Except for heat pumps which have two types of heaters: first the pump which moves heat from outside to inside and second the coil which generates by forcing electricity through a poor conductor that becomes hot. The pump is very efficient until it gets really cold outside and the coil is very inefficient. When the thermostat is set more than a few degrees above the indoor temperature, both the coil and the pump run to try and catch up, using lots of electricity.
We just keep our thermostat at the same level, it seems to work better that way.
I would tend to agree that needing to boost the temperature would seem to use more energy, when we were flipping the temperature around we seemed to run through fuel oil faster than leaving it at a constant.
Though changing to setting it at 50 to keep the pipes from freezing and spot heating with the woodstove dropped out oil spending massively … but we have a woodlot and cut our own firewood. If you had to buy wood YMMV.
It’s always useful when in this forum to reference the column you are writing about.
Thanks and welcome to the Straight Dope.
Except that unless there is a really special circumstance, Cecil, the laws of physics, the Department of Energy, and numerous energy studies laboratories and government agencies all over the world disagree with your perception.