all you at 60! I have a programmable thermostat: its at 64 during the day on weekdays and at night, 68 on weekday evenings and on weekends, also warms up for about an hour on weekday mornings to 66 so I can get out of bed without freezing. Basement has separate baseboard heat that we only turn on occasionally.

 

[Patiently_Waiting]

I keep mine at 55 during the day while I am at work, then it is set to 62 just before I get home, then back down to 58 overnight. On the really cold nights, I may bump up the temperature to 60 or so overnight, but usually I stick as close to the program as I can. Even then, my gas/electric bill was over $200 this month

 

[Mara]

i am a total freak. we have our house at 74 during the day and 72 at night. but our house is tri level so it's more like 65 downstairs, 70 in the middle family room/kitchen area and 73 upstairs in the bedrooms. i am also such a nut that i can FEEL when the temp goes down to 72 or 73...i go upstairs and yep it's gone down...so our house is definitely not 'accurate' with the thermo. i also wear socks and hoodies in the house with my sweats so i am layered up and still typically under a blanket, i'm always cold!! whenever we go to other people's houses who keep theirs at like 65 i am a frozen popsicle!!

strangely enough our utility bills are not that bad. we typically only pay about $100 a month during the winter months.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Oh, MC, how upsetting that must be to get that bill. There are many advantages to living in a place with four seasons, but having to think about fuel bills certainly isn''t one of them.

To answer your query, I live in SoCal and we hardly use heating at all. We keep the thermostat at around 65 during the day and 62 at night in winter; at those settings, it rarely goes on. In addition to being good for the environment, our little dog gets to grow his hair out long and becomes just the cutest, snuggly little puffball!

 

[appletini]

Looks like I need to make some changes...we have a programmable thermostat..

Winter: heat turns on at 65

Summer: A/C 79 during the day, 77 in the evening, and 75 for bedtime...although we moved into our house in June and were trying to see what the bills would be, but since I''m the one that pays it, this year that 75 is going to turn into at least 72.

 

[Skippy123]

Wow, $1K, that is crazy, you must have a huge house. Our bill was $250 a month and I keep it at 68 during the day and 60 at night. In the summer I kept it at 75ish. Gosh, that is too bad.

 

[love2cook]

We keep it at 70-72. Our little dog gets cold if we go much under 68.

We live in a small apartment though, so a couple degrees difference doesn''t make much of a dent in our bill!

 

[butterfly 17]

We keep ours at 63 in the basement, 68 when we are on the first or second floors. If we leave the house or we go to bed, we then lower the first floor to 65 and keep the second floor one at 68. When it is really cold, which is always because I am always cold, I put the fireplace on to warm the room up.

Considering we don''t even keep it too high, our bill was still quite high this month, almost $500.

When we lived in a semi, which was half the size, it would get close to $400 a month because we were careless and kept it at 75 most of the time. My husband said he wanted to be free to wear shorts around the house if he wanted to.

I just thought he was crazy.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 2/6/2008 2:31:13 PM
Author: butterfly 17
My husband said he wanted to be free to wear shorts around the house if he wanted to.

I just thought he was crazy.

My husband wears shorts, too, but he never seems to get cold.

Skippy - my house isn''t that large (2600 sq ft) but it has three floors and we have a solarium and it lets out a ton of the heat. The way it''s designed it probably would be difficult to get window coverings. DH and I are still trying to figure out what to do in that room because it''s our primary source of lighting on the south side of our house.

 

[lyra]

Wow! I haven''t seen a bill that big since we had electric heat. That''s awful.

I keep the thermostat at 23.0C, but that''s because they placed it in the wrong room in the house where it''s always too warm (we shut the vents in that room) and it has to be set higher so that the rest of the house will get heated enough. Have about the same size house, on 3 levels also. We have ceiling fans in 3 rooms to distribute heat. We also have a portable oil-filled efficient heater with thermostat in the living room to aid in getting the heat upstairs. We''re on natural gas, and usually pay around $120/month for heating. Electricity is on equal payment plan (due to A/C use in summer) of $250/month.

