Comments on: Freeze Your Butt Off to Save on Your Winter Heating Bills?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:02:31 +0000

Of course, the best solution is to make like a bird and migrate south for the winter. I still haven’t turned my heat on yet and we’re halfway through November.

By: Grace Lapan

Grace Lapan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:12:04 +0000

We keep our thermostat set to 56, day and night. This is twelve degrees cooler than what I grew up with, and it’s definitely been an adjustment- but I’ve found that layering and strategic placement of blankets around the house have made it doable. We live in Vermont- and so paying out for heat is inevitable…we’re just trying to pay as little as possible! We also have two dogs that make excellent foot warmers!

By: DaveRN

DaveRN — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:08:13 +0000

I live in Ohio in a house that was built in 1926. Most of the windows are replaced. When I first moved into the house, in the fall of 2000, I set the thermostat at 72 and got a $365 gas bill the following month. I called my uncle and he suggested that since the house had an inefficient furnace that we should try setting the thermostat at whatever temperature we were comfortable at and leave it there and see what the next gas bill was like since we were on the budget. Well, I set the thermostat at 74 degrees and I was VERY surprised to see that the gas bill ACTUALLY DROPPED to $180. The following year we had an 80% efficiency furnace installed and the gas bills came down more. We still keep the heat set between 72 and 74 but our current gas budget is only $100 a month. So I can’t complain.

By: Charles Hamel

Charles Hamel — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:06:49 +0000

When we were living in Houston Texas, we decided one year to see if we could not turn on the central heat all winter. Instead we put on more clothes. It was very easy to do, and we went all year with no central heating.

Now living in Hokkaido Japan, We don’t need air conditioning in the summer, and the heating is ran on Kerosene, (but with fuel prices as high as they are, it’s expensive also)

Great Post! informative!

By: living green

living green — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:27:58 +0000

I agree that people keep there thermostats way too high during the winter. I just buy room heaters for certain parts of my house and it saves tons of money on my heating bill each month. I just don’t see the point in heating the entire house up when you are usually only in a few rooms of your house.

By: megan

megan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:29:10 +0000

Wow, I went on vacation with a friend and she actually snuck up at night and turned the hotel therm to 78degrees. OH MY. i just checked my bedroom thermometer and it reads; 60 degrees. Seems a little chilly, but i can’t imagine paying to heat a whole house at night. SEEMS PIGGISH TO USE MORE DOESN”T IT?

By: Terrell

Terrell — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:57:50 +0000

I will keep the heat at 54-55 degrees this winter for BOTH day and night heating. I live 50 miles south of Canada in Northern Vermont. I also have lots of warm clothes.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:23:25 +0000

We live on the third floor of an apartment complex and fortunately we don’t have to worry about keeping it warm at night. Actually, it gets too hot and we have to open windows even though it may be snowing out. It helps heat and hot water is included in rent though so no worries here…we live in Maine.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:56:14 +0000

I live in Wisconsin and 68-70 seems to be the norm in the winter. Ours has always been 68 when we’re home and down to 60 when we’re sleeping or not at home. I recently read the recommendations from our energy company and it says 55 at night (in the WINTER). I know 55 is 55 anywhere, but just the thought of that on a Wisconsin winter night made me shiver! I will try to inch it down though, I was amazed at how much a few degrees can save. I can’t sleep if the thermostat is set too high. I’d rather be on the cooler side than sleeping under a vent blowing hot, dry air on me all night. 74, even 70, would make me completely crazy.

By: Obbop

Obbop — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 03:49:18 +0000

The wimpification of the modern American bi-pedal primate!!!!!

At night, for the 8 to 9 hours my conciousness escapes this plane of existence and I dream of jobs with a livable wage and that actually offer benefits and with no threat of that job being sent overseas, I am enveloped by the luxiourios delight of the hand-me-down goose down comforter.

It’s warm!!!! So…. when beddy-bye time arrives the thermostat setting plummets. Downwards, ever downwards, precipitously, until the little pointy cursor-like thing is aimed at the 50 degree mark.

That setting is high enough to ensure the water pipes never freeze, even during those frigid 30-below-zero nights when it is so cold the little birdies in the bushes will freeze solid, lose their grip, then plummet headlong to the hard frozen ground below.

The bedroom is at the far end of the house from the heater… an in-floor non-forced-air device with but one heat outlet. The bedroom is often 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the rest of the house but the sleeping is fine.

Heck, early English explorers in the 1600s reported the natives of the Tierra Del Fuego area at the southernmost part of South America running around butt-nekkid in sub-freezing weather, apparently suffering no discomfort at all.

What a bunch of wimps the pampered Americans are nowadays!!!!

Whacha’ all gonna do when the USA population doubles within two or three decades (according to US Census Bureau estimates of legal and illegal immigration rates) and the ready availability of heating fuels etc. will be in doubt? Even if available, the costs will have to increase greatly so as to regulate the use of a finite resource.

Might be a good time to invest in firms manufacturing those red long-johns with the trap door at one end.

And to toughen up a wee bit.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 14:07:41 +0000

We keep our house at 57 degrees during the night and daytime that we are not home. We warm it up to 63 degrees from 7am to 8 am and again from 4 pm to 7pm otherwise 57 degrees and dress warm.

By: Yinna

Yinna — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:09:42 +0000

I spend most of my evenings sitting still on the couch, either watching TV, on the phone, or using the Web. 68 is doable because I have a thick, nice looking blanket draped over the back of it, ready to pull over my legs. The cat loves the blanket, especially with me under it, so he adds extra heat.

I, too, am an open-window-forever sleeper, but my BF does not appreciate the cold. I’ll explain the cuddle factor, maybe that helps. Great post!

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 04:42:27 +0000

60 degrees overnight here - 68 when people are home daytime

I’m gettng bed warmers for everyone this year - you sleep on top of the warmer, not underneath.

When my brother lost power for 4 days he was comfortable sleeping in low-40s temperatures as long as he wore a stocking cap to bed.

Small propane heaters with safety features (e.g. low oxygen sensor) like “Mr. Buddy” are available for power failures and work O.K. for a single room

By: JB

JB — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:37:30 +0000

Before we had our son, we were always at 65 during the day and 60 at night (I grew up with this also). Since 65 degress is too cold for an infant, we went with the medical recomendation of 68 during the day (any higher actually raises the SIDs rate in studies) and still take it down to 60 during the night in the rest of the house, with a space heater in my son’s room to keep him cozy at 68.
Our programmable thermastat kicks on 30 min before my husband gets up. We close the bathroom door at night, so all that extra heat makes for a very cozy bathroom temp in the morning for him.
Other than that, its all about blankets, wearing cuddl duds, drinking hot beverages, and cozy slippers. I’m naturally a very thin (100 lbs) and, consequently, perpetually cold, but with proper dressing you get by.
Lastly, we also close off the vents in rooms we don’t use regularly and keep those doors shut. It makes no sense to heat/cool rooms that aren’t in use.

By: aeko

aeko — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:36:38 +0000

I have found that if I turn the heat down too low at night it takes hours for the house to get warm in the morning, also if I turn off heat to a room, the cold from the room will drift into the remainder of the house that I am heating.