Poll: where is your thermostat set during the Winter?
Cold weather has hit St. Louis which means people are cranking up their furnaces, using more energy. You can possibly save energy (and money) by adjusting the setting:
You can easily save energy in the winter by setting the thermostat to 68°F while you’re awake and setting it lower while you’re asleep or away from home. By turning your thermostat back 10°-15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%-15% a year on your heating bill-a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long. The percentage of savings from setback is greater for buildings in milder climates than for those in more severe climates.
A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. This misconception has been dispelled by years of research and numerous studies. The fuel required to reheat a building to a comfortable temperature is roughly equal to the fuel saved as the building drops to the lower temperature. You save fuel between the time that the temperature stabilizes at the lower level and the next time heat is needed. So, the longer your house remains at the lower temperature, the more energy you save. (EnergySavers.gov: General Thermostat Operation)
I’m fortunate in that my condo stays about 68º just based on heat from surrounding units and only a single exterior wall. The past week my furnace has only kicked on during the night because I went to bed with the thermostat still set at 68º.
The poll this week asks where you keep your thermostat set when you are home and awake. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
– Steve Patterson
62 in the day and 52 at night. there is no need to have it hotter, wear more clothes.
We're in Maine (here via Streetsblog) and keep it 58 during the day and 45 at night. Old house, not very well insulated, so we close the doors on and use one or two rooms at a time, augment if necessary with space heaters, and try not to be terribly smug about it.
Not too much of a range there Steve!
I keep my 600sf place at 62º when I'm home and 58º when away. I have found that this is quite tolerable when running a humidifier in the room I'm in, as the added humidity keeps the air temperature *almost* within the ASHRAE comfort curve.
67 all year long. I am very uncomfortable at higher interior temps.
63 during the day, 58 at night. We have a new energy efficient hvac system so it keeps it pretty true to that temp (our old one was set much higher but never really did its job?). In the attic, where our kids sleep, we have baseboard heat that is kept low as well. My only problem room is the kitchen, which is filled with windows and doors. A thermometer on the counter is 5-8 degrees colder than the rest of the house. Ah well.
But now that I read this, I am tempted to go up two degrees during the day or early evening (I am home with kids) and down two or three degrees at night.
68 anytime we're here, 60ish when we're away. We were at 65 last year but our newborn appreciates the bump up. 🙂
I had to do this:
“Oh no, f— that Larry. You'e my motherf—ing man Larry, but 72? S—, might as well sleep outside. I'm an 82 man myself. 82 That's my s—,that's my motherf—ing region myself.”
Personally, 60 is where its at. Adjust comforters and clothes as needed. I also sleep in a cap, seeing as how most of your body's heat escapes through the head.
Mine's set to 63 all the time in the winter, day and night. It's an ancient 50+ year-old thermostat so I'm not sure what that translates to in actual temperatures, but that's the point at which my furnace is not blowing constantly. I tried setting it around 70 once for a month and got a gas bill that was hundreds of dollars, so I just put on a sweatshirt and keep it lower and my bill is usually around $100 or less (brick house, slightly under 1000sqft).
Also, as far as “most of your body's heat escapes through the head”, that's an old myth that has been thoroughly debunked. Imagine going outside in 0-degree temperatures wearing a warm winter ski suit, boots, gloves, long underwear, etc, and no hat. Now imagine going outside completely naked except for a really warm hat, the warmest you can get (maybe one of those furry Russian hats they wear in Siberia). In which configuration do you think you would have the higher body temperature? (Also, the concept of heat “escaping” out of someones' head as if they were a teapot is funny to think of.) Heat “escapes” your head at the same rate it does from any other part of your body. The head is a lot more sensitive to temperature changes, though, so wearing a warm hat will make you feel warmer even if it doesn't make any significant difference to your body temperature.
A steady 61 degrees. Sometimes bump it up a degree or two when I'm at home and don't feel like layering up. I'd rather keep my house chilly than replace the awesome 100 year-old windows.
I keep my programmable thermostat at 67 when I am at home, but set it to 60 when I am at work.
I installed a programmable thermostat for less than $30 when I bought the house, which is a huge improvement over the old dial one that used mercury. It is a simple fix that anyone can do.
i posted the same poll on my facebook page and got an average temp of 68. the reason for the poll was some recent guests who complained about our home temp of 62 (which we had raised from its normal 58-60 for the benefit of our guests). it's winter, are you supposed to be hot!?