# "We can't ... keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ..." **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 21, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024 "2019-08-21T21:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/41 "2019-08-22T04:03:12Z")
Right now (summer) it’s set to 84 when we are home. We usually turn off the AC when we leave home. In winter I think we set it to around 65. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/42 "2019-08-22T05:35:20Z")
We have the temp set at 18c at night, 22c during the day, winter or summer. We both need it as cold a meat locker to sleep comfortably. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/43 "2019-08-22T06:34:37Z")
No thermostat on a Swamp Cooler. It’s hot or nice or cold. Adjust the fan as required. I like ‘cold’, personally. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/44 "2019-08-22T07:08:03Z")
We got our A/C installed just this year. It gets used only during periods of extreme heat (I think for four nights so far this season), and then set to 21 °C (~70 F). For the record, in winter we’ve agreed to heat the bedroom to 17 °C (~63 F). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/45 "2019-08-22T07:31:25Z")
I set my AC at 18 C (64 F) day and night, but only because it doesn’t go any lower. It’s HOT out there. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/46 "2019-08-22T08:08:40Z")
75 degrees for me. Any hotter and I can’t sleep. In the winter it drifts down considerably cooler, which is fine by me. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/47 "2019-08-22T09:48:50Z")
Nothing. I don’t have aircon (don’t need it), and I don’t have the heating on at night in winter either (not cold enough). I live in a temperate climate (southern England). I do have a Dyson floor fan which gives a lovely gently breeze in warmer weather! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/48 "2019-08-22T10:35:57Z")
I have a downstairs apartment so it is insulated enough that the coolth stays all night as long as I go to bed at a reasonable temperature. I leave my AC off except for a few hours when I get home, even in the middle of the Florida summer. Then I put my floor fan on me all night for the cooling and white noise - during the wintertime I point it orthogonal to me. I always _start_ the night below 82 but sometimes it creeps up there or higher during the night but I have the fan. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/49 "2019-08-22T10:38:59Z")
71 is a compromise temperature which makes most of us not terribly unhappy about sleeping. Though I find that I could use air movement such as a fan in a pinch. Still air feels like I suffocating in a furnace. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/50 "2019-08-22T11:04:15Z")
While we sleep? 74. We have a ground floor master bedroom, so this is probably a fair estimate of the actual temp in the bedroom. During the day while we’re home? 78. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/51 "2019-08-22T11:38:40Z")
On the rare occasions when my wife thinks it’s hot enough to run the AC, she would run it during the afternoon/evening to cool off the house and then shut it off at night. Our house insulation is good enough that it should remain cooler than outside for 8 hours or so. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/52 "2019-08-22T13:24:55Z")
All we have is a window unit and its 68 roughly while we sleep; I would like colder but the Old Wench is looking for an extra blanket while I’m on top pf the covers. Its our compromise. Now come winter ------- the furnace goes down to 62-64 at night. And I sleep like a log; on top of the covers. Hey; my ancestors were Siberian after all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/53 "2019-08-22T13:51:39Z")
I’m not so sure why they’re worried about the sleep temperature- air conditioners are most efficient when the temperature differential is lowest- ideally you’re cooling your indoors at 72 to an outdoor of 71 or something like that. As the differential rises, it takes more work- cooling your house to 73 when it’s 105 outside takes a LOT more energy than cooling it to 70 when it’s 79 outside. Plus rates are lower at night. In addition, 82 is too damn hot. Nobody likes it that warm except the elderly, and in some areas, it’s humid enough to be very uncomfortable. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/54 "2019-08-22T14:07:58Z")
We have an AC but luckily we live in a place that we almost never need it. We haven’t had to turn on the AC at all this summer. Open all windows at night, window fan on, wake up to a freezing cold house. Close all the windows and the house stays cool all day long. On the hottest days (when it hits 90 out), it might get up to 78 inside by the end of the late afternoon. For days that are only expected to get up to mid-70s (a lot of them this summer), we just leave the windows open all day. If our AC were to break, I would probably just remove it. Conversely, we have to run our heater about 7 months of the year. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/55 "2019-08-22T14:08:13Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > 82°?:eek: Is that so we can burn more fossil fuels and make the planet more hospitable to our up and coming reptilian overlords? I don’t like it when the outdoor summer temperature, in the SUN, is 82°. > > Left to my own devices I’d keep it in the 50s, but I’m married to a mammal and she would stare me down if I tried to achieve anything lower than 68. I loves heavy blankets (sensory thing) and shedding heat through my dome. I sleep like a baby when I go camping in The Rockies, but I’m a clean freak so I can’t stay out too long. 🙂 > ETA: OOOHHHHH, 82 is to give the AC a rest at night, so don’t crank the AC. gotcha. Screw that, if Nature isn’t going to chill me down to at least 70 at night, I’ll move northward. Heh. I’m in north Texas, and the _low_ temp last night was around 82. Your post literally made zero sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/56 "2019-08-22T14:47:32Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > In case someone doesn’t have a thermostat / doesn’t set it while they sleep (perhaps turns it off and opens windows) / doesn’t know / etc. I’m just trying to be inclusive here. I’m an ‘other’ We live in a cold climate. It may break 80 at noon a few times during the summer. Maybe. So we just open the windows, it’s about 40-50 at night during the summer. Winter, we use a propane ‘wood’ stove (used to heat exclusively with wood). The upstairs master bedroom can get a bit chilly, but that’s what blankets are for. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/57 "2019-08-22T15:16:09Z")
We very rarely turn the air conditioner on in the summer (Pepper Mill hates the noise), so our temperature is whatever it is outside, moderated by our fans (the fans really do a great job of cooling down the bedrooms. as a result, the Energy Reports the power company sends us periodically have us _wayyyy_ ahead of even “our efficient neighbors”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/58 "2019-08-22T15:18:09Z")
I set it at 55. Why? I love sleeping under blankets. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/59 "2019-08-22T16:09:09Z")
My preference is 80, which is fine for me unless I’m doing something physical. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024/60 "2019-08-22T17:05:23Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Your post literally made zero sense to me. But let’s be honest here. That can’t be the first time. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-cant-keep-our-homes-on-72-degrees-at-all-times/839024.md?page=4)