What is in the indoor temperature at your house?

[blisstwins]

Mine is 78 at the lowest setting and our heat bill was out of control. I am thinking there is something wrong with a sensor. What is a comfortable/normal indoor temp to shoot for?

[happymomma]

Mine is set at 66 - 68 degrees. I tried to be more at 66 but ILs think it's too cold. The kids are fine. I've been trying to keep the thermostat down so the bills are not too high. Last month was good. Less than $100.

[deannanb]

our house is set for 72º during the day
I think it is a little cold outside today (as I sit typing with my coat on) - may have to turn up the heat a little. I don't like the heat blasting through the house - it gets too hot!

[caleymama]

Well, usually the thermostats are down at 60-62 because we use the wood-burning insert in the fireplace as a primary heat source. With that the temp in the living room (where it's located) is usually 68-72 and the rest of the house is high 60s during the day and low 60s first thing in the morning when the fire has died down and the blower may or may not have gone off.

When the woodstove is not in use, which is rare in the cold weather, the thermostats (3 zones) are set at 66/68, sometimes less. Our fuel bills are way high if we're just burning oil so the wood insert was a good investment. DH has access to all the downed wood he can haul and he spends a fair amount of time hauling, splitting, and stacking wood but he likes to do it and it's worth it.

[blisstwins]

Is there a difference between what you set the temperature to and what the actual temp inside is?

[MommyAllison]

We have it set to 68 during the day, though DH often turns it up to 69. Actual temp varies from 67-69.5 depending on how recently the furnace kicked on. At night it is set to 62, I think.

[elliput]

68 during the day, 66 at night. I am thinking about turning the temp down more at night as the MB room seems to retain heat better than other rooms in the house and I was sweating last night. Of course, I also had a 15mo, a 4yo, and a cat all right on top of me in addition to DH in the bed.

DH thinks 68 is just perfect and wears minimal clothing at this temp. He'd prefer to keep it this temp during the summer too, however I am the one who gets the privilege of making sure our bills are paid on time, so I also get to set the thermostat.

[elliput]

Is there a difference between what you set the temperature to and what the actual temp inside is?

For me not usually- however, if we have the TV on and more people in the house than normal the temp with go up above the set level just due to the extra bodies. It is possible that your thermostat is broken. If you don't have one, I'd suggest getting a programmable model.

[mariza]

3 days a week we are all out of the house for 10+ hours so the dog gets 62 degrees. When we are all home it's usually around 72 - 73, unless I'm cooking which heats up our whole upper floor then I turn it to about 67. I always keep it around 73 at night as I am always cold even under my comforter and the kids hate blankets and always kick them off so I want to make sure they don't freeze.

[Snow mom]

So the coldest setting (like at night) you have is 78? I'm not surprised your bills are high if that's true (or even if you are heating up to 78 a few hours a day.) Depending on where you are located (how cold it is outside and how well insulated your house is) that can get very expensive. Last winter, when DD was a newborn, we kept our thermostat at 72. That was pretty expensive. Now we do 68 during the day hours that we are home, 64 when we are out and at night. We have a programmable thermostat which is very nice. The heat comes on before I get up in the morning.

[blisstwins]

I live in an apartment building we own. The thermostat has settings A/B/C/D/E, not #s. I noticed it was crazy hot two weeks ago and began calling service people. The thermometer in my apartment said 89 degrees. Insane and we had a $2200 heating bill for 10 days. I wanted to die. We got a service person out to show up how to change the settings and have it on the lowest setting now, but my apartment is still 78 degrees. I am fighting with the building manager because I think that is too warm and something must be broken and she says tenants are not complaining--duh. I want to throw up. I cannot get anyone here for a few days, but I think I am right that something needs to be fixed. This is not sustainable.

[mommylamb]

We set it between 65 (during the day when we're not here) and 70 (when we are at home).

[infomama]

68 during the day and 65 at night.

[WitMom]

We do 68 during the day (someone is always here during the day) and 63 at night.

[daphne]

We have 2 zones. 68 for both zones when we are home; 60 for downstairs when we're sleeping.

[dogmom]

65 is the highest when we are all at home. We also have a wood burning insert and even though it says 65, it feels much warmer than when the old heat is set at 65. 50 or lower downstairs at night. 60 in the kid's room because they don't stay under their blankets all night, I like it at 55 in ours, but my husband keeps putting it up to 60 or so, I tell him to where something besides his underwear and he would be warm. Besides, I got a hound dog in bed with me keeping me toasty.

