How cold is too cold - inside? (Spin-off)

[ThinkBlu]

How about inside the house. Prior to having kids, DH and I watched our thermostat settings pretty close, but since having kids, we tend to keep the thermostat set higher, especially at night. For example, currently we set 69 when we are awake and 66 when we are asleep, but it used to be more like 66 / 60. How about you? My eldest is finally to a point where he will keep a blanket on, and often gets really sweaty, but my youngest (20 months) doesn't yet have the coordination (for lack of a better word) to keep a blanket on.

[MotherWhimsey]

we keep ours at 68. I still get cold at that temp, but we're too cheap to put it any higher. Dd is so different than me though, it's 68 and I'm shivering under a feather comforter and she's over there trying to take her clothes off and sweating in her sleep too.

[nicole lisa]

This year I've decided to live a little and let the house be comfortable. Last year I kept the house at 54-55F at night and maybe 58-60 during the day. It was freezing but I was worried about cost and made everyone wear their moccasins and sweaters. To watch a movie or the TV you would need to wrap up in blankets. But then on crazy cold nights (-45 windchill nights) I would risk freezing the pipes (which did happen a couple of times). So for peace of mind and comfort, despite the cost, this year I'm keeping the house at 64 at night and 67 during the day.

It feels like heaven, lol!

[Owen'nZoe]

We've been keeping ours at 68 during the day, and put it down to 60 at night, and 58 when we aren't home. Now that DS (21 mos) is moving from our bed into his own room, I have been putting a space heater in his room at night...I do sort of wonder if the extra consumption from the heater makes the lower temp at night a wash financially, but DH and I are comfy enough at 60 anyway.

[boongirl]

We do 66 during the day in the coldest part of the year. (it is 33 outside right now and that is what our therm is at today) and 55 at night. We all use three blankets, top one being wool this time of year. We are used to it and so is dd. I have a friend who's house feels like and oven to me in summer as it gets to 75+ and yet she is comfy. Below 70 is cold for her and her little one is shivering. So, I don't think anything is too cold so long as you are comfortable and healthy.

[mamato2boys]

At night we're at 58, during the day 68. I'm still cold at 68, but everyone else in the fam. seems fine. At night our youngest wears feetie pajamas and despite the fact that he won't go under the covers with me he's always warm. The older kids have two blankets.

[megincl]

ah yes! winter temps. we are total cheapskates when it comes to heat. we go for about 64 in the day, but often it's just me at home, so i just turn off the heat and bundle up -- i can't justify heating a whole house for me to work in one room. at night, we turn off the heat unless it's really freezing outside. that means it gets down to about 55. our best discovery was putting ds in two layers of pjs. he wears a one piece cotton layer with a blanket sleeper over that. the blanket sleeper serves as his blanket, so he does ok. i think he's also generally a cooker, so he doesn't really get chilly. i love going to school, where they pump up the heat. it's total luxury!

megin

[JamesMama]

I'm in the minority I guess...we keep our house around 73 and I love it that way. But we keep our gas at 68 and heat with space heaters, we did the same thing last winter and our electric never got over $140...electirc is cheap in my town because we have a hydro electric plant right here in town.

[Sneezykids]

We generally keep ours at 66 at night and 67-69 during the day. I'm home with ds and sometimes I will jack it up to 70 for a while. I think 70 is ideal, but agree gas prices suck right now too. We have a wall of floor to ceiling windows on the south side of our house that when it's sunny outside, have a solar effect and on sunny days even in super cold weather I can turn off the heat during the day!

[Brinda]

We do 68 during the wake-times and 57 at night.

[OhMel]

It's set at 62 during the day and 57 at night. Night time doesn't bother me at all, and day only when I first get up. Once I'm dressed it's fine. It did seem really cold when we first started doing it and I noticed one of my friends is now bringing slippers and a sweater when she visits.

I'm not sure what I'll do when the new babe gets here though -- the day will be fine (sling) but I don't know about night.

[sleet76]

I guess I'm opposite. We have it warmer at night. It is about 64-65 during the day when we're active, and up to 68-70 at night. Our kids don't co-sleep with us now, and DD's room is on the corner of the house and pretty cold. I don't want to worry about them being cold. Chalk up lower heating bills to continued co-sleeping, I suppose!

[USAmma]

We keep ours at 72 at night b/c we are wimps. lol! Also because dd2 will not use blankets and does not like to be dressed up in too many layers to stay warm. She was very, very sick all last winter and I'm trying to not stress her immune system with it being too cold. Next year when she's older and hopefully using blankets we'll lower it. During the day I keep it off.

[Ravin]

We haven't turned our heater on yet. My DD is a furnace, and we just put her in long sleeved/legged pajamas and socks to sleep (or, like to night, knit pants and a t-shirt). DH and I just huddle under blankets.

But this house retains heat like it's going out of style (not unlike the whole Phoenix metro area). Our electric bills in summer for A/C are killer, but for winter there's really nothing to complain about.

I'm a wimp about cold, but grew up with my mother, who was all about letting it be cold at night (when I visit her house I'm forever turning up the thermostat, lol).

[Birth Junky]

Interesting thread!

DH and I live in an old house, which is hard to keep warm--thank goodness it is small, or we would NEVER get any heat built up! This year we decided to try to use our woodstove instead of the electric heat with an eye towards saving a bit on the utilities, but have found as the weather gets colder that the woodstove just doesn't cut it. We use blankets when we're on the couch, and the concrete slab beneath the carpet is so cold that it feels like you are sitting on a refrigerator! (We don't wear shoes in the house.) It hasn't been too uncomfortable for us (we just wear an extra layer), but obviously once the baby arrives in the spring we are going to have to keep the house a tad bit warmer!

[ctdoula]

We use a outside wood furnace that blows hot air into the house for heat. (This is our 1st year using it, prior to this we used oil & cast iron steam radiotors). It's 68-74 inside/downstairs most of the time. Overnight it tends to cool down since we're not feeding the fire all night. Because it blows in downstairs, we rely on "heat rises" to heat the upstairs, so it's much cooler in our bedrooms. My guess would be 62ish. We use warm jammies & extra quilts on dd's bed & our big feather comforter in our room (ds co-sleeps).

[ABand3]

Ours is set for 66 during the day, 60 at night. The worst part is that the thermostat switches to night at 10pm, and when I'm not in bed by then (like now!) I get cold and then don't feel warm again 'til morning.

[crunchy_mama]

Our is about at 71 day and night. We have to keep it fairly cool during the day because dh sleeps during the day.

[mumm]

We set our heat to 53 at night (to keep pipes from freezing) and it is between 58 and 60 during the day.

60 is heaven to me, because it is warmer than we have ever kept it. One cold, fussy day in the spring I just couldn't stand the cold any longer and I turned the heat up to 60. The house is small and literally within 10 minutes everyone was more pleasant and the kids weren't so irritable. This winter I will turn it to 60 if it means we have a more pleasant life!

We sleep in homemade fleece blankets (Ds sleeps alone) and I wear slippers during the day. Dd is usually naked during the day except for a T-shirt, and she sleeps completely nude. The rest of us wear jeans, shirt and usually a fleece top. We are warm enough, but get used to it. So that when we visit someone like crunchy_mama's house we are sooooooo hot! And forget the library. We always strip right down once we get there!

[Alkenny]

65 during the day (60 at night), but I think that's more for MY comfort.