Over lunch with a classmate last week, I discovered she and her fiance keep their home at 75 degrees in the winter. I think I hid it well, but I was shocked. Dan and I keep the house at 60 or 62. I know we go low, but I thought most people at least kept it at 70/68.
The old saying, “Put a sweater on” is mantra in our home. We are healthy adults, so I don’t get what the big deal is. Plus, when you’re doing housework and moving around, you keep your internal temp up. When we’re on the couch, we have a blanket across our laps. It’s cozy. The cat thinks so, too.
From the US Department of Energy:
“During each 24-hour period, you will save about 3% on your heating bill for every 1° that you lower the thermostat setting. For example, if you normally keep your thermostat set at 75° all the time, and you lower it by 3° to 72°, you will save about 9% (3×3%) on your heating bill. In other words, you will save about 9 cents for every dollar you spend on heating costs. “
Which means Dan and I save 45% compared to my classmate.
If 60 seems too low for you, start small. Try turning your temp down by 2 degrees, then progress by one or two a week. You will eventually find your comfort zone with a sweater, and I hope that it’s 68 degrees or less 
UPDATE: This appears to be my most popular post, with several hits a day thanks to search engines. Wow. Anyway, we’ve adjusted our heat a bit. It stays at 60 from 10pm-6pm. We’ve been putting it at 64 or 66 for the evening hours.
11 Comments
November 13, 2007 at 8:51 am
I have to admit I have trouble visualizing a house at 75°. We keep ours at 65°, and everyone has their own afghan in the living room in case of chill. But I grew up on North Dakota, and rather expect to be chilly in the winter. I realize this makes me sound a bit “holier than thou”, so I’ll add that we don’t do nearly enough to conserve in other areas, but we’re working on it!
November 13, 2007 at 9:04 am
We used to keep ours at 72. Now it’s 70. I still freeze my butt off (though I’m the girl that’s always cold, without fail). I often have a cozy blanket, sweatpants and a sweatshirt on. I honestly can’t imagine going lower. I’m sleeping with socks on right now, which to me feels absolutely uncomfortable. Dropping from 72 to 70 was enough for me for now
November 13, 2007 at 9:14 am
We keep ours at 65 or below in the winter. We keep it below 65 (maybe 60-62) during the day while we’re not home and when we’re sleeping. We usually turn it up while we’re getting ready in the morning and sometimes at night if we’re watching TV and it’s freezing in the house. Really, I can’t say we’re conserving much energy, though. Our old house has such thin walls and poor insulation that the hot air flies right out of it. If we owned the house, we would definitely make improvements. There’s not a lot you can do when you’re renting, though.
By the way, I would absolutely die sleeping at 75 degrees. I like it to be cold cold cold. In the summer, we keep the house at 75 or above during the day, but at night we have to turn it down to 70-72. If we don’t, I keep Ryan up all night because I’m sleeping horribly and thrashing all around. The poor guy has to get up in the middle of the night to lower the AC and then I sleep like a baby. Every night I think, “I can do it tonight. We can keep the temp high and I’ll be able to sleep,” but it just doesn’t ever work.
November 13, 2007 at 9:31 am
We keep ours at 68 during the day and turn it down at night (I don’t know how far). It’s tricky, because I want to make sure it’s warm enough but not too warm for the baby. But I do like it cold when I sleep — makes it so much cozier.
November 13, 2007 at 9:55 am
I can’t even imagine a 75 degree house! Egads! We haven’t turned our heat on yet, and if we do it will be kept at 65 during the day and off at night. Just toss another blanket on and learn to snuggle!
November 13, 2007 at 10:28 am
Oh – ours is really low during the day, neither of us are home all day. I think it goes up to 70 at 5:00 or something like that.
November 13, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I tried turning my heat down to 59 at night once, but my head was so cold I couldn’t sleep and I ended up with my comforter over my head. Now I think it goes down to 62 at night. I keep my heat at 66 when I’m home, but I may change that to 68 this winter because my apartment is drafty and when I’m cold I get depressed and sleepy and I don’t want to spend the entire winter cold, depressed, and sleepy.
November 14, 2007 at 8:29 am
Tom puts new meaning into put an extra sweater on: when it is below 65 in the apartment, he not only puts on his winter hat, he wraps a sweatshirt or sweater around his neck. I really need to buy him some housescarves, because I can’t tell you how funny it looks to have a sweatshirt as a scarf (and it is not the preppy look).
And since most of his day is spent at the computer, he’s not really moving around to keep warm and has a hard time studying if it’s cold. Also, the downstairs neighbors who control the thermostat tend to not think of him and automatically turn the heat all the way down when they leave for work in the morning, which leaves Tom to remember to go down to the first floor to adjust it.
I think we usually feel like we’re doing well if we can get it *up* to 65 in the winter. As one of your other friends noted, it’s a different story when you live in a 100+ old house; 65 doesn’t necessarily mean efficiency because of the construction. But at least we don’t have a space heater.
The bedroom, the one room without a heat source, is more likely to hover around 60-62, but that’s tolerable because of the heated mattress pads. Just turn them on an hour before bed and turn them off when you jump into the toasty warm bed.
November 16, 2007 at 11:17 am
It isn’t healthy for people, pets or furniture if the furnace thermostat is set >72. For every 1 degree higher the furnace is set, it robs up to 5% moisture out of the air. Hence the dry and sometimes bloody noses! Even Little Grandma will wear a sweater instead of turning the heat up because of her nose.
March 14, 2008 at 4:04 am
We keep ours at 50-55 at night when we’re sleeping, usually turn it down around 8 at night. When we get home from work, we put it up to around 60-62. I love it when my buddy come over, then complains its cold, so we throw him a blanket and tell him to shut up. My GF and I find it SOOO easy to sleep in the cold like this!
I also love the fact that it keeps my bills low!!
May 20, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Wonderful website / Will visit once again…