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I did this exact same poll last year, but this Polar Vortex has me all kinds of wondering how nasty my heating bill is going to be this month. It’s not going to be good I am certain of that. Like when the bill comes I may need to sit down with a drink and open it. I believe the air temperature (not even the windchill) here was a delightful -9F this morning and our house is currently set at 66F, so that’s a lot of work for our furnace. Trust me, if I wasn’t scared I’d get a $1K heating bill, I would have that thing set to 72 degrees and I’d have a beach party in here!
I believe the most popular answer last year was between 68-72 degrees, which seems about normal. Have things changed since then or are you doing things the same even with all this nasty nasty weather most of us are getting? Heck, it snowed in FLORIDA today! My goodness! And are dreading that heating bill this month? I’m kind of thinking it could be double the normal??
I think this winter we’ve had it higher than usual because it’s just so cold out that you can feel the cold near the windows.
That happens at our house too. Our windows suck though!
I live in an apartment and heat is included!! BUT we don’t even need to set it because we live on the top floor – the heat just stays with us… It’s always about 70 in our apartment without our heat turned on. Our electric is included also… SO in the Summer time i just let that AC run like crazy and keep it at like 65! I’m in for a real surprise when we move into a house one day and these bills come to me.
Oh I’d have that thing at like 75!!!!
Super cold here in IN (my mom said in MI too!) Just brought a newborn home and have 3 other young kids so ours is set higher at 72 degrees. We could probably lower it to 70…but with a newborn even though he is bundled (making sure not overheating of course) I don’t want it to be too cold.
Oh yeah, you HAVE to have it high for a newborn!!! How have you been???? How is life with 4?
I had him last Saturday so we just came home yesterday 🙂 It has been an adjustment, not too bad but the hubby is home this week luckily. Too bad preschool was canceled Fri, yesterday and today due to cold temps. I am starting to think we will never get back to school!
Ha!! At least your husband is home!! Congrats!
I set mine to 71 and even then I’m freezing most of the time. We had about a month below zero and our bill was surprisingly not terrible. It’s almost 50% higher this month and our temps are ranging from 10-30. So that makes no sense. Luckily our utilities are pretty low here, and gas is especially low. So a high heating bill is ~150 versus a normal ~100. I think most places are way higher than that. I like summer when the gas bill is $10…
I’d be okay it were were 50% more. I think that would make me happy!!
mine is set at a blissful 73 degrees. i live in an apartment building and the difference between chilly and toasty is negligible on my bill. i think my winter electric (we have a SUPER energy efficient building) is around 80$/mo. it’s SO energy efficient when we leave for an extended period (1+ weeks) i actually crack a window because this place is air tight!
So jealous!!! We used to live in a condo that only had one wall exposed to the outside and it was great. I had the heat on so high there!
The hubby has control over the thermostats (I have to give him something, right? 😉 ). They are set at a chilly 65. I am sitting here on my couch with two thick blankets on. I’m over the cold… however, I know here in CO, we’ve been lucky compared to others.
Ha!!! You have to let him have that!
I guess. He works from home though. So, i’m not suffering alone. 😉
I’m in the frozen Deep South, 27 degrees. Everything is closed in our small town is close, i.e, bank, post office and grocery store. We have nothing to handle frozen precipation, so I’m sitting here shopping online. I can’t even imagine coping with your weather. Here’s to warmer weather!!!!
27 is COLD if you aren’t prepared or used to it! I’d venture a guess not even everyone has the winter clothes for that!!!
I don’t have central heat … I have a propane heater that “heats” the house. I use quotes b/c it so does not heat the house. The living room stays fairly warm, but I have 3 other heaters going to try and help the rest of the house. I am terrified of my bill! Ha!
Was it a propane shortage I was reading about??
While we are at work it is set to 68, but then it bumps up to 73 I believe and then back down to like 71 while we are sleeping. Lately though I have had to turn it up to 75 just to get the air coming out of the vents to be warm and then turn it back down once the house warms up. Our heaters in Northern VA just aren’t set up for this type of cold weather .
I bet!! It’s just cold everywhere!
Did it really snow in florida? In central florida we had a high of 80 today lol no where near snow!
Really? I saw a picture of snow by the border! Oh wait, I just looked and it’s from 2010. Clearly the weather people were just trying to make us feel better up here:
http://fox17online.com/2014/01/27/arctic-blast-seeps-south-to-florida/#axzz2rjnqjLuY
Mine is set at 70 right now. I’m cold but all the guys here are fine with it. I just sit and turn on the gas logs with my mukluks and a sweatshirt. I’m trying to deal with it. I prefer around 72 too but everyone says they are dieing then. LOL
I would prefer it around 72 as well!!!
