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Winter thermostat settings- daytime
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2015-01-01 6:48 PM

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Elite
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Reno
Subject: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

assuming that you live in a place with winter, where do you leave the thermostat during the day?   Having company for Christmas, I have bumped it up to 65, but people are still cold.   Where do you keep it for a balance of comfort and budget?

i like to sleep cold, so it drops to 58 at night, and the vent in my room is closed.



2015-01-01 6:57 PM
in reply to: Guest

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Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

70 during the day, 65 at night......vent closed and window cracked in bedroom, so it's probably 58-60 with door closed.

2015-01-01 10:33 PM
in reply to: Left Brain

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Bronze member
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

We keep a steady temp of 65 all the time.

2015-01-01 10:58 PM
in reply to: trigal38

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Master
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St. Louis
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
We keep it at 68 in the winter but often open our bedroom window to sleep in colder temps.
2015-01-02 5:43 AM
in reply to: ransick

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Key West
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
You all are hardy. Even when I lived where real winter existed I would keep my thermostat up to at least 72-73 during the day (lower at night a bit). I do the same thing now when we have an occasional "cold" snap (below 65) here. Most people here don't even have a heater though.
2015-01-02 9:08 AM
in reply to: Guest

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Master
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Minnetonka, Minnesota
Bronze member
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Our thermostat is programmable, so during the work week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm it goes down to 64, but back to 70 for other times and all during the day on the weekends. It goes down to 64 every night from 10 pm to 6 am M - F and until 8:00 am weekends. I crank it up to 71 or 72 manually when my always-cold mom or mother in law are over.


2015-01-02 10:51 AM
in reply to: ejshowers

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Pro
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Omaha, NE
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by ejshowers Our thermostat is programmable, so during the work week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm it goes down to 64, but back to 70 for other times and all during the day on the weekends. It goes down to 64 every night from 10 pm to 6 am M - F and until 8:00 am weekends. I crank it up to 71 or 72 manually when my always-cold mom or mother in law are over.

We do the programmable thing as well except my wife and I both like being warm at night.  Not only do we keep it at 73 all night, we have a heated mattress pad that's usually cranked in the winter.  lol
BTW, on a side note, if you're looking for a way to save money a heated matress pad can allow you to really drop the furnace temp overnight.

We have two furnaces in our house with one feeding the upstairs and one feeding the basement/main floor.  So, I turn the downstairs one way down over night and both way down when we're all gone.  Kids get home around 3:30 so have it kick back up for them.

Here's the winter schedules for both.  (yes, I'm a nerd and have wifi thermostats)  :-P

2015-01-02 11:39 AM
in reply to: tuwood

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Chicago, IL
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Chicago winters can be brutal. When I'm around the condo, the thermostat is at 71-72.
At night, I drop it to 63.

2015-01-02 12:02 PM
in reply to: 0

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Pro
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Twin Cities
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Set at 60 when we're gone; 65-67 if we're at home. Off to 58 at night, depending on outside temp... If it's in 30s, off, quite often. Bedroom is about 52-54, but can stay at 57-58 if it stays relatively warm out at night (above 10 or so).Sometimes, like this week, when we're home all week, we shut the heat off and just run the WRSBO in the basement and the gas FP upstairs.

Edited by mmrocker13 2015-01-02 12:03 PM
2015-01-02 12:41 PM
in reply to: 0

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Sensei
Sin City
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

The thermostat we have came "preloaded" with a program they felt was the most efficient/cost effective for the units we put in based an a typical family schedule I suppose.

It has it running at 70 degrees from 7am-8am and 6pm-10pm and 62 degrees all the other times.  I sort of understand their timing and would probably work pretty well for me if I was alone since that fits my schedule.  Warm when I get up to get ready for work and warm for most of the evening hours.

70 works well for the day but I'm struggling to get used to the 62 degree nights.  I'm tempted to set it to about 65 for the night time.

ALSO, when company is over (rare), I bite the bullet and turn it up for their comfort.  Probably turn it up to 73-75 for the length of their stay.  I don't mind bundling up myself but maybe guests don't have the clothes to do so so I make it nice for them.

Honestly, before the new system we didn't even run a program and went manual.  The wife has a crazy schedule to we got into the habit of turning it down when we left and back up when we were home.  It's not THAT hard to remember if you get into the habit.  The thermostat was on the way out of the house so just set it and leave or set it on arrival. 



