What tempis your house at? - Page 2

[Smithie]

72-74 at all times. Nobody in the house likes to wear layers, and nobody in the house likes to be cold. Moving to the Southeast was definitely a win for our budget and the environment 

[Pumpkin_Pie]

58 day and night.  I would bump it lower at night, but I worry about pipes freezing.  If I had a programmable thermostat, I would lower it to 54ish at night and then crank it up to 66 for about an hour in the morning and again in the evening.  For now though, I only raise it to 66 in the evening occasionally when I am feeling really chilled. 

I am on public assistance and our heat assistance was cut by more than half this year, so I am trying to keep it super frugal this year.  I haven't sealed the windows yet, but I want to asap.  I have wool blankets hung on most outside walls with a pretty tapestry over them and thermal curtains on all of the windows.  I need to get draft dodgers for the doors too and close off DS's bedroom, as he doesn't use it for anything except clothing storage.  I am hoping I can keep the heating bills under $100 a month during December, January and February this year. 

[colsxjack]

We have just moved to our 1st home. It is 100 yr old row house. We are lucky in that it is in the middle of two houses, so we are blanketed on the majority of our walls. But, it is the first time we are ever paying for our heat and electricity. We have always rented, and it is common for rent to include utilities here.

We have forced air/oil heat. The furnace has just been cleaned and checked out and is running at great efficiency.

I think we are going to turn it down a bit. I think I am going to do it one degree at a time, every two days until it is down to 16C/61F during the day and 14C/58F at night. I can put it back up to 16C/61F an hour before we get up. Baby and the rest of us can wear layers. And she does wear a sleep sack at night as she also will not keep covers on. We can put her in warmer jammies. She has warm slippers and baby legs too.

[NaturalCreative]

We were keeping ours at 65 but had constant runny noses. :( My mother finally told me to try raising it to 70 for the night and see if it gets better. The next morning we woke up without runny noses for the first time in weeks. Needless to say I felt really guilty for keeping it low, but this is our first winter in the new house (and in PA). I think it depends on the house-we have a heat pump if that matters.

[adorabelle]

We keep ours around 58.  At night, we use a bed warmer plus a space heater to keep warm.  I can't stand getting hot at night!  We also have a woodburning stove that we like to use to try to save money.

[AllyRae]

Right now, we keep it at 68 during the day.  I'm not sure what we keep it at during the night (DH usually figits with it while I'm upstairs nursing the baby to sleep)--I do know that we don't heat the rest of the house at night--we have an electric fireplace in our room that we use at night which keeps it warm, but not too warm.  (Everyone seems more restless in a warm room at night....)

[frugalmum]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie 

58 day and night.  I would bump it lower at night, but I worry about pipes freezing.  If I had a programmable thermostat, I would lower it to 54ish at night and then crank it up to 66 for about an hour in the morning and again in the evening.

We are also worried about our pipes.  Right now we're keeping it at 52 and heating about 4 rooms with electric space heaters during the day.  Occasionally we put it up to 60-65 just to warm up the house, then put it back down.

[redvlagrl]

We keep ours around 21C/68F. I don't like being cold. We have a 1925 house with original windows.

[Alyantavid]

70, day and night.  Our house is drafty and we sleep downstairs where it's cooler.  I'm not about to get up at 5:30 in the morning and shower in the cold.

[mamadelbosque]

My dad just put in a geothermal system, and so far we've been keeping it at 70... which keeps the kitchen ~66 or so and the family room ~70* Honestly, I'd rather keep the living room/bedrooms ~66-68ish, but doing so keeps the aforementioned kitchen ~60... which is just a tad bit cold. When it gets cold enough to consistently have a fire going (we preivously heated exclusively with wood), I might end up setting the geothermal ~60. We'll see. 

[lyterae]

Between 6:00 - 8:00 am = 68

Between 8am - 6pm = 55 (or therabouts)

Between 6pm - 11pm = 68

Between 11pm - 6am = 63 (any colder than that and DH freezes at night)

I LOVE our programmable thermostat.

[honeybunmom]

We keep ours at 70 between 6-9; 68 between 9-6pm; 70 between 6pm-10; and 62 between 10-6.  I'm with greenbeanmama, as for knowing whether the kids are warm enough.  If the hands are cold, we add a layer.  I'm not opposed to hats in the house, either.  If you're concerned about the baby being cold during diaper changes, I would put something made of wool on the changing table.  If you can't get a sheep skin, why not repurpose an recycled cashmere (or other fiber) sweater from the thrift store?  My son generally won't sleep under covers, but he does sleep on a sheep skin and has a wool blanket in his crib and he is usually wearing a wool romper.  Hands and feet aren't cold and it's 62 degrees, so, I'm confident he's ok.  He's 19 mos.

[scrapadoozer]

We have a pellet stove so it does vary quite a bit. I can't stand it any warmer than 68. Night indoor temps vary from 62 to 68, I'd imagine. DH likes it warmer so if he is home we constantly battle for temperature control.

[Drummer's Wife]

I hate being cold, so our temp is set at 72 during winter.  And actually, I bump it up to 76-78 when I am not warm enough (then it gets hot and DH complains, so I turn it down). 

We don't like to wear socks, and I don't like to wear clothes to bed.  Also, 2 of my 4 kids constantly kick off covers, so I can't rely on bundling them up or using heavy comforters. Also, much of the flooring is ceramic tile, which is freezing at times.  I was just telling DH we need a heated floor, at least in the master bedroom. 

