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23 April 2011

Where yo thermostat at? →[More:]LONG POST WARNING
Too busy to post this yesterday on Earth Day, but here goes:

Since I live in hot humid Texas, electricity costs are a big part of my budget. When I bought my house I did a lot of improvements on it to bring energy costs down. The prior owners said they paid $500-600 month for electricity! That's just insane to me.

So, after the improvements, my first electricity bill was under $200. But, I thought, there's always more I can do.

Heating in the winter is never a problem. In fact, no matter how cold it is outside, I usually leave the windows open. For me it's always easier to bundle up in warm clothes or add a blanket or two to the bed than it is to run the furnace.

But when it warms up ... UGH! Hot, sticky and gross outside. You almost have to run the A/C just for dehumidifying the air no matter how good/green/closed your windows are. I'm on the "greenest" electric plan possible which is also the most expensive per kWh. Still and all, I haven't had a bill over $200. Granted I live alone, but the house is a 3-bedroom and when the A/C's on it's cooling the whole house, not just where I happen to be. I make generous use of ceiling fans and floor/small fans for air circulation which helps a fair amount.

Also, electronics--of which I have many--generate a TON of heat, even when not in use.

So, over the course of the last five summers I've looked at ways to conserve energy at home. When it starts to warm up, I push the thermostat up a degree or so until I get to a level at which I think I can tolerate during the day, and two degrees lower at night.

When I moved in five years ago I was at 76/74. This year I'm trying for 81/79 and possibly 82/80. And surprisingly, I'm comfortable with these numbers. Mainly because I now make sure all electronic devices are turned off at night, and those I don't use frequently I UNPLUG FROM THE WALL.

I think all of these efforts have contributed to lowering my bill to about $100-110/month. A tremendous difference from the prior owners and a generous cut from when I first moved in. Using less electricity personally means I pay less, and hopefully helps contribute to overall energy consumption as I have faith that more and more people are learning to conserve--look at how expensive gas is! Where are we, Europe? :-)

But ... I'm always looking for more ways to save on home energy costs so if you have any suggestions, please offer them!

TL;DR What are you own thermostat settings? What do you do to save on energy costs/conserve energy at home? Got any ideas for the other bunnies out there?

post by: WolfDaddy at: 10:19 | 28 comments

Winter time we set the boiler's thermostat at a sweltering 62F which since we upgraded to a fancy new 90+% efficiency system costs us around a hundred and twenty a month in gas averaged over the year. That includes hot water. We still use the giant iron 1890 radiators so it's a nice non-drafty heat.

For AC, we keep it set at infinite and pay zero since we no have AC. There's only about three weeks of summer in the 'Burgh that warrants AC and we usually just tough it out. We actually got a 20a plug put in the bedroom this past year in the thought of buying a window unit if necessary but we haven't gotten there yet.

posted by octothorpe 23 April | 11:11

After I turned 50 and hit the menopause, I've hardly needed to have the central heating on, due to my own built-in furnace. At night I have to sleep with a fan on (menopausal night sweats are a bitch), but it's only a 45W motor and so consumes about £10 electricity a year, run 7 hours a night.

I'm lucky that my living room stays cool even when the weather is warm, and in the winter the bedroom is warm even when it's cold outside.

I have gas central heating (where hot water heated by a gas boiler is circulated around the flat through radiators). In cold weather I'll have it set to come on for an hour in the morning, so the bathroom is warm when I get up at 5.30 on one of my early starts for work, and although the thermostat is set for it to come on if the temperature drops, usually I'll switch it off because I get too warm.

My gas and electricity bills are no more than £700 a year in total.

posted by Senyar 23 April | 11:43

I have the opposite problem - New England winter - but things have been pretty lucky for me. As an apartment dweller I tend to have lived in units that were insulated from the side and/or above and/or below by other apartments, so the cooling was slower. I really try to stick it out in fall before turning the heat on, but usually by early November you have to suck it up, or I do, anyway.