I used to keep it closer to 68, but I wound up taking it down a degree a week a few years ago and just wearing warmer clothes. When it's just me and my husband working from home I will keep it at 60 during the day.

[SnuggleBuggles]

78 is high, imo. we go between 68-72, usually 70. I'd cut it more but the layout of our heating system wouldn't allow that if we wanted the kids' rooms to be warm at all.

Beth

[jgenie]

We generally keep it at 68 and wear warm clothes around the house. We have an old home so there is generally a chill in the air.

[JBaxter]

70 daytime 65 downstairs at night. Thats the winter setting.

[MMMommy]

It's set at 62 degrees all the time.

[tylersmama]

I would be sweating to death at 78! I keep mine at 70 during the day and 68 at night during the winter. During the summer, I turn it up to 74 during the day and 72 at night.

[hillview]

Btwn 68 and 72 depending on how cold it is outside -- we have an old house and despite adding insulation etc we get a draft when very cold/windy.
/hillary

[neeleymartin]

we have ours set to 64 during the daytime and down to sixty at night. we dress warmly and have a cheaper gas bill than most people we know. maybe that's because i don't cook a lot. :ROTFLMAO:

[hobie]

60 at night for the winter time, occasionally I bump it up during the day.

[maestramommy]

Ours is set for 64 during the day and 62 at night. Around 63 it starts to get too chilly, but that's when the heater will finally kick in.

Last year we visited MIL for Thanksgiving, and for some reason she had hers at 71. We were dying of heat at night. But she usually keeps it somewhere between 68-70, which feels super toasty.

[DebbieJ]

we don't have a programmable thermostat, so we keep it set around 65 most of the time. I have a space heater in my office downstairs, otherwise we just deal with it.

I would be sweating like crazy if it was set at 78!

[ett]

We have our heat set to 70 degrees. 78 would be way too hot for us!

[okinawama]

we go between 68 and 72.

[dotgirl]

We have an automatic thermostat, so a normal weekday looks like this for us:
7:00am - 8:30am - 66F
8:30am - 4:00pm - 55F
4:00pm - 11:00pm - 66F
11:00pm - 7:00am - 61F

The weekends are basically the same, except we keep it at 66F all day.

66F sounds cold, but we all wear long sleeved shirts and it's really not - plus most studies say that ever 2F you reduce saves you $20 - $30 per month, and I'm a big fan of saving $280+ per year just for wearing a sweater!

[Melanie]

About 70 in the winter. I try to go down to 68 but we freeze. Sometimes I do 69. In the summer I can't stand much above 72. I guess I have a low range of tolerance. LOL.

[LexyLou]

I would seriously be sweating at 78 degrees! Does it feel warm or do you think there is a problem with your thermostat?

Ours is programmed to be 67 at 7am. I used to have it at 69 but our bedrooms get really warm. When we get downstairs I usually bump it up to 69.

It goes down to 65 during the day then back up to 67 around 4pm. It drops to 65 at night.

Growing up my mom would turn off the heater at night. I think maybe when my youngest is in a bed with a comforter I might drop it to 62 but I can't imagine turning it off.

[stefani]

Winter setting: 71 when we are home, 70 at night, 60 when we are out.

Summer setting: 79 when we are home, also at night, 85 when we are out.

ETA: I have a couple of alarm clocks with thermometer, and I can see that the temperature can fluctuate +/- 1 degree F. You may want to get an indoor thermometer to check your thermostat. I would think that 78 is quite warm for winter (and I don't like cold).

[HIU8]

Our program is set so that when we are home it's 71. During the day when we are not there it's 65 (and I work from home, so I wear a sweater--not a big deal). Our heating bill is only outragious when my mother or MIL are here. They both like a warmer house.

[boolady]

Winter, 67 at night, 64 during the day when we're not here. I can't imagine having it set at 78 degrees. Ack. Our heating bill is ridiculous enough set 10 degrees colder than that.

[ErinMC]

With a new baby in the house, we keep it at 68, but turn it down to 64 when we leave the house for more than a few hours. During years without a newborn, we've kept it at 64 round-the-clock, although if it was a particularly bitter cold day I'd turn it up a few degrees just to get the chill off, then turn it back to 64.

[Corie]

During the day, I keep the house between 62 and 64 degrees. If I get
cold, then I dress warmer.

