What temp do you set your thermostat in the winter?

Especially if you live in a cold climate like I do. Brrr! When I lived in Texas obviously this wasn't as big of an issue. We have ours set at 68 during the day and 65 at night and I am always freezing! My husband thinks it's wasteful to set it any warmer, even though I'm too cold. So there are a ton of people here, to either prove him right that most people in cold climates don't set the indoor temp at 70-72 in the winter (which is my point), or to console me that I'm not alone in feeling too cold at 68...

In chicago. It's higher than it should be, but...

Us, too.

...so when I come home, it's on (69, because it makes me giggle) and when I'm gone or in bed it's down to 50.
I should point out (a) down comforter, (b) Siberian Huskies, and (c) furnace of a girlfriend mean I never need heat in bed. And it was ten below last night. ;)

Just regular body temp.
;-)

As well as the naked cooking, naked reading, naked everything the hell else. :D

Guess where I live?

I guessed before I looked at your profile. I was right!

But it's also expensive so I'm installing a wood stove this winter.

We've been using over 2,200 gallons of heating oil every year.

In the best of all worlds, I'd set it lower and put on more clothes.

It is currently 68 in here and I'm wearing sweatpants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a polar-fleece jacket, socks and slippers and I'm STILL COLD!!! If I put on any more clothes I'd look like the stay-puft marshmallow man. :P

Hot water bottle? Turn up the heat? I compromised the circulation in my toes by not dressing warmly enough. They're perpetually numb and today some of them are throbbing. Not worth it to save some money.

Why does 68° or whatever inside seem colder than the same temperature outside? :shrug:



That marshmallow-man look could be hot, though.

Well, not on him, but...

I go take a hot tub. Nothing works better to warm me up when I'm cold all the way through. A tub before bed, and I'm guaranteed to be warm enough to go right to sleep, rather than lying there for an hour trying to get my feet and butt warm.

I'm in SF where it is wicked cold most of the time.

i hate the cold! :scared:

I just fired up the wood-burning backup in the basement, and the house heated up to 74, sparing me the unholy thought of $1.99 a gallon propane needed to fill a 500 gallon tank......

I've got my programmable set to 65 for during the day. But I work at home and on cold days, like today, I re-set it for 68.

I will say that I got a new 2-stage furnace this year and it's made a big difference in how my house is warmed - and my heating bill is a little bit less.

Damn, it's cold in Denver!

If it's really frigid out it might go as high as 80, but that's to keep it like 70 in here.

The new ones are pretty safe and they don't add that much to the electric bill.

I keep my furnace at 62 to 65 depending on what I'm doing but that's cause I'm cheap and can't afford a big gas bill.

Plus I have a beagle and 2 cats to keep me warm at night :)

Which is a little chilly for my liking, but I find coping mechanisms. Really good slippers help a TON (I have minnetonkas), soup does wonders, as does a quick set of 10-15 situps (cheesy, but gets your blood going just a little, and is good for you). Tea or hot chocolate is also a nice way to warm up! Good luck getting warm to you :)

But then Im an energy slut

we have six heat zones and therefore six thermostats, and none of them reflect the real feeling of warmth (in other words, if we set the upstairs hall one to to 68, three of the bedrooms get too hot, but my office one has to be at 70 for me to not be chilly).

Besides, the actual temperature reading is not what's important. If 70 is what you need to be comfortable (and you can afford it), then set the damn thing at 70 and ask your husband why he hates you so much that he wants to see you suffer.

Life is too short to suffer in the name of saving a few bucks.

And you can tell Hubby I said that.

Redstone

Weird, I know, but most of our windows face south, so we have the blinds open during the day to capture heat (the furnace doesn't come on on most winter days; the house is about 68 to 70 with the passive solar). All the numbers are programmed into our thermostat.

We turn it up a little when we're both home and the sun is down, then lower it overnight. We have an eheater in the bedroom (www.eheat.us) and the cats sleep with us so the house doesn't need to be heated more than will keep the pipes from freezing. We live in Colorado, so we get a reasonable amount of sun in general.

But we like it cold.

I hate fucking monopolistic utility companies and am dedicated to conserving energy. I have an electric heater in my upstairs bedroom, like this (oil inside gets electrically heated):



I don't care about the rest of the house, so the natural gas fueled central heat is either turned off or set to fifty degrees. :)

And I use a warming blanket at night. I like to be toasty. :D

Maybe I should delete this before your husband sees it.

actually allergic to cold, dry air. If it dips to 68, my entire face swells up and I spend the night in a hot steamy bathroom with boiling hot towels on my face.

Hubby still screams when the heat bills come in. Tough.

