Thermostat Settings

[Snodog]

68 during the night and when away (any lower and I don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning), and 70 for when at home. The past month I've started using a heating pad to keep warm. I've found that if you keep your body core warm your whole body feels warm. We have noticed considerable savings as the heating pad uses little power (we used to keep it at 74). In the summer we keep it at 79.

[PMMM]

Programmable set back thermostat.
68 from 5 am to 6:30 am. 63 from 6:30 am to 3:00 pm. 70 from 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm. 10 pm to 5 am 63, Monday thru Friday.
Saturday and Sunday, 68 from 10 am to 5 pm, 70 from 5 pm to 10 pm. 63 from 10 pm to 10 am.

Works for us. On really, really cold days I may crank it up to 71 in the evening to placate my wife. She runs real cold all the time.

Pat

[kork13]

When you're single, go for the glory - I have it around 57 at night & while I'm at work. I up it to 63 when I'm home. Plus I keep a room heater in the bedroom and its probably 68 or so in here - but I only use the heater when I'm home. It makes a huge difference in the heating bill.

Go for the glory, huh? hmm... Well, central air is a pretty rare find here in Japan (each room has a wall-mounted heater/AC), so I have no idea what my house's temperature normally is. Sadly, they also don't believe in insulation over here, so no matter how long I run anything, it never stays a consistent temperature. So for me, I almost never run the heater/AC, except when it's unbearable (except for in my bedroom, right before going to bed and set on a timer for shortly before I wake up). I mostly use blankets and/or warmer clothing when it's cold, or mostly just "live with it" when it's warm, at least until it tops 90 degrees outside. That strategy really backfires on me on the nights it drops around 40... waking up can be miserable those mornings. At the same time, at least it's very inexpensive--my power bill is only ~$60/mo ("normal" apparently is 2-3 times that)

Programmable set back thermostat.

Now that I'm living without central air, I realize how much of a luxury a programmable thermostat would be... So easy, and it's always exactly what you want it to be! haha

[cschin4]

I don't play the Thermostat Wars. I 'set it and forget it'. If I can't afford to heat my home to my comfort, I might as well live in my car. And, in my opinion, it doesn't work anyway. If you turn the heat way down and then when you do come home and turn it up, all the surfaces in the house are really cold so even when it does heat up the furnace is working that much harder or it never feels warm.
In the summer, I have central AC because I intend to use it. It is maximally efficient if you just let it maintain a constant temp. And, we have allergies in spring and summer so that is better for us than fans and opening windows. I will pay more to be comfortable and buy less stuff.

[bennkar]

Go for the glory, huh? hmm... Well, central air is a pretty rare find here in Japan (each room has a wall-mounted heater/AC), so I have no idea what my house's temperature normally is. Sadly, they also don't believe in insulation over here, so no matter how long I run anything, it never stays a consistent temperature. So for me, I almost never run the heater/AC, except when it's unbearable (except for in my bedroom, right before going to bed and set on a timer for shortly before I wake up). I mostly use blankets and/or warmer clothing when it's cold, or mostly just "live with it" when it's warm, at least until it tops 90 degrees outside. That strategy really backfires on me on the nights it drops around 40... waking up can be miserable those mornings. At the same time, at least it's very inexpensive--my power bill is only ~$60/mo ("normal" apparently is 2-3 times that)

I lived in Europe for a few years, and there too they didn't believe in insulation, so I feel your pain. My first winter there was awful, after that I learned how to live with it. I also let it get hot in the summer, and just cool my bedroom as I need to have it cool to sleep.

[disneysteve]

When you're single, go for the glory

A couple of comments come to mind. When I was single in my last apartment, I would be out most of the day and keep the heat just about off. I would turn it up to maybe 66 or 67 when I got home. At night, I would turn it back down but I would run a small space heater in the bedroom. Why bother heating the whole apartment? That kept my bills really low.

In my first apartment, I lived on the ground floor. My apartment faced a courtyard so although there was a window, it didn't get the wind exposure that an outside apartment would. Also, my apartment was over the boiler room for the building and the heat radiated up into my apartment. The floor was actually warm to touch to the point that I couldn't store certain items directly on the floor. I lived there for 2 years and never once turned on the heat.

My cousin, who is single, lives on the second floor of a duplex that he owns. For many years, he had an elderly woman living on the first floor. She kept her heat on 85 day and night. Thanks to heat rising, he hardly ever needed his heat. I can't imagine what her bills were like but it sure helped his bills.

[preciouslove]

I'm from Iowa as well. We have a thermostat that is set to switch a couple of times throughout the day. During the day when were at work it is set to 62, we come home and in the evening it goes up to 68, while sleeping it goes to 65, and the cycle repeats itself...pretty nice!

[feh]

We're in WI. 68 during the day, and I think 62 at night. When I get home from work, I put on a sweatshirt.

DW, who is more sensitive to the lower temp, doesn't like it, but she understands.

[greenskeeper]

A friend of mine had an apartment in college with baseboard electric. First month came to $9 or so. Seems the meter wasn't reading correctly. He had the warmest apartment on campus.

[Shzasaver2]

Our programable thermostat is great! We live in Upstate NY, so winter schedule: 68 at about 5:45am, while we getting ready for the day, drops to 62 about 9am, then back up to 68 at 3:30pm and then drops to 56 after 10:30pm.
Summer, only slight variations between 68 & 74.

[LuckyRobin]

From November to about the end of April it kicks on at 6 a.m. to 70 for an hour to warm up the house and then it is on 60 during the rest of the day, but the temp in the house usually registers around 65 because it is well-insulated. I am usually home alone during the day. I dress in a sweatshirt, thick jeans, and heavy slipper socks and I'll use a blanket if I am sitting on the couch and get chilly. But at night, we keep it at 68 because at 60 the kids are too cold to sleep and it is too hard to warm the house up the next day.

I have a space heater in my bedroom that I actually keep at 70 at night which is simply because I have a quirk that I can't sleep if my nose is cold and it gets cold at anything less than 70. Layers and blankets don't help with that and I can't sleep with my head under a blanket, I've tried, so...it's weird but it works for us. We turn the furnace (and heater) off completely May through the end of October as it is warm enough from the day's sun to keep the house warm all night at that point, so no space heater then either. No air conditioning in this house.

[ColinWalker]

As a renter that doesn't pay utilities but can control the thermostat it tends to stay at 70 all year... Might be moving, so this may soon change drastically

[deedee421]

I'm in Michigan too...67 during the day and 65 at night.

[ferriwinkle]

I live in Montana and we set ours at 68 during the day and 60 while we are sleeping. We used to set it higher, but when we dropped it a few degrees in winter we noticed about a 20 dollar savings in our gas bill.

[Ima saver]

I use to always keep my heat set at 63. My small poodle had surgery this winter, so I have turned the heat up to 64 degrees and she sleeps on a covered heating pad. I have still spend $2500 on propane this winter. (We have a big house, plus we heat the garage and garage eff. apt.)