Extra frugal with heat and AC

[kilapapipa]

I didn't think we were frugal on the heat but at 67 up and 65 down, I guess we are. We have gas/hot water heat and adjusting the t-stat doesn't seem to save us so we just leave it 24/7. We are all comfortable with it though. We only have a swamp cooler for summer but we open windows to cool the house off at night and it works great here at 5000 ft.

[Caoineag]

One of the many drawbacks of apartment living is our thermostat. We set it at 68 when its freezing outside, leave it off completely when there isn't any danger of freezing, and leave it at 70 when there is a cold snap. Not sure what we can set the air conditioner at, we tend to leave it off unless we need to cool the place a little. We shoot for an ambient temp of 80 though.

Issue is, the thermostat is bonkers and we know it. If we don't want the furnace kicking on, we have to turn it off. If we don't want our pipes freezing during a cold snap, we have to keep it above 70 (management even warns you of this with posters on doors during cold snaps).

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Yes, I have lived in two places where the kitchen pipes froze. The first was with our furnace at 56, but we'd lived there for 6 years previous with no problem. That January was just a really cold one and the pipes near the wall I guess just gradually lost out to the creeping cold. The second was during the period when we were keeping the house warmer for our 4 year old. I don't remember the temp settings we used, but probably around 68, which I would have thought adequate to prevent a pipe freeze. However, the kitchen was carved out of what used to be the back porch and there was only a little wood between those pipes and the great frozen outdoors....We had kept the faucet dribbling in both these apartments as a precaution, too....In neither case did the landlord seem to blame us, though in the second, I could have opened the cabinet door below the sink to circulate the warmer air to the pipes.

[mom-from-missouri]

We adjust it in the summer for guests (scary ones might get too hot and strip...), but they have learned to wear an extra layer at our house in the winter.

[jodi]

We heat with wood, but usually turn on the electric baseboard in the kitchen if we are entertaining for dinner, or the propane fireplace in the living room if we have guests for cards or movies. Usually, though, (since we are all cold-blooded), the room gets too warm for the guests - even if we are comfortable - and we have to cut back. Twice this month, my parents have gone to play cards at others houses and came back complaining about the cold, so I think we err on the side of caution. I would rather have to turn the heat down than have someone shivering and not mention it. For some reason, it seems to be much easier for people to ask you to turn the fireplace off than to turn the heat up!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Absolutely we keep it colder than normal people. We keep it at 50 during the day and night. When we had guests this long weekend we turned it up to 62. And our bills still range about $500/month during the winter.

Now during the summer turn the a/c on because DH can't stand the humidity. I don't care one way or another. We keep it at 80 though. Just to get rid of the humidity!

So yes we're cheap. But others don't pay our bills.