Proper home temperature

[Jim Richards]

Winter - 70, Summer - 76

[JavaBrewer]

SoCal winter (69 morning, 64 day, no heat at night)
SoCal summer (no AC so it's a whole house fan at night)
The rest of the year just open windows

We like the house cold with fresh air at night - we are in the hills and it got down to low 40's last night. Invested in quality comforters so once in bed it's awesome.

[island911]

Just wait for the squabbling over the proper global temperature.

[Hawktel]

Its 72 in here right now.

Being uncomfortable to save a few bucks sounds pretty dumb to me.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

62 - 65 is ok for us during the day

[CHICKS]

62 at night, and during the day, 67 all the other time.

[Paul_Heery]

I wanted to revive this thread after reading an interesting article in the NYT this morning. Home Thermostats, Wallflowers No More

The author had several of the new smart thermostats installed in his place. He really liked Nest | The Learning Thermostat Does anyone here have one of these?

[flipper35]

We have a geothermal heat pump and it doesn't pay to adjust the temperature daily in the winter since the unit kicks the electric heating coils on to quickly warm the house. Set it and leave it for the winter. In the summer we run it if it is really hot or humid and it is cheaper than the whole house attic fan, but the breeze with open windows is nice to sleep to. We are usually around 70 in the winter as it doesn't save us much money to go to 68 since our entire heating/cooling is less than $1000 per year here in Wisconsin.

[GH85Carrera]

So much of what feels comfortable comes down to my activity level. If I am just sitting and reading or watching TV 68 to 70 in the winter and the thermostat drops to 64 while we are in bed. It warms back up before we wake up. I really love our heated floors on a cold day.

In the summer 78 degrees with a small fan on low blowing on me.

If I am in the garage working on a project I never turn the heat up above 62 out there and that is working in my t-shirt and jeans. Even at 60 degrees if I am moving around and working I will break out sweating and I turn on the ceiling fans.

[kach22i]

65-F in the winter.

I might go lower this year, have several wool shawl cardigan sweaters, thick wool Canadian made socks, flannel lined pants. I'll even wear a hat inside for a while just to warm up.

[john70t]

The thermostat was set 67-69, but after experimenting with 62 during the day it hasn't kicked on in hours. Good thread.

One feature I'd want to see with future thermostats is a range: i.e. heats to 70deg and waits until 60deg to start the furnace again.
A lot of heat in the air is absorbed by walls and objects. No more on-off-on-off which uses a lot of gas in single-stage furnaces.

Adding door seals and caulking has cut most of the drafts.

[teenerted1]

Originally Posted by thinkfloyd14

I like 71-72 degrees, but my dad insists on 68 while my mom would want it below that with the windows open.

im freezing my ass off over here.

help

my family is the exat opisite
me most of the time 68 is fine. if i feel a chill its layers or a fire
dad 70-71
mom 75 feels about right.

they always come for a long visit in september when the temp makes a big change.
ill be sitting it shorts sweating and mom is in a sweater shivering and wanting to turn on the heat for the first time since spring

over turkey they had the house set at 72. luckily both the guest rooms have vents you can shut. makes my life easier being able to sleep in a cool room.

work is a differnt story.
they have thermostate in rooms that control other zones in the building.
boiling hot in lunchroom and conference room, yet frezing cold in the gopher holes where the rest of us work. flip that in the summer.

[flipper35]

We blew in additional insulation and added storm windows for the crappy AW windows which helped quite a bit. Calked the same windows as I think they were installed wrong. Our bedroom is above our garage and is the coolest place in the house in the winter but we haven't had to use the electric baseboard heaters since getting rid of our old furnace. Those costs I mentioned were for a 2440sq/ft ranch with a finished basement.

Since we are pumping heat from one substance to another we don't have the on/off/on/off issues. Temp out the vents is jsut over 90* in the winter and 59* in the summer. The geothermal was more expensive than our other options (no natural gas in the country) but for us the return was 6.5 years and I don't have to fill anything. We are looking at putting a gas fireplace in the basement in case of a long power outage though. My wife likes fireplaces. A lot.