Edited by Kido 2015-01-02 12:42 PM
2015-01-02 12:47 PM
in reply to: Kido

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Pro
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Omaha, NE
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

The thermostat we have came "preloaded" with a program they felt was the most efficient/cost effective for the units we put in based an a typical family schedule I suppose.

It has it running at 70 degrees from 7am-8am and 6pm-10pm and 62 degrees all the other times.  I sort of understand their timing and would probably work pretty well for me if I was alone since that fits my schedule.  Warm when I get up to get ready for work and warm for most of the evening hours.

70 works well for the day but I'm struggling to get used to the 62 degree nights.  I'm tempted to set it to about 65 for the night time.

ALSO, when company is over (rare), I bite the bullet and turn it up for their comfort.  Probably turn it up to 73-75 for the length of their stay.  I don't mind bundling up myself but maybe guests don't have the clothes to do so so I make it nice for them.

Honestly, before the new system we didn't even run a program and went manual.  The wife has a crazy schedule to we got into the habit of turning it down when we left and back up when we were home.  It's not THAT hard to remember if you get into the habit.  The thermostat was on the way out of the house so just set it and leave or set it on arrival. 

talking about the programming made me think of another tip.  If you have a "smart" thermostat make sure you verify just how "smart" it is.  My kids get home from school at 3:30 so I originally set my thermostat to warm up at 2:45 so the house would be warm when they got home.  However after several weeks I realized that my thermostat was smarter than I thought and warmed the house up so it would be that temperature at the time I set.  In other words the furnace kicked on at 1:30 (or whatever) to be warm at 2:45.  So I changed everything to 3:15 and all is good.  I'm not sure how much of an energy difference an hour makes, but I'm sure it adds up over the year.



2015-01-02 12:56 PM
in reply to: 0

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Sensei
Sin City
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by tuwood

Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

The thermostat we have came "preloaded" with a program they felt was the most efficient/cost effective for the units we put in based an a typical family schedule I suppose.

It has it running at 70 degrees from 7am-8am and 6pm-10pm and 62 degrees all the other times.  I sort of understand their timing and would probably work pretty well for me if I was alone since that fits my schedule.  Warm when I get up to get ready for work and warm for most of the evening hours.

70 works well for the day but I'm struggling to get used to the 62 degree nights.  I'm tempted to set it to about 65 for the night time.

ALSO, when company is over (rare), I bite the bullet and turn it up for their comfort.  Probably turn it up to 73-75 for the length of their stay.  I don't mind bundling up myself but maybe guests don't have the clothes to do so so I make it nice for them.

Honestly, before the new system we didn't even run a program and went manual.  The wife has a crazy schedule to we got into the habit of turning it down when we left and back up when we were home.  It's not THAT hard to remember if you get into the habit.  The thermostat was on the way out of the house so just set it and leave or set it on arrival. 

talking about the programming made me think of another tip.  If you have a "smart" thermostat make sure you verify just how "smart" it is.  My kids get home from school at 3:30 so I originally set my thermostat to warm up at 2:45 so the house would be warm when they got home.  However after several weeks I realized that my thermostat was smarter than I thought and warmed the house up so it would be that temperature at the time I set.  In other words the furnace kicked on at 1:30 (or whatever) to be warm at 2:45.  So I changed everything to 3:15 and all is good.  I'm not sure how much of an energy difference an hour makes, but I'm sure it adds up over the year.

Valid point - and already tested!  I was a bit cold yesterday at around 5pm but new the system turned on at 6 per the program.  Decided to wait it out and sure enough, a few seconds after 6 it fired up.

Another thing I'm not sure I like is the new one kicks on when there is only a 0.5 degree change. Even here in Vegas is will kick on every 20-30 minutes or so.  Not sure I like the cycling so much.  The old one I set for 1 degree and maybe every thirty minutes it would run.  However, it would have to run LONGER.  I guess the question is, is it better for the system to run twice as long for half the cycles or cycle more for shorter durations.