I am totally comfortable between 62 and 65 most of the time in the winter - that of course is with clothes on, sweaters, and slippers. If I'm sick, or tired out, and just want the easy warmth of heat I'll pop the themostat up for a short period. We have a programmable thermo which goes down to 58 at night (I like to sleep cold) and up to 68 right before I wake up for my shower, then back down again during all the workday, and up to 65 again for the dinner and evening hours. It seems pretty efficient. We now have natural gas heat, which I like much better. It averages $77 a month to heat our place. My last place was oil heat which averaged $110 a month. I also hated paying in giant lump sums for the oil. We did have a local biofuel company as an option though.

In summer we generally suck it up, like octothorpe. Most summers it really is only a handful of days that are punishingly hot, so we've always gone without AC. Fans have generally been enough because the nights cool off nicely even after hot days. Last summer, though, was an exception. WE had a weeks-long heat wave where it never dropped below 90. And it was very humid. That was quite unpleasant, especially because in my 2nd- and 3-rd floor apartment we basically live in what was once an attic. IT gets really hot and stuffy up here where the bedrooms are. So I broke down and installed a window unit, first one of my life, just to enable us to sleep so we could function at work. It was a blessing.

I am hoping for a beautiful, warm, sunny summer, but that kind of heat.

posted by Miko 23 April | 11:43

In the winter we have the thermostat set to 72 when we are home, 65 when we are at work and 67 when we are sleeping. The flue in the fireplace is broken and the landlord refuses to fix it, so we have all kinds of things shoved in there to keep heat from escaping.

Probably in May I will turn the heat completely off. There is no need for AC here, but when/if the outside temps reach the 70s we will open doors and windows and turn on a fan or two.

We pay our fuel by usage, so in January and February the bill is around $140 and in July the bill is $9.

posted by rhapsodie 23 April | 11:52

I have one of those knob thermostats like the ones they show on the new Forever stamps. Heat is included in the apartment (which was a requirement for me when I went apartment hunting) and last year we used less than the expected amount of heating oil and my landlady gave me a refund. That said she turns the furnace totally off from May-October so I'm out of luck if we get cold snaps. It's snowing today.

This place has no AC and is sort of in the woods so it's not bad in the summertime. I usually keep the heat between 62 and 65 during the day, turn it down to 55 when I leave the house or when I'm sleeping. I have a bed with a bunch of fluffy comforters and a heated mattress pad warmer, so I never go to bed cold.

That said, I visited some New England friends last weekend who had already turned the furnace off for the season and I was stuck with no mattress pad warmer, no fluffy comforters and a 50-ish degree house [and the vague implication that my hosts would go bankrupt if I turned the space heater on] and it further cemented my resolve to never be one of those people who is so skimpy with the heat that my guests are uncomfortable. My Mom was a "put on another sweater!" person when we bitched about the heat and I always though that was sort of uncaring of her.

posted by jessamyn 23 April | 11:59

We rent a basement apartment that has heat and electricity included. So I'm kind of clueless. The landlord turns the heat on right when he's supposed to, and the house is a sauna 'til spring. Especially this time of year, when it's not quite so cold. I look forward to moving to a cooler apartment, as I enjoy big thick down comforters.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 23 April | 12:22

During college, I officially moved out of my parents' house at 9 PM on a January night because I had blue fingers every morning.

We had a screaming fight in which my dad said I was selfish and understood nothing about reality, and I was like, "Okay, so you and Mom have each other for warmth, and [brother] has a heated waterbed, and you're all upstairs where the heat rises, and I'm on the first floor of this leaky 80-year-old house in Wisconsin with a broken heat register and five blankets and I AM A GODDAMN VOICE MAJOR AND IF I GET SICK MY SEMESTER IS RUINED AND MOM IS A SINGER TOO BUT SHE DOESN'T SEEM TO CARE ABOUT THE STATE OF MY LARYNX, SO YES, IT IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM."

