Do You Adjust Your Heat/AC at Night?

[Klayfish]

Winter: 68 when we're home and awake, 65 when we're sleeping, 62 when nobody is home

Summer: 78 when we're home and awake, 75 when we're sleeping, 80 when nobody is home

Our house also has dual zone climate control, so the upstairs is typically cold most of the time in the winter and warm most of the time in the summer since we're not up there often.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We have ours at 67 when we are home and awake and on 64 when we leave and at night.

 

[2goofycampers]

72 during the day and 67 at night year round.

 

[Meriweather]

Stays the same.....72 in winter and 77 in summer

 

[PamNC]

I turn it way down downstairs since I sleep upstairs. Down to like 60... 61 maybe. Upstairs I do 66 at night - and turn it down during the day. The highest I ever run my heat is 68. Ever. My house is old and big and no insulation. I'd go bankrupt.

 

[Floridaman999]

I set it and forget it.

 

[mnrose]

In the summer, we rarely use the AC and it does go OFF at night unless the overnight temps are absurdly high (very rare). We use fans and open the windows.

In the winter, the forced air is almost always OFF. It's a unique arrangement as our lower level has in floor heat (3 bedrooms, second kitchen and family room down there), and upper level (kitchen, living and dining, and master) has a combination of passive solar and forced air. If the sun shines during the day, the upper level easily gets to the high 70's with us not turning on forced air. The lower level has in floor heat set at 68 all the time. Between the residual heat from the passive solar, and the in floor radiating up, the upper level will stay over 67 all the time. Our forced air hasn't been on in over a week. LOL. Love it when the sun shines. If we get clouds, we set the forced at 68 during the day. Off at night. The radiant heat from downstairs keeps the upstairs above 60 at night, and that's fine for sleeping. Our heating bills are insanely low, considering our house is over 4000 square feet. Highest EVER (combination of well below zero temps, and clouds) was about $150. Cheap as chips as far as I'm concerned.

 

[mnrose]

Wow, some of your houses sound so cold! I don't know if our thermostat isn't sensing properly, but we've had it at 74 all winter so far and it still feels cold in here. We do have poor insulation and windows that don't seal the greatest though.

That makes a big difference. We rented a house recently, and it was poorly insulated. The forced air ran almost constantly, with temperature set at 71 and it STILL felt cold to me. OTOH, as I note above, ours is never set higher than 68 and I feel comfortable. Of course, I do wear "warmer" clothing and a sweater/sweatshirt.

 

[starry_solo]

We like it warm. I warm the house up to 72-74 and then shut the heater off before going to sleep. Occasionally, another member of the family will turn it on in the middle of the night if it's gone down to the mid-60s.

 

[lovin'fl]

No. I keep my heat at 70 and my AC at 72. But it blows strong in our master bedroom and bathroom. And it gets super hot while we sleep...and if you walk out into our living room (master is off of living room) in the night, it is chilly out there but like an oven in our master. So maybe I should set the thermostat to go down to 68 at night. DDs are home from college and their bedrooms are upstairs and they moved their thermostat up to 72 (we have 2 thermostats but 1 HVAC unit....not sure how it works but that's what we have).

Was just at my mom's, up north, and she keeps her house at 68 but it's freezing. We stay in her basement in law suite and have plug in electric heater. The heater said it was 62 down there...FREEZING. Sitting on the toilet was like sitting on ice and even walking on tile and hardwood floors, WITH thick fuzzy socks on, was like walking on ice. I don't understand because we have experimented with 68 VS 72 for heat and the gas/electric bill is only a few bucks higher a month.

 

[Hikergirl]

My heat stays at 68 day and night.
AC is stays at around 74

 

[disneychrista]

The older I get the less tolerant I am to the cold. Each year my preset on the thermostat goes up. No clue the numbers but it’s higher when we are home and awake then away or sleeping.

 

[cabanafrau]

Ours is controlled by a programmable thermostat designed to keep us comfortable and minimize the energy usage. Between thermostat, newer HVAC, new windows, increasing attic insulation and having insulation blown into our walls our energy consumption has dropped quite a bit. Thank goodness, because the actual bills aren't any cheaper despite a considerable drop in natural gas and electricity usage.