At night, I turn down the main floor to around 62 degrees.

On the 2nd floor (our bedrooms), I keep the temp. at 58 degrees.
All of us have a quilt on our bed with a down comforter on top.

(I have noticed that I keep the temperature cooler for the month of
December. We have 3 Christmas trees set up in our house with lots
of lights that really heat up a room!!)

By the way, for me, 78 degrees would be completely unbearable. A woman
in our playgroup used to keep her house at 78 degrees during the Texas
winter months and I would skip playgroup. I used to leave her house
feeling horrible so I quit going to her house.

[LD92599]

58º @ night and 62º during the day, if we're home.

If we have guests over we might turn it to 65º

BTW we're in NJ - our last combined utility bill (gas and electric for one month) was $120.

[MamaKath]

Ours is kept between 60-65. 65 if we are home during the day, otherwise closer to 60 (evenings or when we are out). I am often reminding my family that we have lots of blankets available. ;) It is just so expensive to keep the heat higher!

[lchang25000]

Our's is set at 68 degrees day and night.

[Cam&Clay]

Pretty much 68 all day. I am so used to it that I can tell if someone raises it even 1 degree.

[trales]

64 when we are home. 49 when we are gone. 52 at night. It is programmable.

[Nooknookmom]

68 during the day, 66 at night. I am thinking about turning the temp down more at night as the MB room seems to retain heat better than other rooms in the house and I was sweating last night. Of course, I also had a 15mo, a 4yo, and a cat all right on top of me in addition to DH in the bed.

DH thinks 68 is just perfect and wears minimal clothing at this temp. He'd prefer to keep it this temp during the summer too, however I am the one who gets the privilege of making sure our bills are paid on time, so I also get to set the thermostat.


Hee, hee, I have a similar "cat-heater"! Amazing how warm a 23lb cat can be, lol.

I keep the thermo set at 65 for night and 74 during the day. I live in an almost 100 year old house and most of the heat flies right out of the nooks and crannies. Although I tried to weather seal everything that I could. We would need to strip all the plaster, insulate and drywall to really do it right.

Speaking of the heat...there she goes.

[3blackcats]

Mine is 78 at the lowest setting and our heat bill was out of control. I am thinking there is something wrong with a sensor. What is a comfortable/normal indoor temp to shoot for?

Ugh, I'm sweating just thinking about my house being at this temperature :)

We keep it 68F during the day when we are home. Sometimes if it is feeling really chilly I will move it up to 70F. When we are not at home and at night it goes down to 65F. Before DD was born I would drop it to 63F. IMO, you don't need it warm at night because you are all wrapped up in the covers. We have an auto thermostat that raises and lowers the temps based on the schedule we set.

Dropping during non-use times definitely saves us a ton of money. Like my dad told us when we were kids, if you're cold put on a sweater.

[JTsMom]

Between 68 and 72, depending on how cold it is outside. I can't imagine heating to 78!

[Melanie]

I would die in 78. If I could stomach that it would be so much better for our electric bill in the summer!

[C99]

Yikes! Mine is set at 70 normally and 68 at night. When we're particularly cold, we'll bump it to 71 or 72. We set our a/c at 78 in the summer. In the winter, we wear socks and slippers and a sweater. Our bills used to be horrible as well, but went down signficantly the winter after we replaced all of our windows.

[Penny's Pappa]

For me not usually- however, if we have the TV on and more people in the house than normal the temp with go up above the set level just due to the extra bodies. It is possible that your thermostat is broken. If you don't have one, I'd suggest getting a programmable model.

:yeahthat: If the internal temperature is higher than your thermostat setting by more than a degree or two, the heat should not kick on -- there's no reason for it to. Either your lowest setting is calibrated to around 78° (which is INSANELY :47: high, if you ask me!!) for some oddball reason, or your thermostat might be broken. I agree with elliput, you should think about upgrading to a programmable model.

Oh, and my settings at home are 70° when we're home, 62° when we're not, and 66° at night (we're cold-ish sleepers).

[MontrealMum]

Btwn 68 and 72 depending on how cold it is outside -- we have an old house and despite adding insulation etc we get a draft when very cold/windy.
/hillary
Same here, depending on which direction the wind is coming from. At times I just compensate with a space heater in my office. Also I WAH many days so we don't cut back during working hours all the time. We do dial back at night or if we're away, but not too much because the pipes might freeze. I am extremely warm-blooded and I think that even I might pass out if it were 78 degrees in here!