A couple years later I had HAD IT with coming over to visit and having to wear multiple layers, so I checked in with the father of my then-partner, who worked for the energy company and was a total tightwad. I made a lovely little brochure for my parents on things they could do to tighten up the house beyond just putting up plastic. My mom looked at it and said, "Well, that's very nice of you to think of us, honey. I think, though, that perhaps we should start with the giant holes in the foundation through which we can stick our arms from the basement to the outside."

Now I live in a building in which I am often overheated, but DAMN, it's nice to have a choice.

posted by Madamina 23 April | 12:27

I keep mine at 78F in the summer. The annoying thing is that the only two settings for the fan are Auto and On. Googling for thermostats with an Off switch turned up nothing.

Do they still make swamp coolers?

posted by brujita 23 April | 13:27

We have a whole house fan which we use between about 60 and 75 degrees. Sadly, about the time my pain tolerance took a dive, so did my tolerance for heat. We keep the AC at 74 when it's on. Still, it's a pretty small house and reasonably insulated, so even in FL our electricity bill is never above about $200, and mostly lower than that.

But hey, we nearly never turn the heat on. And we use the whole house fan as much as we can.

posted by galadriel 23 April | 14:32

Heat's included (as well as hot water) in our rent, too, so, alas, we have no control over the temperature. It tends to be okay, though. On the warm side in the evening and on the cool side early in the morning when I have to get up for work. I'm grateful the heat's included; when we had to pay for heat, it ran $300 plus a month in a similar apartment in cold months, and that was almost ten years ago.

Where I'm admittedly an energy hog is with air conditioning. We live on the third floor of a three story building, with nothing but the roof above us, so it's a little like living in an attic, and I can't stand the heat, especially at night, when I want to sleep. I love it real, real cool, with the bedroom window unit set at about 62 degrees. Aaaahhhhh... Poor Jon. He wakes up with icicles on his nose, but it feels sooooo goooood. Our summer electric bill doubles, even triples, but I don't have to drive to work in the summer, hence, tolls and gas are greatly reduced, so the costs even out.

Where I desperately wish I had control over the heat is at work. Our school's huge, with four full floors that take up most of a city block, and when the heat's cranking, it's like a sauna in my classroom. The thermostat, unfortunately, is just for show. Up, down, it has no effect on the steam radiators, which I burned my arm on twice this year, thank you very much. What makes things worse, the windows only open a few inches. It gets unbearable. The city, with all its budget woes, wastes a lot of money on unnecessary heat. And, of course, there's no air conditioning. You can just imagine, kids having to take three hour state exams, sometimes two in one day, in June in rooms that are a 100 degrees plus. Often we don't even have a lousy fan. (Of course, the principal and assistance principals all have air conditioners in their offices.)

posted by Pips 23 April | 14:54

My heat doesn't kick on until it gets below 68F and the AC doesn't kick on until 80. I live on the 3rd floor, so I get some help from the unit below me (although the first floor unit is vacant and no one knows what kind of shape it's in).

I don't have anything really fancy, and I know at least one of my windows has some sort of gap because if the wind blows really hard in a particular direction, I get a nasty little chill while I'm at my desk.

Pops put one of those silvery blankets on my water heater and paid to blow a bunch of insulation into the attic and I unplug everything when I leave (except the fridge and one lamp).

I'm hoping that my electric bills this summer (when the rate is higher) will be down a bit, since last summer they were around $100 or so (IIRC).

posted by sperose 23 April | 14:57

In the winter, I have the heat set at 22C (72F) when I'm in the house and awake, and 20C (68F) when I'm out or asleep. I used to like it colder than that for sleeping, but these days sleeping in cold air makes my sinus issues worse, so I can't do that any more. I also used to have it set a lot colder when I was out, but now I have two cats and don't want them to be uncomfortable all day in the winter.

In the summer, I have the thermostat set so that the A/C doesn't come on at all until 4:00pm, but when it does, it's set at 22C just like in the winter. I get home around 5:30, so the house is comfortable by then. I have it go up to 23C at night, which means it doesn't really come on at all unless it's a really hot night outside.

