New Household Temp Guidelines

[Meriweather]

82 for sleeping is not happening.
We keep out AC at 77 all day and night except for 3 hours when it is turned off for our energy savings with the electric company. At the end of the 3 hours, I am counting the minutes to turn it back on. It gets to 83 and I hate it

 

[VandVsmama]

This is something where "your mileage may vary" based on where you live. In a humid area like Florida, that temp would be sweaty and uncomfortable. Here in very dry AZ, we keep our thermostat set to 80 degrees and have ceiling fans in each room. Of course, the high temp outside yesterday was 115, so it's 35 degrees cooler indoors.

 

[disneychrista]

Mine doesn't go below 78. It is just fine, most of the time. We always have a fan blowing also.

It gets turned off about 7pm (earlier sometimes) with doors/windows and fans blowing.

 

[Searc]

82 for sleeping is not happening.
We keep out AC at 77 all day and night except for 3 hours when it is turned off for our energy savings with the electric company. At the end of the 3 hours, I am counting the minutes to turn it back on. It gets to 83 and I hate it

How efficient is it to let the house heat up six degrees, just to have to run the c/a longer to get it back *down* to the set temp? That doesn't seem very logical.

 

[mnrose]

We've NEVER turned out thermostat lower than 78 in the summer. Indeed, most days, we don't even both with AC. Shrug. It's what you get used to that matters. As a kid, we had no kind of air conditioning, and I slept upstairs. No one died. We've become soft.

In the winter, never above 70.

What really floors me is that the people who "insist" that they need the thermostat lower than 70 in the summer, also insist it needs to be at least 75 in the winter. Makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[Southernmiss]

Land of high humidity and heat indices.

When no one is home, temp is 80. At night 73.

 

[Diznygrl]

Yeah, I suppose it depends on the humidity where you live. Here, where the temps outside are 100+ but the humidity is like 15% or less, 78-80 feels fine. On the rare days that it is humid in the summer here, I can feel the difference where suddenly my house set at 79 doesn't feel so "fine"anymore.

I keep the temp higher in the summer in order to keep costs down (especially now with new "time of day" pricing), but even I wouldn't want to sleep in 82 degrees every night, and I have a fairly high tolerance. Luckily the air rarely has to come on much during sleeping hours anyway, even set at 79.

 

[ronandannette]

How efficient is it to let the house heat up six degrees, just to have to run the c/a longer to get it back *down* to the set temp? That doesn't seem very logical.

I'm in residential construction and our HVAC manufacturers and contractors have always advised that programmable thermostats and smart-home operation from devices is basically a "gimmick". It is proven more energy efficient to just find a comfortable temperature and hold there. This is the same for either heating or cooling. My company's standard specification has been for programmables for over 10 years and smart-home in the last 3 or 4. People want it; they don't seem to care about the reality. I guess the same could be said for lots of things.

 

[mrodgers]

I couldn't sit in most of your homes. AC is set at 69, sometimes 68. I keep it there all the time and I'm alone so no one there when I'm at work. It takes hours to cool down from 72 to 69 when I first moved in here and tried to set it higher while at work.

Winter the furnace is set at 65 or 66. I wear shorts, tshirt, and no socks in the home 365 days a year.

 

[kimblebee]

You guys are crazy lol

If I had a/c it would be set around 18 in the summer and the furnace around 21 for the winter.

 

[amberpi]

Sleep experts say the optimal sleeping temperature is 65 degrees. A cooler temperature results in a more productive sleep that happens quicker.

https://www.health.com/sleep/best-temperature-for-sleeping

I was going to mention the exact same thing. I am miserable trying to sleep when it’s 72 at night. At hotels I love being able to set the term down soooo far and not worry about the bill.

 

[amberpi]

Also, the kids would complain their darling little faces off. We keep the same temps year round (except for vacations) and I think one time this winter the girl asked to wear a onesie pj.

 

[Meriweather]

How efficient is it to let the house heat up six degrees, just to have to run the c/a longer to get it back *down* to the set temp? That doesn't seem very logical.

Lots .....our monthly has dropped considerably since joining the program.
It is off during peak usage hours and then when it starts up again it is a lower usage time.

 

[msjprincess]

I set mine to 74, plus a ceiling fan to sleep.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I wrote a song about this. Want to hear it, here it go.

We will never ever ever,
turn it to 82 and sleep together.

It's a work in progress.

Ok out west with very little humidity, well maybe. But we never had genuine air conditioning out there. At night we'd pour some ice water in the swamp cooler and leave the blower on until bed time and that did it. Didn't use nearly what a genuine air conditioner would in the way of energy. But no way no how would 82 work in most of the south for us.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I need to be cold to sleep. No way would I be able to sleep at 82 degrees! My preferred inside temp is 72 degrees, all day long. I sleep with a fan blowing on me year-round, and in the winter I crack the bedroom window open up until the temps start falling into single digits.

 

[Hikergirl]

Mine is set for 72 day and night.
The day these guidelines came out I was actually at my neighbors whose AC unit was set at 78.
I was dying, it was so hot in that house I couldn't wait to get out. When I went home and opened the door and that rush of cool air hit me was sweet relief!

She has an AC unit which has to work very hard to maintain that 78 in her open floor plan home.
I have C/A so if I set mine for 78 it may not be as bad as hers. Still not doing it though LOL

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

HAHAHAHA. Not in South Florida.

We sleep at 75* and keep it at 76* during the day. I think that's pretty warm for a South Florida home.

Here in NE FL, I keep the house at 74 during the summer. I go up to 75 (because 74 is freaking cold in my house) but any higher and it's like a wet sauna.

In the winter, I set the thermostat to 67-68, but it doesn't seem as cold at 68 in winter as it does at 74 in summer. LOL

ETA: we have ceiling fans in every bedroom and the living room. We run them 24/7 (even in winter; we just flip the them so the fans move the air up in winter, down in summer). I find the heating/cooling system doesn't have to work as hard if all the doors are open and the ceiling fans are on. We only shut the bedroom doors at night.

 

[LilyWDW]

AC is set to 74 all day/night. Then I run fans. During the night I have 3 fans going because I am one of those people who HAS to have a blanket over them.

 

[wenrob]

We've NEVER turned out thermostat lower than 78 in the summer. Indeed, most days, we don't even both with AC. Shrug. It's what you get used to that matters. As a kid, we had no kind of air conditioning, and I slept upstairs. No one died. We've become soft.

In the winter, never above 70.

What really floors me is that the people who "insist" that they need the thermostat lower than 70 in the summer, also insist it needs to be at least 75 in the winter. Makes no sense whatsoever.

We lose elderly folks every summer because they don’t have or won’t turn the AC on. Heat related deaths are a thing here even among locals who are “used to it.” It’s dangerously hot during the day and remains pretty warm over night.

No way would 80-82 happen here. I used to keep mine between 76-78 but would quite often knock in down to try to cool the place off. Now I keep it at 74-75 and don’t have to do that. My bill has not jumped significantly.