Edited by Kido 2015-01-02 12:56 PM
2015-01-02 2:06 PM
in reply to: Guest

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New user
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Austin, Texas
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

As poor college students in Rochester, we kept it at 52 unless we had company over. Then we were hospitable enough to bring it up to 57. These days I'm a little more reasonable

2015-01-03 11:59 AM
in reply to: tuwood

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Elite
3972
200010005001001001001002525
Reno
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Originally posted by tuwood

We do the programmable thing as well except my wife and I both like being warm at night.  Not only do we keep it at 73 all night, we have a heated mattress pad that's usually cranked in the winter.  lol
BTW, on a side note, if you're looking for a way to save money a heated matress pad can allow you to really drop the furnace temp overnight.

We have two furnaces in our house with one feeding the upstairs and one feeding the basement/main floor.  So, I turn the downstairs one way down over night and both way down when we're all gone.  Kids get home around 3:30 so have it kick back up for them.

Here's the winter schedules for both.  (yes, I'm a nerd and have wifi thermostats)  :-P

I cannot imagine 73 with a heated mattress pad with another person. At <58 with a down comforter and mr. Booty, I can be too warm and have to billow some cool air under the covers. Mr Booty is a thermonuclear reactor of a heat machine, even at rest.I expected this bimodal distribution. Tuwood's "way down" is my "turn it up for shower time.". At work in the winter, I have to wear light weight clothing because everyone else wants it warm.
2015-01-03 12:06 PM
in reply to: Kido

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Elite
3972
200010005001001001001002525
Reno
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

The thermostat we have came "preloaded" with a program they felt was the most efficient/cost effective for the units we put in based an a typical family schedule I suppose.

It has it running at 70 degrees from 7am-8am and 6pm-10pm and 62 degrees all the other times.  I sort of understand their timing and would probably work pretty well for me if I was alone since that fits my schedule.  Warm when I get up to get ready for work and warm for most of the evening hours.

70 works well for the day but I'm struggling to get used to the 62 degree nights.  I'm tempted to set it to about 65 for the night time.

ALSO, when company is over (rare), I bite the bullet and turn it up for their comfort.  Probably turn it up to 73-75 for the length of their stay.  I don't mind bundling up myself but maybe guests don't have the clothes to do so so I make it nice for them.

Honestly, before the new system we didn't even run a program and went manual.  The wife has a crazy schedule to we got into the habit of turning it down when we left and back up when we were home.  It's not THAT hard to remember if you get into the habit.  The thermostat was on the way out of the house so just set it and leave or set it on arrival. 

. Two years ago, we had the same surprise - we decided to turn to natural gas from oil at that time. It took several weeks in the dead of northern Nevada winter and we limped along with space heaters. It was COLD. I am surprised the pipes did not freeze
2015-01-03 12:07 PM
in reply to: bootygirl

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Expert
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Timmins, ON. Canada
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
I don't understand Farenheit, it is a scale that actual makes me angry when I hear people use it.

Please, people of 'Murica!' join the rest of the world and embrace the Metric system.


2015-01-03 12:23 PM
in reply to: justinfss

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Elite
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Reno
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Originally posted by justinfssI don't understand Farenheit, it is a scale that actual makes me angry when I hear people use it. Please, people of 'Murica!' join the rest of the world and embrace the Metric system.
excellent point. I wish we would too. I will see if my thremostat can switch
2015-01-03 1:26 PM
in reply to: Kido

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Alpharetta, Georgia
Bronze member
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

Ouch. Did you opt for super high-end units? I replaced both my A/c and furnace combo 3 years ago and it cost me $3K. Granted I did get a "friends and family" discount but  I can't imagine it was that steep of a discount... I didn't ask I just paid the bill

To answer the OP, When not in the house my thermostat turns down to 66 degrees. When at home, it's set to 68 but my house is so drafty I usually turn it up to 70 and have to run a space heater in my bedroom all night. With an "all window" bedroom and old windows, it dips to 56-58 at night without the space heater. Brrrrr.

2015-01-03 1:32 PM
in reply to: justinfss

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Pro
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Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by justinfss I don't understand Farenheit, it is a scale that actual makes me angry when I hear people use it. Please, people of 'Murica!' join the rest of the world and embrace the Metric system.

Nah.

