The Saving Advice Forums - A classic personal finance community.

what temp do u keep heat on?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • what temp do u keep heat on?

    WE have a timer on it. I like it at 69. We used to keep it higher. Furnace is new and 95% high efficency but bills still not low. We live in MI.

    Dh (he is awesome but)gets on my nerves b/c he keeps putting it to 71 like he is some delicate flower all the while wearing a t shirt instead of his robe.

  • #2
    55 at night, 50 when I am gone during the day, and about 61 when I am moving around the apartment in the evenings. I had it up around 65 this past weekend as my sister was visiting.

    I have electric baseboard heat totaling about 7,000 watts, and pay 16 cents per kWh after all the taxes and fees (New England), so just over $1/hr the heat is on . . . so you can see why I have learned to live with things a bit colder!

    When lounging around the house I'm typically wearing jeans, a nice fuzzy sweatshirt, and $8 slippers. I have an electric blanket I use at night (about 300 watts).

    Comment


    • #3
      Preferably, we keep it at about 69-70 degrees or so.... That's what the heater will push it to when we turn it on. However, since it's been cold here, we sort of just turn the heat on once every day or two, then turn it off. The apartment slowly cools back to around 60 degrees, which is too cold for me... I woke up this morning with it at 60 and had to turn on the heater. I'm good with a range of 65-70, but getting colder than that becomes uncomfortable.

      Comment


      • #4
        55 when not home and 62 at home.
        LivingAlmostLarge Blog

        Comment


        • #5
          68 during the day/evening if we are home. 62 when we go to bed and when we leave the house. It is on an automatic timer so I don't really mess with it. We are in New England and run oil heat. It has been pretty efficient and I get really cold fast so it is what works for us.

          Comment


          • #6
            If I lived alone, it would be on 67 or 68. Unfortunately, my wife is always cold. We compromise at 70 though she really isn't happy with that either. At 70, she's wearing 2 pairs of socks, sweatpants, 2 shirts and sitting under a fleece blanket, often with the space heater running. If it were up to her, it would be on 72 or so.
            Steve

            * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
            * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
            * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

            Comment


            • #7
              Now that we have a programmable thermostat, we keep our heat preset on 70. If it gets to warm, we change it to cool which is preset to 65. So far, it's keeping our utility bill pretty low. Sometimes we have to bump it up to 73 or 75 in the mornings when it has gotten cold during the night because our one year old son gets really cold. Gotta look out for my boy.

              Comment


              • #8
                we have a programmable thermostat we turn the heat on to 68 from 5;30-9:30 as we are all gone all day we start getting home around 4 and by six we are all on the couch watching TV I cook at about 5 and that heats the house up a bit

                the kids agree to this as every year they want to go on some trip and the easiest way to save money is to turn the heat down we save about 300 bucks a month this way my son is going to New york with his class with the money we saved, last year we went to disneyland,

                my people will put on sweaters for promise of travel ;-)

                Comment


                • #9
                  We keep ours around 62 or 63. I can't stand it when it gets as high as 67, too hot for me!!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    68/69 - day

                    Off at night

                    Our house is rather energy efficient (+ mild climate) so the house rarely drops below 60 degrees. If ever. BUT we have lived in less energy efficient places. I don't really care how cold it gets at night. We like to sleep in the cold for whatever reason. 50 would probably be my lower limit.

                    Our gas usage (primarily winter heat and hot water) only costs $360 per YEAR, so it's a pretty cheap luxury to keep the house where we feel very comfortable. We toyed with lowering the thermostat one degree this December and didn't notice a difference in our bill. IT just got one degree cooler in the night and we had to heat the house 8-9 degrees as we usually do, during the day. So, no difference.

                    The boys (kids and hubby) run around in their underwear at 68. Literally. I come home, bundle up, and flip the heat up 1 degree. We're a different breed.
                    Last edited by MonkeyMama; 01-20-2009, 11:22 AM.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      63 day/night. I dropped it one degree at a time, and also had to remind husband to put on a sweater before complaining about cold.

                      it took 7 years to get down to 63, well 6 this year I didn't change it.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I must be a wimp. I live in Victoria, BC (where we don't get what most people would even consider much of a winter - yesterday it was about 13-14 degrees during the day, and probably went down to a chilly 3 or 4 degrees last night). Still, we keep the heat cranked up in the condo. It is probably in the 70s at all times. My DH is even worse than I am for turning it up. My DD16 would be cold in the middle of summer with Long Johns on, so she certainly keeps the heat on in her room. We start turning it on in November usually, and probably stop by sometime in February or March.

                        PS - Electricity is fairly inexpensive here, so it isn't too much of a luxury to do this. If it were more costly I would turn it down a bit and suffer, lol. Putting on a sweater doesn't really work for me. My nose and hands get freezing cold. I'm really not comfortable in a cold room just from putting on an extra layer. I used to live in a basement and I was freezing cold all the time.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          We keep it at 55 but have a woodstove to gather around which allows you to be comfortable even when the rest of the house is cool. Also use radiant heaters in the closed off rooms. My main heat for when it's really cold is an oil furnace and electricity(radiant heaters) is much cheaper. I can usually get my wood from property that I'm helping clear but won't last forever. Even if I buy wood it's cheaper than oil.
                          "Those who can't remember the past are condemmed to repeat it".- George Santayana.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            70. Being comfortable in my own house isn't something I'm willing to skimp on.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              55 at night and 68 during the day. We also have an electric heater, fireplace and afghans to snuggle up in.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X