How''s your insulation? What about caulking around all windows and doors? Do you use storm doors? Weather stripping on doors? There''s lots of small maintenance stuff like that that can make a difference. We have even insulated our electrical outlets that are on outside walls--you''d be surprised how much cold air can come in those too.

 

[mrssalvo]

we keep ours at 70 degrees during the day and turn it back to 68 at night. I actually wouldn''t mind turning it back to 65 at night but my hubby worries about our girls getting too cold, so 68 it is.

 

[lumpkin]

We keep ours between 70-72 during the day, 68-70 at night. We have a programmable thermostat that allows us to program it to warm up before we get up and cool down after everyone leaves (but me, I wear warm clothes or if I''m working around the house, the temp is pretty comfy).

Can you do level payments? I find it too hard to budget otherwise. I don''t like a $265 surprise, so that''s how we handle it. Although, as cold as it has been this winter, I''d be surprised if our level payment doesn''t go up a little bit soon.

 

[eks6426]

I''m in northern Indiana so we have the colder winters. Today it is 26 for a high.

I have a programmable thermostat. It''s programmed to be 68 when I''m home...evenings and weekends. Nights are set at 55. Days are set at 62. I usually go home for lunch and 62 is the lowest I can stand it while I''m awake. I usually wear my coat while I eat lunch. I''m always cold. Even at 68 I wear socks, slippers, sweatshirts over my regular shirt plus hibernate under a blanket most of the time. I do admit to occassionally bumping the programmable up on weekends to 72 just because I get tired of freezing. I''m on the budget plan which means they even out the months and I pay around $100 for natural gas.

In the summer time, it is pretty much off. We rarely run the AC. Only when it gets over 85 and it really humid. I love summer...I''m not cold as often then. I hate going to people''s houses in the summer that really crank the AC because I turn into that frozen popsicle too...people look at you really strangely if you ask for a throw blanket in July....

 

[icekid]

oooomigosh, I would freeze in most of your houses! Even the 69 at my parents can be difficult for me to take. Fortunately, our heat is included in our rent. I can''t even imagine how much money that saves us! I suspect our apartment is usually around 75, but I''m not sure; our whole building is controlled with one switch in the basement and it''s too dark down there to see haha.

 

[goldenstar]

Wow, I must live in an ice box. We keep it at 63 when we're at home, 60 at night, 58 when we're not home. I use a ton of blankets and am always in a sweater (in the winter). I'm pretty comfortable this way. 63 degrees is not cold to me. If we turn the heat up higher than 65 I burn up. 70 and I'd shrivel and dry up like a slug.

We're in Northern CA so it never gets super cold outside. Psychologically, I can't turn the heat up any higher because I feel like I'm not being environmentally conscious. It has nothing to do with the bill. I'm kind of anal when it comes to things like that.

 

[Erin]

I am perpetually COLD and SHIVVERING

I think I like it around 75 in my house but I actually have no idea because my stupid house has one of these in the living room - and that''s the only source of heat.
Notice the lovely faux flower arrangement covering the ugly pipe. Well I can''t have it sitting there now that the unit turns 200F just to blow out 75F air.
It''s heated by natural gas and is controllable by a wobbly knob. I''m cold? I pump out more gas. I''m hot? I turn the knobby down. It''s worthless. The back of the house is the kitchen with cold, cold, cold tile - so is the bathroom. And I wear wool socks, two shirts and a sweatshirt and carry a blanket. I''m so getting rid of this house before next winter. My dog and I sleep at the bf''s most nights but when we don''t Aaaaaa

c-c-c-c-c-cold.

 

[firebirdgold]

We have electric heat so it''s all one bill. We take advantage of our programmable thermostat and it''s still $350 a month! (I suspect all our electronics have something to do with it though.

)

We keep it at 58 at night, 63 in the mornings and on weekends, 60 while we''re gone, and 65 in the evenings. However we have a three story house with the only thermostat on the top floor so our bedroom is usually several degrees cooler than the top floor, easily solved with an extra wool blanket and three cats. If we want it to be warmer on the days or evenings we''re home we''ll use our woodstove. So toasty, and so satisfying when it''s raining or snowing outside.