I wanted to set it at 68, but DH got cold and wants to keep it on 70. Maybe if he wore socks & long pants, he wouldn’t be so cold? Just because we moved to SC, he thinks that means he can wear shorts year round. Um, it’s still winter dude! ha!
Ha!!!! SC weather is probably like summer to us!
Don’t need mine on sometimes in the winter. If I do it goes to 70, I actually had my AC on the other day! It was 75 here today but high of 55 tomorrow! I am in central/west Florida. Last time it snowed here I was only 3 years old!
I’d break out the flip flops if it were 55 here!!
I don’t even think we have the heater set to come on at night (if anything we have the air conditioning come on if it gets too warm). Our bedrooms are on the third floor so if I’m downstairs I may put on flannel pjs to watch TV or something, otherwise the heater only comes on in the morning while I get ready for work. Though we are only supposed to get in the mid sixties the next couple of days (and we may even get some rain, wahoooo!)
Mid sixties sounds so nice right now!
I keep my house at 66. This past weekend though there was an explosion up in Manitoba that cut off three gas pipelines for a while. Our gas company called at 12:37 A.M. (Luckily, I’m a night owl!) They were calling about 100,000 people in or near affected areas (ND, MN, and WI) asking us to drop our thermostats to 60 and not use gas appliances in order to conserve and hopefully prevent outages. Outages would have been nasty up here! We got the all clear call late yesterday afternoon, and I was so happy to be able to use the dryer again.
I can really sympathize with your family. I’m lucky my son isn’t getting stir crazy yet with all of the school they’ve missed so far this year because of the dangerous windchill.
Oh, that’s so scary!!!
We aren’t to stir crazy yet either, but that’s likely because we don’t stay home too much. We have just been busting from the car into the mall and Target!
We were a sunny negative nine here in Chi-town. I may bust out the flip flops for the serious warm up to 14 tomorrow. Since I can’t throw a blanket on E, she’s still too little, I crank up the heat to 73 and even now I’m chilly sitting here. But her room gets nice and toasty and that’s all that matters. I would rather be comfy than rich I suppose!
14 is going to feel amazing!!!!
We’re keeping set between 68/69. My husband keeps trying to bump it up, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it and making him put on a sweatshirt. With central air, our bill isn’t AS bad here in NC as it could be … and hasn’t been any worse this year than years past … but still. Im not a fan of $200 power bills!
Me either! And this one is going to be so bad!
We had the house set at 64 for quite awhile until yesterday when Dustin turned it up to 65. I can actually tell the 1 degree difference though!
I can see that!
Old house=bad insulation. Every room in our house is a different temperature. Last night with the temperature dropping to -15, we had the thermostat set to 70 degrees downstairs and it was 58 degrees in our bedroom when we went to sleep. Thank goodness for electric blankets! I do love the frosty ice buildup on the inside of the windows though. Not sure how that happens.
We get that frost too. We have horrible windows and the moisture from the house builds up and then it’s so cold out it freezes!
I give props to all you Northern people with your weather. I cant see how you guys function. I set mine to 72. But I an in North Texas where if you wait five minutes the weather will change.
That’s what we say here in MI too! I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 50 degrees next week!
Heat is included in my apartment building, so I spoil myself with 75+! It makes going outside in the below zero temps more difficult though ..
Ibet!
So we’re in a rowhouse in DC with neighbors on both sides. We generally have it set to 65 during the week – it’s a little chilly but I’m usually home for 1-2 hours before going to bed, so it doesn’t seem worth it to heat the house for that short amount of time. I would set it to like 62 overnight if I could – i like it COLD at night or i get too hot and have crazy dreams. Friday night to Sunday I bump it up to 70 during the day, and back to 65 at night. We have the Nest so it has it all figured out for us, too! Our last electric bill was $250 which was a lot lower than I expected, but it’s normally $100, so definitely higher.
Oh that was a lot higher! Do you think the Nest is worth it? we have thought about that a few times.
Honestly I love the Nest but I don’t know how it compares to other programmable thermostats. I just love that I can check the temperature from my phone (and I do!) and adjust as needed, in addition to having it all on a schedule. You can get a basic programmable thermostat for like 1/4 the price of the nest, so if that’s all you want it for then I wouldn’t splurge for the nest.
i do like the idea of adjusting it from my phone!