Are You Planning On Lowering The Temperature In Your House This Winter?

[staceyy]

We generally keep our thermostat set at 68 degrees during the day and 63 at night. With home gas prices rising this winter I think we'll still keep the temperature set at 68 during the day but we'll lower it to 58 at night.

[SummerM]

We're still unsure. Our house is very poorly insulated and with young children I worry about lowering the heat at night. I've found my oldest curled up freezing with no covers because he kicks them off and doesn't wake up to cover back up.

We need to do something to keep the bills low however.

[Luv2BeFrugal]

Ours will just stay at 67-68...

[homemaker66]

When my kids were smaller I would let them sleep in a sleeping bag with extra blankets inside the bag. This helped prevent them from kicking off the blankets at night. Now that they are teenagers I have electric blankets for everyone. The heat goes down to 58 at night (may lower it even more). with no one home it goes down to 58 and when we are home running around it goes to 68. It is funny that electric is cheaper for us for the time being.

[ilovechocolate]

We'll program the thermostat for 68 during the day when we're home. At night, probably 62. We have elderly dogs we spoil, so we can't let it get too low. One of them has arthritis and the cold really bothers him.

[ubumartin]

I always have it at 68 during the day and 64 at night. I am now putting it at 65-68 during the day and 60 at night. we will bundle up and now it seems there is always a blanket on the couch for watching tv and snuggling up with. I heard oil will be up over 3.20 a gallon soon!

[getnrichslowly]

yes, we will be bundling up this winter. We got new windows this summer and hope that helps, too.

[cottageliving]

I have gas heat, and keep the temp at 66 day and night. We'll see if that is enough to keep the bill in line. If not, then I'll have to take more drastic measures.

I'm taping around the windows then will use the shrink-wrap plastic kits I bought cheap at end of season last year. That should help. Let's hope.

[YankeeMom]

Ours is programmed. It's at 59 for most of the day, turning up to 62 for an hour or so in the morning (while people are showing/getting dressed) and in the evening (while the boys are bathing/getting dressed). It's been this way ever since we moved here (almost 4 yrs now). We can't lower it anymore than that.

It sounds like we live in a freezer, but we have a woodstove that we fire up every evening and it keeps the house up to 62-64 with no problems.

[HisDaisy]

We recently moved from an energy efficent apartment that was heated by the sun to older home that has issues.
In our apartment we kept the heat at 65 during the day (sometimes lower), however the sun would warm up the place. At night I turn off the heat or put at 50 keep the pipes warm.
In our house we keep the heat at 63 during the day and turn it off at night. I am home all day now and I don't want to pay more to heat the place. I will be more mindful when the weather gets colder to turn the heat on 50 at night to keep the pipes from freezing. We are also working on sealing out drafts. We dress in layers and use blankets. I grew up without heat in my bedroom so I am used to being cold at night and sleeping under blankets. I must prefer to be cold then hot.

[sdrjeolsen]

We'll be keeping it colder this year. So far we havn't turned the heat on. It has gotten down to 57 at night in the house, but I use the woodstove to warm it up on the colder evenings. I decided to try to hold out till Dec 1 till the furnace turns on. But when it does finally come on, it will stay at 55 at night and 62 during the day; a couple of degrees cooler than previous years.

[nuisance26]

~We'll be doing the same thing as last year; we'll be keeping the heat at 64* daytime and 60* nighttime. Two years ago I was doing 64* around the clock because my small children also kicked off all their covers. I discovered fleece pajamas last year(half were hand me downs and I spent $20 for the rest, 3 yr supply)and they work great! I remember when I was a kid we had blanket sleepers with the little footies on them. They were warm but not at all comfy.
Last fall DH added insulation under our house in our crawl space. This year we're sealing our windows with airtite and using vinyl sheeting on our sunroom windows. I also bought an AC window unit cover and that's working wonderfully well. And on an asthetic note, I'm busy making window quilts instead of simply hanging spare blanket up in the windows.~

[shoiji]

I have lowered the heat this year. 60-63 during the day and 55 at night. The blankets on the windows helps to keep the drafts out. And I have started wearing thermal underwear under sweats. So far I am comfortable.

[EmilyD]

I lowered our heat to 60 degrees last year .. most of the time 24/7. I bought electric blankets for both beds and an electric lap robe for the sofa.

This year we will be moving .. so not sure what we are going to have to do. However, we have a programable thermastat in the new place and we have storm windows and doors, and we are going to have an electrical fireplace for limited use. We also have two (will add one more) ceiling fans. We love having the heated bed to climb into, but we turn them off before we go to sleep

Oh, I also have flannel sheets for both beds, they are so much warmer and comfortable in the winter.

[Momof3girls]

I am planning on keeping the thermostat lower than I have in the past. We homeschool and are home during the day, so I want to keep things no lower than 65. At night, I have been experimenting with turning the thermostat completely off. I was talking with my Mom about it and she said that during the 70's energy crisis, everyone seemed to do that.