I live in a relatively new house in Canada, so it's really well sealed and insulated. It's a fairly small house, too. It doesn't seem to cost much at all to maintain those sorts of temperatures indoors in the summer. Maybe an extra $20/month on the electric bill.

In the winter my gas bill is more like $80/month, but there's already such a huge temperature difference between inside and outside that setting the thermostat a degree or two colder hardly has any effect on the bill.

posted by FishBike 23 April | 15:23

We'll have a couple $110, couple $140s, couple $160s and during the summer it is around $200. I live in Central Florida and have roughly 1800 square feet house. My husband likes to keep the air around 78. I knock it down to 75 to sleep or when I'm feeling warm.

We have a week or so when heat is a necessity. During this time we set the heat to 70-72.

posted by LoriFLA 23 April | 18:23

The thermostat stays on 67 during the fall/winter/spring. No A/C so it's just the heat, which is hot water through ugly baseboard registers. I put a new boiler in last year fueled by natural gas, and man it is totally cheap, as in like $40 a month and wonderful. Also, tiny and all shiny and digital. I call it the iBoiler. All this would be great if only the basement level of the house was heated, but it is not, which is how I can live in a 1700 square foot house and pay taxes on a 900 square foot one. So when the kids are living at home they use space heaters downstairs and our electric bill skyrockets to around $200 or $250. Bad, but that's only for a couple of months and it's cheaper than the combined cost of putting radiators into those rooms and then the increased tax bill would be.

In the summer I use window fans and the whole house fan. I put in new windows last year too, which makes a huge difference - close them in the morning and open them at night. My electric bill never seems to be less than $100 though and I wish I knew why. I suspect the ancient and ailing refrigerator and all the ceiling fans - there's one in every room.

posted by mygothlaundry 23 April | 20:20

This is a great time of year for me as I don't need a lot of heat or air conditioning. I put in new windows years ago and it took about 50% off the electric bill. Now the gas bill is constant, because the local company has a "savers plan" where you pay approximately the same amount every month after they take the average of your use over the past year. Hell in summer, but great in winter.

I've got an electric programmable thermostat and it's a money-saver, too. It was kind of ironic that the folks who sell these things tell you explicitly not to change the temperature settings because you'll lose money. Well, I found it to be the opposite. During summer, it's set to 80 or so when we're not home. I have it kick down to about 74 around 5:00 so it's tolerable when we get home. In winter I do the opposite, of course, chilling the house when nobody's home and heating up before we get there.

If I can't wait to get warm or cold, I'll get snuggly with a warming pad or a wet lava-lava.

posted by lysdexic 23 April | 20:54

In the winter it's usually set at 15C/60F, unless that's a bit chilly then it's at 17C/63F. If it's terribly cold then it's set at 20C/68F, but that's when it's well below freezing. I think I turned it up to 20C twice this last winter. And at that it's only the electric heater in my den. The one in the living room is never above 15C and the one in our bedroom has never been turned on. I guess we're pretty well insulated, plus it's a small house, plus we're in a duplex so the ambient heat from the neighbour helps. I know a lot of people would find our home too cold. Put a sweater on, dammit!

We have one portable A/C unit. I'm really susceptible to the heat and the mister isn't much better. That gets set to 75F or so and lives in my den aimed at my desk. At night it's aimed down the hallway toward the bedroom and the rest of the house. If it's really hot (90F or more - yes, it does get that hot up here) it'll get set to 70F, but that doesn't happen that often; maybe three weeks all told each summer.

We also have fans that sit in the windows and a couple large standing fans and they all get used a lot in warmer months. The one in our bedroom gets used all winter as well as in the summer (it makes great white noise). You can set them to blow in our out. We have it blow in except on the coldest of nights in the winter. We both prefer it to be cool/cold for sleeping and then bundle up in our duvet and blankets.

