We just moved to our house 6 months ago (2 weeks before baby #3 arrived!). For the last 10 years our house had baseboard heat where we controlled the temperature room by room. It was nice and toasty. We are thrilled to have a gas furnace, but don't want to be spending an arm and a leg heating the house this winter. I was just curious, what temperature do you set your thermostat? We've had it at 68 so far. Some areas of the house are warmer/cooler than others. Thanks for your input!
I walked in the other day and found my husband had it set to 73! Oh Lord! I like it at about 70. We have blankets if we get cold and we have a heater that we set up to rotate between the 3 kids rooms at night to keep them warmer.
when my husband is home, its on 67. When he's not home, its on 69. If you have ceiling fans you can try to turn them in the opposite direction, and that may make the room warmer by bringing the heat down.
We keep ours at 68 all winter. If we get cold, we'll turn it up, but for the most part its at 68. Its funny because when we do turn it up we can only stand it for a little while before we feel its too hot. I think your body gets comfortable with the temperatures your used to. :)
Wow, the range of temperatures that people find comfortable is amazing. When we are home the temp here is set at 70 (63 overnight). Some months are pricey, but I hate being cold! I can tell the minute it dips to 69 in the house. I can't imagine anyone being comfortable at 63 degrees as some have answered, but more power to ya'! Hope you turn it up when you have guests!
We set it at 68. At night it goes down to 62, because our house is designed poorly and our bedroom gets no heat and it always 4-8 degrees cooler in the winter than the rest of the house. We have a space heater in our room and one in my son's room.
68 during the day...69 when the temps drop below freezing.
65 at night
We have a gas fireplace in one room that stays on a lot during the winter
Last winter we used independent heaters as well, one oil and one coiled to have more heat in specific rooms, like the bathroom after a shower upstairs.
This winter I just bought one of those plug in fake fireplaces for the basement to make it cozy during specific needs.
place something in front of drafty windows, doors, seals
turn ceiling fans into the opposite direction to circulate air upward
drink hot tea and wear layers
we keep ours at 65. its chilly but that's what layers are for. Our house is SO old ( built in 1850's) and needs new insulation so bad! I think it has the same insulation since it was built... well probably not, but feels that way! It cost us $500 a month to heat our house, so we try to keep it at a tolerable level that doesn't make the furnace run non stop.
In my old house (gas heat) I kept it in the low 80's. Less than a $50 per month bill.
GOD I MISS that setup/cost.
In our current house (oil heat)... to keep it in the 60's costs an arm and a leg (couple hundred every month)... so that's what I usually set it at. Sniff. Frrrreeeeeezing!!!
I currently have it set at 74, though, because I HURT. ((The damp gets into my joints)). It will end up costing us about $800 extra if I kept it in the low 70's instead of high 60's. Even in the low 70's I'm wearing 2 pairs of pants, camisole, 'first layer', and two bathrobes. C-c-c-cold. I'm fine below freezing (from 28 to -20, my joints don't hurt. And I'm fine in the 80's and upward. But this miserable 40/50 degrees and raining thing it does all winter just KILLS me.
I should note; I've lived here in this miserable weather for 10+ years, but I grew up in deserts and jungles. 80 is a nice cool day. 70 is breaking out wool socks and jackets. (In the desert, of course, it plunges below freezing almost every night... but that's just fine). My body just isn't wired for this stupid weather here. C-c-c-cold. Give me snow or heat but not this cursed damp.
Ours is at 68-70. Cooler during the day (work/school) warmer in the eveing and cooler at night. No house heats evenly with a gas furnace. Be sure to close all of the vents in the rooms you feel get too warm and open those that are cooler.
I'm in Northern VA, and it has been in the 40s-50s at night and 50s-60s durign the day, for the last few weeks. We also have 2 thermostats, one for downstairs and one for upstairs. I tend to keep the downstairs one aroudn 68 unless I am down there and feeling chilly. Upstairs, I tend to set at 68 during the day and 70-72 in the evenings when I am just sitting around. While sleeping it is 69-70.
Our thermostats are programmable, but I havent' bothered to do it. I heard it saves a lot of money.
Generally, we keep our programmable thermostat (if you don't have O. yet--WELL worth the cost) at about 69-70 during the day, and about 67 at night. Most days someone is there during the day--otherwise we'd set it for about 65 til our "return" time.
We currently have the temp set on 75. It is very cold in the furtherest bedroom from the central unit and hot as hell in my bedroom, even with a fan on high blowing out the door down the hall. I had the vents covered in the master, master bath, and the kitchen and dining room. I had one uncovered in the living room and that left 4 vents for the kids bedrooms and bathroom to keep their rooms pretty comfortable. Our gas bill can easily run a couple of hundred per month in the winter but in the summer it can be over $400 and never get below 80 in the house anywhere.
It is totally in my choice to set it to where it would save money but in my mind I would rather get good sleep and be totally comfortable at night them put on some extra clothes during the day to turn it down when kids are gone.
68 during the day, if people are home. 62 if people aren't home. 65 at night. :)
I'm alone on this so far but we keep ours at 72/73. I think mostly because we have an 18 month old and especially last winter, I want him to be warm because he's so little and I always feel worried because he can't pull blankets up around himself, etc. Also, his room always feels much colder than the rest of the house. freezing. so if our house was set to 69 I think it would be wayyy to cold in there.
We have it in the high 60s at night and 70 during the day (people are home). We have a programmable thermostat, which helps. If you find that some parts of the house are colder, you might want to see about insulating the vents so that the air isn't so cold by the time it arrives.
We got the "want to lock in your gas price?" letter a couple of months ago...which usually means it's coming down in price.
Our gas bills are WAY lower then electric. (It could be the rates here, I'm not sure how all that works. Our electric bills are low during he winter, too...since we aren't using the a/c) I tend to get cold easily, so I keep it anywhere from 68-72 in the winter. Depending, on the temperature outside. We can have the heater cranked, and our bill is always super low. It was almost 90 one day this week, so I don't think we have to worry about that for a while!
When we are home, our thermostat is at 67. At night and during the day while we are at work, it's at 62. We like sleeping in colder air and bundling up much more than it being hot. Our thermostat is programmable and I think our highest gas bill last winter was $200.
We keep it at 65 while at work, 68 during the day when we are home and 65 at night.
I have an old home and gas heat. In the warm rooms I close the vents and in the cooler rooms we use the plastic on the windows and other similar measures to help prevent heat loss and drafts. It allows us to keep the heat set at about 68.
We keep it at 62/63 day and night. Sometimes it's a little chilly, but we like cuddling, wearing slippers, and drinking tea under a cozy blanket. If I'm home during the day the cold makes me keep motivated to keep moving! We bump it up if the ground is covered in snow, but it's never above 70.
68, sometimes I drop it to 66 or 67 at night
We haven't oficially turned ours on yet and left it on for more than a few hours each morning...but today it might stay on as its 37* outside today. Usually I turn the heat on when I get up and by mid morning its to 66* and I shut it down..overnight we open bedroom windows (teenager and our room).
We heat to 66* daytime and it drops to 55* at night. We like it cold, and just got new bedding that roasts us to boot!
If it gets to 68* in here...with the sun, etc...I can tell immediately and I am dying! That is too warm for me and my daycare kids are used to the chilly temps too...they complain of too hot as well! LOL
Everyone sleeps GREAT here, by the way! I get 3 hour naps out of all of my daycare kids most days...and I never want to get up anymore! Me and the cats are all snuggled in by morning.
When we are home we heat with our propane fireplace and keep it about 68. Then for nighttime and daytime when we are not there the thermostat is set at 62/63.
