Is There an Ideal Thermostat Setting ?

[Brian Elfert]

We keep the thermostat at 55. Winter or summer....I don't understand raising it to 80 in the summer as some have stated. If you have radiant heat you can't just turn it up or down when you like. It's not instant heat....

Air conditioning in the summer, not heat. I would be wearing a jacket and snow pants if I heated my house at only 55 degrees.

[Jay Jolliffe]

I meant 65 not 55....We heat with wood also so the furnace doesn't run to much..

[Gordon Eyre]

Maybe you should define "way up" so that we could decide if your wife is really overheating the house. We settle on 72 during the day and 65 at night.

[ray hampton]

We keep the thermostat at 65. Winter or summer....I don't understand raising it to 80 in the summer as some have stated. If you have radiant heat you can't just turn it up or down when you like. It's not instant heat....

please excuse me folks but in the summer time we turn the AC UP then turn the heat up in the winter
I set the control to cool the house down to 80 degrees except when I work outside then will lower the temperature to 75 degrees

[Ed Aumiller]

Currently.....74 in winter, 80 in summer...
Before we had an 8 year old it was 70 in winter and 75 in summer....

[Andrew Joiner]

Maybe you should define "way up" so that we could decide if your wife is really overheating the house. We settle on 72 during the day and 65 at night.

Here's the problem Gordon. My wife doesn't even look at the numbers when she turns up the thermostat. Most of the time the dial is turned up to make the house 72 to 76F.

[Randal Stevenson]

My wife says she doesn't even look at the numbers when she turns up the thermostat! She just wants the house warm when she feels cold. She's gone most work days so I would turn it down to 64F . When she gets home she's mad that I kept it so cold all day. It only takes 10 minutes for the house to get to 74F or 10 seconds to put on a sweater so I never saw her point.

I will just have to let go and accept the situation. It's one of the rare things we argue about and really not important in the long run.

You might consider space heaters as an accessory if there is a room that she stays in more then others. I know my mom has a couple of places in the house she stays, and the one smaller room seems fine, but the larger room seems chilly to her. Putting in a space heater to bring it up and only it, makes it seem warmer (no cold spots).
The line a friends wife said to her husband, always makes me laugh: "frigid house, or frigid spouse, you decide".

[Jay Runde]

We keep the thermostat at 65. Winter or summer....I don't understand raising it to 80 in the summer as some have stated. If you have radiant heat you can't just turn it up or down when you like. It's not instant heat....

If you'd pay the difference in our electric bill, I would gladly keep the thermostat at 65 during the summer. Right now it runs 450+ during the summer months keeping it between 78 (occupied) and 82 (when unoccupied). I would hate to see what it would cost to keep it at 65 degrees during the summer.

[Keith Westfall]

You can only remove so much clothing so there is a limit on how high the ideal setting can be.

Maybe if you got to the point where there was nothing left to take off, it might make a difference...

[Jay Jolliffe]

Living in Maine you don't need air conditioning.....

[Jason Roehl]

66ºF during the day here (my wife stays home, homeschooling the children), and 62ºF at night during the heating season. Our highest natural gas bill in the 5.5 winters we've been in the house has been about $190 or so. We do have a solar panel heater that does help on sunny days (solar box on the roof with a blower, controlled by a snap-disk thermostat in the solar box).

In the summer, the A/C is set to 77ºF, thought I might turn it down (cooler) by a degree or two if it's very humid and the temperature isn't high enough to make the A/C run much.

My theory is that if you set the thermostat right at the limit of what you can stand, then your body will also better adapt to the much harsher outside temperatures. I also try to go as long as I can in the fall wearing shorts, no jacket, etc. and the converse in the spring so that I will be more acclimated to the coming winter and summer, respectively. I've gotten to where I don't mind winter as much, and the heat saps my strength more than it used to, so I must admit that I'm quick to crank the A/C when I get in my vehicles in the summer.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I'm posting this mostly to say I give up. We have a well insulated non drafty house. My wife likes to turn the thermostat way up rather than put on a sweater. I'm happy putting on a sweater when I feel cold. We can afford the natural gas no problem. It probably only costs $50 a month more to "overheat" our house. I consider it a waste, but I have to let go of that to keep the peace.

From now on I will be wearing a thin T-shirt, no sweater and biting my tongue all winter.

I bet this a common problem,right?

My wife and I pretty much agree on our thermostat, we're both cheap and with heating a large house with LP gas we have to be! Might I suggest, with Valentines Day coming up, perhaps some really nice cashmere sweaters for a present might save some heating bills. (Alpaca goes over well, too)