Extra frugal with heat and AC

**Scanner** · 02-22-2008, 08:07 PM

Yes, in the summer, we keep the house at 80 degrees during the day and 72 at night. But when my MIL comes to babysit, she is doing us a favor and we turn it down to 74 to keep her comfortable.

**maat55** · 02-23-2008, 04:23 AM

My wife lives like there's no tomorrow, I turn off lights, shut doors. I have a programable thermostat that she does not know how to set, so she can only adjust the temperature during the cycle it's in. She will drive 20 miles for next to no reason.

**rob62521** · 02-23-2008, 05:42 AM

Yes, we keep the heat to 65 degrees, but if we have company, we do turn it up. When we leave for work, we turn it down to 62.

I'm not quite so frugal when it comes to a/c -- we keep it at 74 degrees in the summer, but if we leave the house, we turn it to 78-79. I have asthma and I don't handle heat very well.

**MonkeyMama** · 02-23-2008, 05:52 AM

Well, I am not sure I would consider us extra frugal. But for the area, most our friends think we are crazy (We set thermostat 68 winter/78 summer).

YEs, we kick up the heat to 69 or 70 when guests come over. Otherwise they shiver. In the summer we cool it down for guests.

For work, I have one wardrobe - winter. The heat is not on very high in the winter and I FREEZE in the a/c in the summer. It's actually okay because the one wardrobe will do all year. & that's pretty frugal.

In the summer I go home and strip to nothing though. I mean it only gets to 110, etc. & I am driving home in a sweater most the time.

Likewise, kicking up the energy usage on the weekend for a few hours; it's not a biggie. I don't think it makes a huge difference. I know it makes our guests way more comfortable.

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 02-23-2008, 07:14 AM

MonkeyMama, I think that in stores the clothes sold tend to be for buildings carefully kept to 72 all year round. The summer clothes are sweaty synthetics and the winter clothes are thin, non-insulating synthetics. For the most part, I mean. If I had to wear a sweater home in the car in summer, I think I'd take along a T-shirt for the ride home. But definitely the clothes we wear affect how comfortable we are in whatever temp our thermostats are set.

**cschin4** · 02-23-2008, 07:40 AM

I dress warmly. Turtlenecks, long johns , sweaters and wear slippers. However, I am not going to freeze and be uncomfortable in my own home. I was recently at a friend's house and home was uncomfortably good. I was glad when it was time to leave not because I didn't want to spend time with her but because my feet were freezing. Saving money is fine. Saving money at the expense of your own personal comfort and the comfort of anothers is another story. Personally, I will sacrifice in other areas of my finances so that my home feels comfortable to me.
And, I don't bother with "turn up, turn down the heat" thing. I have found it made no difference in my bill. And, when I did turn it up, even though the temp on the thermostat rose, the house was still uncomfortable and all the surfaces such as the floor, wood end tables, etc were all very cold and stayed cold. So, now I "set it and forget it". And, there are also many furnace/heating experts that will tell you that is the way to go as well.

**cschin4** · 02-23-2008, 07:41 AM

uncomfortably good

I meant uncomfortably cold!

**gackle** · 02-23-2008, 07:42 AM

In the winter we keep both upstairs and downstairs thermostats on 68. At night though, we set the downstairs to 60. It gets pretty cold, but the kids are sleeping upstairs in warmth and we're bundling up downstairs.

In the summer we started on 78 a few years ago, but my wife has slowly inched it up to where she tried to go to 80 last summer and I finally put my foot down. For some reason, there is just a distinct difference to me between 79 and 80 to where I can take it at 79, but 80 is just intolerable. No matter how much money we're trying to save, there is a point where I have to be comfortable in my own home.

We do adjust the thermostats for visitors who stay for several hours and for guests, especially when they're taking care of our kids.

**PrincessPerky** · 02-23-2008, 10:24 AM

We occasionally change the temp for guests..usually in the summer, but not winter..because more guests means the heat automatically goes up..body heat. Not for short term guests though, only ones staying the night...no one complains, and everyone comes back.

As to others houses..I find I am hot a lot in winter...which is odd for me, I used to be cold blooded. Layering up so I can be in cool summer shirts and thin pants does the trick though.

In general the only trouble is what to do with a coat in stores....I firmly believe in dressing for the weather..been stuck with a busted car (or locked the keys in the car..with the coat) one to many times in winter to risk letting my kids suffer that way!

**simpleyme** · 02-23-2008, 11:26 AM

we keep our house pretty cold in the winter for most people so yes I turn it up when i have guests
when we go to my moms we almost die as her house is so hot in the winter we cannot get her to turn it down a couple of degrees , it makes my lungs hurt just thinking out it

**FrugalFish** · 02-24-2008, 07:05 AM

We don't keep our house as cool in the winter as I would like. The 2 year old doesn't sleep well (even in blanket sleepers) if the temp is under 70. Hopefully next year we can knock the thermo back a little and she will be ready to sleep with extra blankets. Sometimes I manually knock it down a couple of degrees in the day if the sun is shining and spots of the house feel warm.

We are fortunate enough to be able to run an evaporative cooler where we live (we plumb them into the central ventilation here, no ugly ceiling hole), so the cost of running that is minimal. Even when it is running nearly 24 hours a day our electric bill will barely top $100- here in CA where we have rather high electric costs. Water usage is minimal with it as well. I tend to keep the temp around 76F in the summer because it's comfortable.

**pearlieq** · 02-24-2008, 07:28 AM

We keep the house at 63 during the winter. It's not uncomfortable for DH and I at all since we both prefer cooler temperatures.

However, we are aware that we are different from most people and absolutely kick up the heat for guests. I don't want people freezing in my house!

The summer is when we suffer. I stretch to keep it at 72/74 during the day, but we just can't sleep without turning it down to 68 at night. We don't usually adjust the temperature in the summer because everyone is pretty comfortable.

I find most public buildings reasonably comfortable. In the winter I may not be wearing a coat or sweater, but I'm rarely overwarm, unless I'm trapped in someone's car and they're heating it like an oven. In the summer I'm often very comfortable while everyone else is complaining about overzealous air conditioning!

**Snowgirl** · 02-24-2008, 01:37 PM

I'm afraid I'm just not frugal at all on this. We have programmable thermostats that keep the house at 70 when at home (week-end, evening), and turn it down to 65 when leaving for work or at night. I won't budge on that 70, I like to be comfortable in my own home, walk around barefoot with a T-Shirt, no cold feet except in the basement. In the summer, we don't have AC, so we keep the house at whatever mother nature sends us! Might be as high as 90 some weeks, very frugal...

**Snodog** · 02-24-2008, 02:00 PM

We keep our house at 74 in the winter and 80 in the summer. If we have company in the summer i'll turn it down to 75 or so. Public places are always way to cold in the summer and in the winter.

Extra frugal with heat and AC