 

[kdonnel]

The second floor with the bedrooms has the heat set to 63 during the day and 50 at night.

The first floor where everyone is during the day has the heat set to 60 during most of the day, it does go to 65 just before everyone gets home and down to 50 at night.

If only I could get the AC to keep those same temps during the summer. We do go to 66 at night on the bedroom floor.

 

[_19disnA]

In older homes with less efficient units, you may find your HVAC can't keep up with heating in winter or cooling in summer. Moving the temp up/down may require the unit to run a long time to catch up. If the unit runs constantly to get you back to the desired temperature, you probably aren't saving anything on your gas/electric bills. Better insulation and/or more energy efficient windows can help, but builders often install the smallest possible HVAC unit during construction, so it has trouble holding a set temperature during very hot/cold weather.

If the house is empty from M-F when the adults are working or children at school, it makes sense to have a programmable thermostat. You can set it to resume the desired temp about 1 hour before you get home and still have a comfortable house.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I'm not in charge of the thermostat at my house. It's usually turned down at night to the low 60s, but it doesn't make a difference to me because the vent doesn't go to my room for some reason. So it's always cold here in my room. I'm sitting at my desk right now wearing a hoodie with the hood up. Conversely, during the summer I'm sweltering because the AC doesn't reach my room either.

No AC in the window for me because it always trips the circuit breaker, so I just have a fan. We keep the house at 78 in hot weather, and it feels nice and comfortable.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It's on a schedule with the progammable thermostat.

In winter it's 69 in the day and 67 at night.

 

[aprilchem]

This is exactly me too.

My thermostat stays around 74 in the winter, regardless of time of day.

(On the flip side....I rarely use the a/c, and if I do, it doesn’t go anywhere near the 60’s)

You would freeze in my house and I would cook in yours. We keep our house set at 62 in the winter, night and day.

My mom keeps her house at 75 and we can't take it - we don't sleep there overnight anymore because we would all be so hot and sweaty.

 

[MillauFr]

I have never understood making it colder while you sleep.

Disclaimer: I hate the cold.

I'll wake up in a pool of sweat if we don't turn off the heat at night.

 

[mrodgers]

I have never understood making it colder while you sleep.

Disclaimer: I hate the cold.

Ha, I have never understood many things of those that hate the cold. Such as, how blazing hot people like it when they are not directly paying for it (work office) or why people dress to survive arctic winters for just walking 10 seconds to their car and walking 10 seconds from the car to the door, yet the heat is blasting for the half hour drive to 100° while still dressed to survive arctic winters.

Also don't understand why people who are hot are always expected to cater to the ones that can put more clothes on. I share an office with a guy who turns the AC to 78-80 constantly all day and is sitting there in a hoodie and flannel shirt while sweat pours down all over everyone else's keyboards. I can only take so much off without losing my job or getting arrested. Put more clothes on if you want to sit in an oven.

I turn the heat down to 65 at night and have all the vents blocked in the back part of my place (mobile home.) It's probably more like 60 in the bedroom to sleep. I still have a fan running and I wake up sweating often.

In the summer, the AC is completely separate from the furnace with the air handler outside. The AC ties in at the kitchen in the center and from the kitchen the ductwork splits to the outside walls for the living room. Most of the AC air blows back to the bedroom and bathroom so it's freezing back there trying to keep the living room and kitchen at around 70-71°. Again, it's great because I want it freezing to sleep, but makes it difficult to regulate out in the living space.

Most of my AC actually backfeeds through the furnace and it's like a meat locker in the little closet the furnace is in. It's a new furnace last Christmas that's still being paid for and it is AC ready so when the AC goes out, I'll rework the whole thing and cut the air handler from outside. That will cut heating costs a lot since the furnace also backfeeds outside through the AC duct, so every time the furnace kicks on, it blows all the cold air outside and under my mobile to the inside before the warm air is flowing through.