Our monthly hydro (electric) bill is $114. Our house is all electric, so beyond cooling and heating that includes lights, stove, hot water heater, etc. It's a good thing we prefer a cooler home in the winter or I'm sure it'd be a lot higher.

posted by deborah 23 April | 21:55

I pretty much live in a rainforest. My thermostat is set to trees.

posted by gc 24 April | 00:22

My thermostat doesn't work very well, so I in the winter I usually leave it set to 62, and then when the house feels too cold I turn it up to about 75 (any lower and the heat won't come on) until the house seems warm enough, and then turn it back down to 62. Luckily my house is tiny and very well insulated, thank you previous owners, so this system works and my oil and electric bills are not very high. In the summer, the only room with air conditioning is the tiny room where I exercise -- I overheat so easily when I work out that I absolutely must have a window unit in there. The rest of the house gets a bit warm sometimes but nothing too bad most days. I also run a dehumidifier in the basement in the summer so the electric bill goes up a bit, but is never over $85.

posted by JanetLand 24 April | 07:43

I've got a setback tstat. 5am - 8am 68F, 8am - 5pm 58F, 5pm - 10 pm 67F, 10pm - 5am 58F

posted by warbaby 24 April | 10:13

Such a lot of people who like their thermostat on 62F/16.6C.
You people are old school. You could swap stories with my old parents about breaking the ice before being able to wash, or about the frost from your breath on the blanket.

posted by jouke 24 April | 10:24

Such a lot of people who like their thermostat on 62F/16.6C.

It's not the money, that's just what's comfortable for me. Anything over that and I'm dripping with sweat. I just checked and It's 61F right now without the heat on and I'm sitting here in shorts, tee-shirt and barefoot.

posted by octothorpe 24 April | 10:28

I'm reminded of when I lived in Santa Barbara where if the temperature dipped below 65F everyone rushed inside to put sweats and UGGS on.
Every time I return for a visit now, no matter the weather I try to stay in shorts and a light silk shirt or tank top. Just to rub it in how thin your blood gets when you live in paradise ;-)

posted by WolfDaddy 24 April | 12:00

I have a co-worker who moved here from Minneapolis who thinks that any temperature over 20F is balmy and I'm not sure if he owns a coat.

posted by octothorpe 24 April | 12:08

We live in an apartment building, so heat is rarely an issue. We usually only heat the place for 1 or 2 months a year, even though we live in New York. Our winter electricity bills are around $60.
Summer on the other hand is awful, because I work at home. I hate the heat. I try to deal with it, but really, the need for a/c always wins so even though we live in a 700ish sq ft place, we end up with a couple of bills around $180ish.

posted by gaspode 24 April | 12:42

Heat is set at 68. During the summer I have the air set at 76, and I'll drop it down to 74 at night. Today the house got warm, but despite my silly children requesting air condtioning I refused. We all have window fans, they can learn to deal with it.

My Aunt and Uncle have a farm, wherein parts of their house date back over 200 years. They have never had central heating (or air). Heat was when someone got up and started teh woodburning stoves. My cousins were never sick.

posted by redvixen 24 April | 18:51

Heat, 65ish. With the recent new addition to the fam we've been keeping it a bit warmer, but typically no more than 67. We haven't turned on the A/C since moving here a year ago, so no idea. It can get quite warm in the house, but as the humidity is very low, it doesn't bother me as much as in places with mucky, soul-sucking humidity.

posted by tortillathehun 24 April | 19:41

Don't have one. I have those weird Californian gas room heaters with knobs, and I rarely use any of them except the one in the bathroom.

Before I moved out here I lived in a drafty house with huge windows and couldn't afford to keep it significantly above 55.

posted by tangerine 25 April | 01:50

I'm in Central PA and heat is a much bigger deal than AC. I think we kept our thermostat at 60 to 65 when we were awake and kicked it up a bit if we felt cold. At night it was 55 or so. If we have guests, we do kick it up to 67 or 68 =P, but we have an electric blanket on the guest bed.

We had one window air conditioner in the bedroom during the summer, and I like to sleep in the cold. It doesn't have a thermostat, though, it just says low med and hi. I like hi.

posted by jefeweiss 25 April | 21:04

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