I'm fairly comfy. If I get cold, I'll wear more clothes.

It only determines the temperature at or around the thermostat. It's got nothing to do with the average temperature though out the house.

The best way to determine what you're looking for is to find out how much it costs to heat your home per square foot.

That said....70 in the evenings/weekend......64 at night.

I keep the house in the low to mid 60s when I'm at work and at night, but 68 when I'm at home. I admit, I'm freezing all the time too.

I have a programmable thermostat. 62 degrees when we're home and 60 when we're not....waiting for the next bill to find out if it has to go a little lower at times....:(
I'm in New England, awaiting snow tonight!

All y'all saying that you turn down the heat at night.... :scared:

Yeah I'm under covers or whatever, but my face feels too cold and I can't sleep in fifty layers because then I sweat and I feel cold/hot. Yuck.

I keep it somewhere between 65-70 at night and I'll turn it down slightly during the day.

Plus, being cold makes me really irritable.

occasional bump to 64 if it gets too cold.

My Tstat is in the lower level and most of the living quarters is on the upperlevel - so I closed the vents down there and it stays warmer upstairs.

And the heaters go off when we are away or asleep. We have electric baseboard heaters. I'm not sure what is the most efficient way to run them, but our electric bills are pretty low. I think our winter spike in electricity is just as much from it being dark all the time in winter as it is from being cold. We live in a moderately cool climate (Washington state).

This morning, the temp was around -2 and I had the 'stat set at 72. I've now turned them down to 68, to see if that cuts it. I wish I could set it at about 65, but my 4-year-old son refuses to wear pants, unless there's company, and I'd turn into an ice cube.

That's why the Flying Spaghetti Monster made blankets and sweatshirts. :-)

Actually, I just really like bundling up, and living in an apartment building, heat usually rises enough to provide just enough to keep me from being a popsicle. So I save on the electric bill and keep it off.

and that is too cold for my tastes ...

nt

We would have a $400 bill if we set it at 70 degrees.

always tries to turn it down. He even went so far as to put tape over the dial...as if I couldn't figure out how to remove tape.

I'm with you. :hi:

I just got our heating bill for November and it was over $200. Hubby definitely isn't going to be happy about that and I think I'm going to have to get used to it being even colder in here. :(

Guess I'll find out how sexy I'll look in 16 layers of clothes...

I have my FANG unit set for 62 degrees at all times.

Even here in temperate SF it is KILLING me! (It's that damp cold thing we have going.)

Thank the gods for sweaters, Nana's knitted afghans, and cats. Otherwise I'd be hosed.

60 at night.

I have just been putting on fleece and sweaters a lot during the day since I do a lot of work at home. I just got the gas bill and haven't opened it yet... we didn't turn the furnace on til Nov. :scared:


We were using electric heaters in Oct. and the electric bill (the summer was really hot, too with the ac on all the time) was not pretty.

I would go lower but my wife and daughter won't let me.

In my defense, I live in a garden apartment, and have an SO who is constantly cold.

but that means the living room, where the thermostat is, stays somewhere around 60, and the bedroom is about 50. Whoever designed my apartment did not have effective heating in mind.

Actually, turning it up doesn't do all that much for the bedroom either. It's just an old, drafty building.

heaters in key rooms? Or, cheaper to just turn the thermostat up when you feel cold? For years I've heard that electric heat was more expensive to use---but with the fuel prices so high is that still true?

Just kidding.

50-ish for sleeping, since I like blankets. I'll crank it up to 70 after a shower for about an hour.

But it's not that cold here in Seattle. We have a very temperate climate.

I'd invest in some nice warm socks:

if you're cold, put on a sweater or sit under a blankie or move around more.

I find if I have it set at more than 64 in the morning (comes on before we get up, so we don't freeze in the shower), I get sinus headaches. I can't stand sleeping in a warm room, so I keep it cool at night, and there's no reason for it to be warm during the day. It does get pretty cold if I'm home sick or on vacation; around 61 degrees or so, I'll break down and either light a fire or turn it up.

Programmable thermostats are a great invention.

65 at night would give me dreadful headaches. I can't stand sleeping in a too-warm room, and 65 is too warm for winter.

By the way, I find running the vacuum cleaner for even five minutes is pretty good for warming you up, and since I have three long-haired cats, something pretty much always needs vacuuming anyway...

and if the oil holds out, it'll stay there for the rest of the winter. I wish I could have it at 70, but when you can't afford the oil, it's kind of tough. I sleep with a heating blanket now, though. It's the first luxury I've bought myself in awhile.

morning when it's real cold. It usually never gets colder than the low 50s in the house.