saving money by thermostat control

[Dmitrizmom]

Does anyone else keep the temp in their house cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer to keep the utility bill under control?

I haven't turned on my furnace yet and we've had a couple nights get down into the 40s. I think the coldest its been in the house yet was 58F. In the winter I tend to keep it around 60 at night, maybe up to 64 during the day. During the summer, we hover around 78 (and we don't turn it on until it is above 85-88F outside).

I'm hoping to make a solar heater to put in a couple windows to decrease the need for the furnace to run this winter.

[vm9799]

yes, we do this........with our programmable thermostat. it's excellent for this. we just like to be comfortable. i HATE nothing more than having it FREEZING : in the house when it's 90 degrees outside and broiling in the house when it's 15 degrees outside.

so we have ours kick up to 68 in the early morning before everyone wakes up and then down to 62 around 8a throughout the day (i'm the only one home all day and i work in my studio so this is fine for me) and it kicks back up to 68 around 3p when i get my kids from school and then down to 55-56 degrees overnight. works perfectly for us.

[oneKnight]

I do in the summer!
I can tolerate being warm, which means we save lots of $$ in the summer even though DH likes cool when he sleeps. DH sleeps under a fan that is directed mostly on HIM, I sleep under a light blanket and set the thermostat at 78 to 80 depending on how I feel. Our summer electric bills are next to nothing (Say our non-a/c utility bill in the spring or fall is $70 and our summer a/c bill is $100-120) If it's less than 80-85 outside, I just keep the windows open & fans on, I take advantage of cool nights or mornings even on the hottest days and just use the a/c during the afternoon heating.


During the winter, I'm cursed. I'm always cold and I hate to be cold. I wear thermals and sweatclothes in the winter and we have an electric blanket and a radiator style space heater. I set the thermostat at 68 and suffer, and the electric/utility bill is high (to me, say $170).

[salty]

we use fans, not AC in the summer. and in the winter we only turn the heat on if we're really chilly in the evenings. at night we turn it off altogether. it has gotten as cold as 45 overnight, but we just use many blankets. of course, we just had a new furnace with programmable thermostat installed in the apartment, so things might change this year.

[yeahwhat]

We don't use a/c at all in the summer, just fans. I don't cook indoors when it gets hot. We hide in the basement or outdoors at swimming pools during heat waves.

We can't avoid heating here, but we have yet to turn in on this year even though the daytime highs have been around 50 for the past few days, with frosts most mornings. Somehow the house has been staying in the 60-65 range, although every morning it's a bit colder and every afternoon it's a bit less warm than the day before. I've been doing more baking and making more soups for supper.

It does make a big difference to our bills. For heating and electric, we were told by the previous owner to expect to pay $200/month year round. Our highest ever average for the year was $160 and after some major renovations, insulation, etc. we're averaging $140 despite rates going up 10% and there being 6 of us living here.

[inkedmamajama]

we live in a townhouse with units on either side-so in the summer time i need my ac. but we have budget billing, so that helps.

in the winter though i plan on staying at 65 for the heat.

[Fujiko]

Well, we don't have ac, so we don't use it. :P We use a fan in one window (blowing the air through the apt) at night when it gets unbearably hot and doesn't cool down much at night. I try to heat up the apt as little as possible (we do a lot of grilling) with my cooking.

In the winter we usually keep it as cold as we can bear, and turn the heat off in the bedrooms altogether (we basically have space heaters installed into the walls of every room, so every room has it's own temperature control). But last year we had a baby, so we kept it warmer. This year she's older and can handle it, so I think we will go back to keeping it cool. We have a lot of blankets and sweatshirts and warm socks.

I've been thinking of putting up (cheap, DIY) insulated drapes over the windows. While it doesn't get as cold here (oregon) as it got where we're from (ND), the windows are single-paned, which is just weird to me because in ND all of the windows are always double-paned, because single-paned wouldn't cut it in the winter! They are too thin and let in so much cold and noise. But I don't know if it's worth the effort.

[Virginia884]

We haven't turned our heat on yet, either. We plan on leaving it off until we move (1st week of Nov). We bundle up, sleep with lots of blankets, and use sunlight to heat the house. DH is always hot so it doesn't bother him at all that the house is 60 degrees.

In the summer we run the A/C more than I'd like, because, again, DH is always hot. I'm hoping to wean him off of that, though!