[kijip]

About 60-66 depending on time of day, the room and how cold it is outside. I turn it up to 66-68 if we are having guests who would be chilly in a cooler home. I am uncomfortably warm if it goes higher than 66ish. If it is warmish outside, we turn it essentially off at night or very low, low 50s.

[elephantmeg]

66/68 during the day (we turn it down to 64 if we aren't home) 64 at night. We have a finished upstairs that we keep at 60 unless we are going up there

[wellyes]

Some of you guys are such tough cookies. We do 65 at night because everyone has a down comforter. Otherwise 68-70 during the day.

[maestramommy]

Some of you guys are such tough cookies. We do 65 at night because everyone has a down comforter. Otherwise 68-70 during the day.

Would you believe my kids are even tougher? It's so hard to get them to wear more layers, and they absolutely refuse to wear socks. Meanwhile I'm wearing 3 layers, socks AND slippers. My mom thinks I'm so neglectful, making my kids run around in Tshirts and bare feet when it's 64 degrees inside:hysterical:

[ilfaith]

Brrr. i am shivering just reading some of these posts. 52 degrees at night? Can you see your breath? Right now my home is at 68 degrees and even that is a little chilly for me. Ideally I like 72 degrees. 74 would be even nicer. I guess this is why I live in Florida. We don't actually use our heat much in the winter. Although the temperatures did get into the 30s here overnight.

Of course in the summer we do have our thermostat set at 78 degrees. Any cooler would be expensive...and I'm not a huge fan of lots of air conditioning anyway.

[Penny's Pappa]

Brrr. i am shivering just reading some of these posts. 52 degrees at night? Can you see your breath?

I thought that was a little odd, too. IIRC, isn't 52 around the recommended minimum to keep your pipes from freezing? Maybe they're from a warmer climate, I dunno, but around here, right now, I would be freezing my ass off at 52°!!

[lil_acorn]

How can the pipes freeze at 52? It's the water freezing in the pipes that's the problem and that won't freeze until 32 right?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Getting out of bed at 52 in the morning (or in the middle of the night with a baby) would be a challenge. I'd need a programmable thermostat that kicked on prior to the alarm clock that made it so it was freezing out there.

Beth

[trales]

Brrr. i am shivering just reading some of these posts. 52 degrees at night? Can you see your breath?
I thought that was a little odd, too. IIRC, isn't 52 around the recommended minimum to keep your pipes from freezing? Maybe they're from a warmer climate, I dunno, but around here, right now, I would be freezing my ass off at 52°!!

It is negative outside right now, the house just warmed up to 62, and it had been 52 all night. You can't see your breath. If we are gone for a few days, we turn it down into the 40's.

62 feels warm, because the diff between outside and inside is almost 40 degrees right now.

[mamicka]

63 during the day when we're home. Down to 60 at night. I wear slippers & robe or sweater during the day but I can barely keep the boys in anything more than undies at that temp. They never even have socks on their feet. Plus they play in the unfinished basement which is probably in the low 50's.

We turn it up a bit if we have company.

[Penny's Pappa]

How can the pipes freeze at 52? It's the water freezing in the pipes that's the problem and that won't freeze until 32 right?

The problem isn't the 52 inside, it's the <32 outside. While your interior pipes are probably well insulated, those in exterior walls or those in more exposed areas of your home (underinsulated crawlspaces and attics, pipes exposed to the outside due to holes/cracks in the exterior wall, etc.) may be at higher risk.

We keep our house at 68-70 in the winter and last year, when the temp dropped into the low teens and beyond, the cold water line in our kitchen partially froze. YMMV.

[Fairy]

DH is a furnace, I am freezing all the time, DS tends toward his daddy. Since I"m in the house by myself during the day most days, I crank it up to 72 or even 73 manually, as it's programmed for between 60 - 66 during the day; it was programmed at a time no one was home duringthe day, and we're lazy about reprogramming it. At night I let it crank down to whatever it is, but if I'm up at midnight, I tend to crank back to 72 before I go to bed, as DS's room is always freezing in the winter and hot in the summer.

[daisymommy]

68* in the winter, and 72-75* in the Summer. We have a totally electric house, and I am home all day with 2 kids. I also wash 3 loads of cloth diapers on top of the family laundry. Our electric bill is usually $150 per month.