2015-01-04 2:12 AM
in reply to: lisac957

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Master
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Beijing
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by lisac957

Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

Ouch. Did you opt for super high-end units? I replaced both my A/c and furnace combo 3 years ago and it cost me $3K. Granted I did get a "friends and family" discount but  I can't imagine it was that steep of a discount... I didn't ask I just paid the bill

To answer the OP, When not in the house my thermostat turns down to 66 degrees. When at home, it's set to 68 but my house is so drafty I usually turn it up to 70 and have to run a space heater in my bedroom all night. With an "all window" bedroom and old windows, it dips to 56-58 at night without the space heater. Brrrrr.

 

Full installation of my geothermal system, with 2 zones and groundloops for a 3500 square foot house was only $16,000.  I love the midwest.

 

Also, since we have geothermal, I use the "set it and forget it" method of setting the thermostat.   Heat/Cool differential of 70/73, year round.  

We used to do a setback at night when we were on gas.  65 at night and during the day when no one was around.   Once the kids came along, though, we stopped the setback.  Kids never seem to keep the covers on.   And if they wake up cold, they don't grab the covers themselves, they just cry.    In a couple more years,when the youngest is old enough to stop doing that... maybe we'll go back to a setback. 

2015-01-04 8:24 AM
in reply to: justinfss

New user
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Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
Originally posted by justinfss

I don't understand Farenheit, it is a scale that actual makes me angry when I hear people use it.

Please, people of 'Murica!' join the rest of the world and embrace the Metric system.


Yea we're so backwards, probably couldn't even put a man on the moon!


2015-01-04 1:37 PM
in reply to: moondawg14

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New user
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Austin, Texas
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Originally posted by moondawg14

Originally posted by lisac957

Originally posted by Kido

Interesting timing with this thread.  I got a lovely surprise "gift" this last week when our furnace went out and it needed replacement.  Entire dual furnace/AC system for the house for $9800.  A little rough when you didn't expect to pay that.  Crazy when we woke up that morning we would be 10k poorer by end of day - but I digress.

Ouch. Did you opt for super high-end units? I replaced both my A/c and furnace combo 3 years ago and it cost me $3K. Granted I did get a "friends and family" discount but  I can't imagine it was that steep of a discount... I didn't ask I just paid the bill

To answer the OP, When not in the house my thermostat turns down to 66 degrees. When at home, it's set to 68 but my house is so drafty I usually turn it up to 70 and have to run a space heater in my bedroom all night. With an "all window" bedroom and old windows, it dips to 56-58 at night without the space heater. Brrrrr.

 

Full installation of my geothermal system, with 2 zones and groundloops for a 3500 square foot house was only $16,000.  I love the midwest.

 

Also, since we have geothermal, I use the "set it and forget it" method of setting the thermostat.   Heat/Cool differential of 70/73, year round.  

We used to do a setback at night when we were on gas.  65 at night and during the day when no one was around.   Once the kids came along, though, we stopped the setback.  Kids never seem to keep the covers on.   And if they wake up cold, they don't grab the covers themselves, they just cry.    In a couple more years,when the youngest is old enough to stop doing that... maybe we'll go back to a setback. 

 

I'm jealous dude. Those geothermal systems are so awesome. How long did it take you, or will it take you, to make up the cost of the installation with energy savings?

2015-01-04 8:56 PM
in reply to: Guest

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252525
Howell, Michigan
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime
I'm in Michigan, the actual temp is currently 15 F and the forecast for tomorrow morning is a wind chill of -20 F, so I suppose that counts as winter. Our house is 69 during the day if we're home, 65 if no one is here or during the night.
2015-01-04 9:21 PM
in reply to: LJonesCPA

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Baton Rouge area
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

We have three units and I have slightly different programs for them.  67 for bedroom units when we are not home 62 for the other two when we are not home.  70 on the downstairs units when we are home (upstairs is at 67).  66 when we go to bed for bedroom units, 62 for the other two.

Interesting comments on the smart thermostats as I have two that will start warming early so if I want  70 degrees at am that is what I get. .

2015-01-05 8:02 AM
in reply to: Guest

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Master
2725
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Washington, DC Metro
Subject: RE: Winter thermostat settings- daytime

Programmable t-stat... 

M-F 64 from 9PM - 3:30 AM Sleep, bumps up to 70 at 3:30 for the wake up time before work, although I doubt it ever gets to 70.  I have it kick back down to 64 at 5 AM when we leave for work and then it bumps up to 70 at 4:30 PM for our home arrival.

S-S 64 from 9PM to 5AM then 70 for the remainder of the day

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