 

[somethingshiny]

We keep ours at 58-60 upstairs where the bedrooms are. And, 62 downstairs. If we're leaving, we turn it down to about 55, any lower than that and sometimes our pipes freeze. (BTW-I live in central IL) And, even with this *reasonable* setting, our mid-winter bills for electric and gas (we have both for heat) runs around $400-$600/month. We're pretty much out in the open. We have a dozen or so trees on our property, but they aren't set for any windbreak.

In the summer, we turn on the air when it gets upwards of 75, and set the temp at 72.

We stayed at my cousin's in TX in Feb one year. Her thermostat was set at 78! We about had a heat stroke and couldn't sleep at all.

ETA-we have zoned heating. We have a thermostat in the basement which we keep at 58 (because it helps to keep the floors warm) and two thermostats on the main level and one upstairs. We have three separate air thermostats. One upstairs and two on the main level (one that we don't usually use.)

 

[phoenixgirl]

Wow, this makes me feel really wasteful!

We set ours around 68-70. DH likes it warmer than I do, especially at night. I am an inferno that must escape the covers half-way through the night, but DH bundles up like a burrito in extra blankets. When we first moved in a year ago, we set it around 72-73 (that really made me sweat at night!) until we got our first gas bill . . . $550. It was $400 this month, so DH conceded to lowering it to 68ish. In the summer we set the AC around 73.

 

[zoebartlett]

We generally leave our heat at 70-72 degrees in the winter. We should probably turn it down when we''re not home but we never think of it. We also have two cats, and I don''t want them to be cold. I''m always cold, so even with the heat up as high as we keep it, I still often cover up with a blanket. Our bedroom must have really drafty windows because it''s always freezing in there. My FI loves that but I''m bundled up from head to toe whenever I''m in there.

 

[Harleigh]

I am perpetually frozen, even in the summer sometimes, but I just can''t stand to pay high bills, and they have definitely been going up as of late, so it makes it even harder with trying to budget for our wedding...

I have two separate thermostats for up and downstairs...while Maverick was alive, I kept the downstairs thermostat set at 60 as he pretty much stayed upstairs where it was warmer, but now that he''s gone, I just leave that unit off unless I have companyover for any amount of time...I swear you could hang meat down there!

Upstairs I leave it set at 60 during the day, then turn it up to between 64-66 when I get home, then back down to 64 to sleep. Needless to say, I have to BUNDLE up in many layers of flannel or fleece, with a huge fluffy robe to top it all off. I often look like the Michelin man...

The one pleasure I allow myself is a heated mattress pad...that along with many layers of blankets, lots of warm clothes and sometimes even the bathrobe make it bearable to sleep in here in the winter...I''ve never been in a colder house that wasn''t up in the mountains!

However, I have a west-facing house, and in the summer, this place just BOILS!!! Again, for Maverick, I made sure to leave the air on so that it wouldn''t get too hot, but he used to stay downstairs in the shady parts of the house lying on the cold tile floor, so I could leave it between 85-88 upstairs and it was fine, but if I forgot, it could get into the 90''s in the front rooms up here, my bedroom included, which is just ridiculous! I would usually turn it down to around 82 when I got home and pray for a cooling trend at night, then I''d open all of the upstairs windows and crank on the whole house fan, which has saved me from heatstroke many a summer night since I bought this house!

Here''s to hoping our bills start a downhill slide one day soon!

 

[Linda W]

I am always freezing. We have a two story house. The upstairs is warm and the downstairs is cold.

We only have one thermostat and it controls both upstairs and downstairs. Freeze downstairs, sweat upstairs.

During the day it is on 66 or 67. At night, we turn it down to 60, or we will suffocate upstairs. When we watch TV, I have a blanket on. DH is always hot. I always have wool socks on in the winter. I try to keep our heating bill down. It has been getting out of hand lately.

Linda