It costs $$$ to heat and cool a 3k sq ft home... but IMO it's worth it b/c I really dislike not being at a comfortable temperature.  My mom always said, "put on a sweater", and I vowed to keep my home toasty and warm if possible as an adult.  My hands and feet, especially, get really cold easily - probably a circulation issue, I dunno, but it's super uncomfortable for me. 

[carfreemama]

Had to do some farenheit-to-celsius conversions. It sounds like there are a lot of folks in the 65-68 range, which converts to 18-20 celsius. It's showing 20 degrees in here right now, without heat. I try to keep it down, just for fun. It makes it easy because dd likes things cold. She's the type of kid who really doesn't like wearing a coat in the winter and is very, very active. I'm cold a lot, but I'm adjusting. I think it's easier psychologically because I know this is a choice. When I was growing up, I was cold because we just couldn't afford proper heating or even super-warm clothes to make up the difference. I hated that. Now, we drink lots of tea and hot chocolate, snuggle under warm comforters, sleep in bed together and wear fluffy slippers. So I'm more in the 16 degrees during the day range, heat off a lot at night. We've also done tons of work to make the place more heat efficient. Last year we had blown-in insulation put in through the whole house. We've caulked everything, replaced the drafty front and back doors and this year are installing thermal drapes on every window. We have an older (1940s) house that had nothing but disintegrated seaweed for insulation in the walls. We live in Nova Scotia.

I am home working all day, so I keep it cold but only until I decide I've had enough. None of us are sick often.

We have oil heat with the lovely old radiators and our hot water is also oil fired. For all of 2009, we payed a total of $1500 for fuel in our 1350 sq foot house. I think we did well for that, though it was a pretty warm winter here in Nova Scotia last year. I'd be interested to know how much others paid!

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife 

I hate being cold, so our temp is set at 72 during winter.  And actually, I bump it up to 76-78 when I am not warm enough (then it gets hot and DH complains, so I turn it down). 

We don't like to wear socks, and I don't like to wear clothes to bed.  Also, 2 of my 4 kids constantly kick off covers, so I can't rely on bundling them up or using heavy comforters. Also, much of the flooring is ceramic tile, which is freezing at times.  I was just telling DH we need a heated floor, at least in the master bedroom. 

It costs $$$ to heat and cool a 3k sq ft home... but IMO it's worth it b/c I really dislike not being at a comfortable temperature.  My mom always said, "put on a sweater", and I vowed to keep my home toasty and warm if possible as an adult.  My hands and feet, especially, get really cold easily - probably a circulation issue, I dunno, but it's super uncomfortable for me. 

  Wow!  I would be sweating and wearing shorts and a t-shirt!  Now that I have been keeping my  heat quite low for a while, I find that even 68 makes me feel too warm occasionally.
 

[TwinMom]

Well, right now my air conditioner is still set to 74, but it hasn't kicked on in a few days.    When it gets cold I'll switch it to heat and it will be set to 68 during the day, 64 at night.  Really, our heating bill is not much, I think the highest it has ever been has been $80 and we live in a 3000 sq. ft. house.  The air conditioning, however, has been close to $800/month during the summer, and that is with the a/cs set to 74-76.  I guess that's the difference between electrical a/c and gas heat.

[sunnysandiegan]

We live in a mild climate and have a non-functioning gas furnace at the moment. Didn't even miss it last "winter".

In the past, however, we used the programmable thermostat and set it as follows:

one hour before first shower of the day for about two hours --> 72     (this is the only time any of us really object to being chilled)

daytime with someone home --> 67     (physically turn it down to 63-65, if no one was going to be home for more than two hours)

evening --> physically bump it up to 68-69, as needed, for an hour or two     (only have three settings)

one hour before my bedtime  --> 55    (we dislike sleeping in warm, dry forced-air heat)

[tea_time]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife 

I hate being cold, so our temp is set at 72 during winter.  And actually, I bump it up to 76-78 when I am not warm enough (then it gets hot and DH complains, so I turn it down). 

We don't like to wear socks, and I don't like to wear clothes to bed.  Also, 2 of my 4 kids constantly kick off covers, so I can't rely on bundling them up or using heavy comforters. Also, much of the flooring is ceramic tile, which is freezing at times.  I was just telling DH we need a heated floor, at least in the master bedroom. 

It costs $$$ to heat and cool a 3k sq ft home... but IMO it's worth it b/c I really dislike not being at a comfortable temperature.  My mom always said, "put on a sweater", and I vowed to keep my home toasty and warm if possible as an adult.  My hands and feet, especially, get really cold easily - probably a circulation issue, I dunno, but it's super uncomfortable for me. 

I'm with you Drummer's Wife, I could have written your post almost word for word.  We just turned our heat on yesterday and it's currently set to 73 although since we're in the desert it's warmer during the day (79 right now w/out the heat on).  I can't stand being cold and I don't want my 3 yo to be cold either.  I especially hate being cold in the mornings before/after a shower.  That's the worst!  We live in a energy efficient house so I don't feel as bad about using the utilities. 

[mattemma04]

I generally keep it at 68.At times when alone during the day I might put it down to 66. I think 66 is good but my dh complains it is cold at 68,and then complains about the gas bill,lol.

I thought 66 was good,but you guys blow me away! Are your bills much lower since you have kept the temps down,or have you always kept them down low? I think a high bill for us last winter was around $240,but it should be better this year since our gas fee is half what it was last year.We had a locked in rate since 2005 when gas rates were much higher.