We have a programmable thermostat.
67 for ‘home’
55 for ‘away’
and, IIRC, 58 for ‘sleep’
Luckily, the Mrs and I are both somewhat cold blooded.
I quite often hear the women at work complaining about the heat while I’m wishing I could open the window.
Let’s put it this way:
I’m Ms. Hundred and One and my hubby’s Mr. Ten Below. It’s a wonder the themostat hasn’t broken with all the ups and downs it goes through.
I live in Missouri, which gets pretty chilly in the fall and winter.
60 degrees while I’m at work (9a-6p)
60 degrees while I sleep (11p-7a–I know, I know, everyone on my dad’s side of the family’s a sleepyhead too)
70 degrees otherwise
I have an old drafty house and even when the thermostat reads 70 I don’t think it’s actually that warm. It’s also got bad insulation–in the blazing hot summers it rarely gets below 80 even with both window units running.
I used to keep the house at 60 F most of the time when home and with only shorts on. Thanks to the new medicine I’m taking, the house is at 50 F, and I’m still only wearing the shorts. I sleep with a thin valox blanket. I used my breaks and lunch for the last couple weeks to stand outside with t-shirt and no coat at about 30-40 F. My lab at work has to be kept at 68 F and I’ve been burning up.
I think tempratures are a bit different in Florida. We don’t use the heatmuch at all. We are focused on how cold we want it to get. My first apartment I shared with roommates we clashed constantly. I wanted it at 68-70 degrees. My roommates insisted it be 75 degrees. I was stifling. When I got my first apartment with myhusband we both kept it at 68 whenever we were home. He even insistes on 2 fans. One on the ceiling, the other an upright fan. We found it to be perfect.
I’ve heard that women seem to get cold at higher tempratures then men in their extremities. It has something to do with women mantaining their body heat at the core of thir body and men circulate heat more evenly around. Something about keeping babies warm in colder climates evolution-wise.
Another die-hard fan of programmable thermostats here. If feasible, they really are fabulous. I suffered through a series of apartments with no individual controls. I kept the windows open for most a northern-Indiana winter to counteract the heat.
Just to keep things fun, my house has 2 furnaces, with separate controls. Both are programmable thermostats. The back furnace is less than a week old, so it’s a damned good thing I like it cool so the fuel savings can help pay for the sucker. (It was ancient, so I shouldn’t complain–but will anyway.)
The programming is a bit complicated, but basically the front (bedroom) furnace is set at 60 at night, up to 65 on WAKE while I shower, etc. then back down to 60 on LEAVE. The back (computer room, etc.) furnace is set on 58, going up to 62 until around midnight.
I like it cool, but don’t like air conditioning much. I’d much rather have fans and fresh air unless it’s actually sweltering.
Veb
(P.S. The corny old jokes are right. Amazing how much comfy heat a sleeping pup can generate against your back, even on top of the quilts, on a freezing night.)
I hate going shopping during the winter, because the stores are so damn hot. I usually keep the thermostat at 62ºF during the day and 58ºF at night. If I’m feeling warmer or colder than usual, I might vary those temperatures by 2º or so. I simply can’t stand it any warmer than 64º, unless I have a cold.
Whatever temperature it gets without turning the heat on. Our thermostats are set to the minimum temperature (40 degrees) and we haven’t moved them since we’ve lived here. Baglady does have a small heater for the bedroom but she hasn’t used it in about 2 years.
It doesn’t get that cold in the Bay Area, but I never turned on my heater in Seattle or Vancouver, WA, either. And I don’t even know if my apartment in Hawaii had heaters.
If my townhouse had a heater, I would have bashed it in with a sledgehammer years ago. 
It’s consistently about 80 degrees where I live, and a usually a tad warmer in my room because of the poor air circulation. Personally, if it were perpetually 65 degrees during the day and 55 at night, I’d be very happy. sigh I gotta move.
Well, I’m glad to be out of the dorms and my old apartment building, where my heat had two settings:
Unfortunately, the thermostat in my current place is not working properly - the temperature hovers right around “colder than a witch’s tit” most of the time.
That’s why there is a down comforter on my Christmas list!
Thank you all for your responses, which assure me that I’m not insane in my temperature preferences, as my housemates insist. Why do I have to live with the only two guys on earth who like to keep the house hot? We have agreed to set the heat at 64 at night and 66-68 during the day. I will never close my windows. sigh
Oh, that sounds wonderful…
I try to keep the thermostat at 15 at home (about 60 fahrenheit). If the temperature outside is under -40 (strangely enough, also about minus 40 fahrenheit), I will turn the temp up as high as 20 (roughly 70 fahrenheit) since I have a concrete floor overhanging a parking area and the floor gets too cold to stand on comforably.
Since I don’t have air-conditioning, I hate summer.
Guy/Canadian.
And remember, if you think the room is too cold, you can always put another sweater on. There is only so much clothing I can take off before I run the risk of getting arrested.
Man, I must be an old fartress. I keep the temperature up, probably mid to upper 70s. For the past couple of years I have been walking around in a constant state of “Brrrrrr.”
I used to like it cold, especially when I slept. When I lived in Idaho, I had the gas heat cut off entirely for economic reasons. Quartz heaters and a couple of dogs kept me warm. But now that I’m older and thinner (which may have something to do with my poor thermoregulation), sweaters are my friend. Fortunately my officemate (a guy) likes it warm too.
When the furnace is on, the heat is unbearable. When it shuts off after about 5 min it’s cold again. I hate that.
My family is downright extreme. In summer, a/c is at 76 during the day, 74 at night. In winter, the settings are 74 during the day, and 67 at night. We all like it warm. Indeed, right now I have the wood stove going and the house temp is a toasty 78.
Hi there,
I thought my parents kept it chilly in the house but now I’m convinced that we’re on the warm side of things. They keep their home at 68 most of the time.
At my own home, I like it 68-70 and I will turn it down to about 65 at night because I like colder air. I think that if I had an electric blanket, I’d turn it down to even 60.
I can’t believe some of you keep it at 60 all the time, though - that sounds down right frigid!
JunrGatr
Me - 65 would be fine. Hubby - 75 or 80. He turns the thermostat up before bed, then kicks all the blankets off because he gets too hot.
If I were building a new house, I’d install a hot water heating system, where the hot water circulates through radiators. I lived in an old house once with that kind of system, and it was wonderful. No dust, no big fluctuations in temperature, and we didn’t need a humidifier in winter.
And you could back up to a radiator (or sit on one) if you got chilly.
We live in a great big ol’ high ceiling house in the country.
This means we’re screwed on two fronts. First, we have huge expanses of space to heat. Second, we heat with propane, which is about 50% more expensive than cocaine, to judge from our bills.
I’ve sworn that we’re keeping the house at 58 all winter. We’ve all got sweaters, let’s make the best of them! I’m gonna shove that lever on the thermostat all the way over every time I pass.
OHMIGOD! When did turn into my Dad!!!??? GULP.