So last night while I was lying in bed listening to the news, I heard our male news anchor (who will remain nameless) say that in the summer time, it’s recommended that you set your thermostat at 78 degrees.
What?!
Where does he think we live? The Pacific Northwest? It’s South Carolina and it’s 100 degrees. I need relief from the heat in my home. I’m not a fan of sweating when I’m sitting still. We live in an old house without much insulation and the heat can really beat down on the house during the day.
I mean, I understand why. Sure, you’ll save a lot of money if you leave the thermostat at 78 degrees because it would never run.
We leave our thermostat between 69-72 degrees during the day (depending on the time of day and the temperature outside) and at night, the first floor is set to 70 degrees and our bedroom upstairs is set to 67 degrees. It’s lovely.
We’re also home all day. I’m doing laundry and chasing a toddler and my body temperature rises. It’s genetic. My mom and dad are both hot-natured people, too.
My dad always says, “You can put on more clothes than you can take off.” Which is why in the winter time, our thermostat is set to 68 degrees. I can put on sweatshirts and blankets. But in the summer I’m not about to strip down to my skivvies just so I don’t sweat to death. God gave us air conditioning. Let’s use it!
So if you’re wondering if we have a high energy bill, it’s high in the summer time. But it’s much lower in the winter time. It’s all about compromise!
How do you like to set your thermostat? Do you follow those suggestions and leave it at 78 degrees?
I could never leave 78! I would die. I hate to be hot. We leave ours at 68, plus have a cieling fan in the bedroom.
Ha, ha, my husband and I are in a constant battle because I want it at 78 and he tries to put it down to 75 (he would go lower, but he knows if he does I will freak out and give him a huge lecture on how expensive our heating bill is). We have a weird house though, and our electric bills run really high due to poor ventilation and and other constructional defects- so I am constantly paranoid. 69-72 sounds really nice!
I am ALWAYS hot in our old house. We have ceiling fans, tower fans, and our thermostat is set at 68-70. I would die if it were at 78.
We live in an older house too and it is always hot! We leave it set between 69-72 during the day and at night, it is always on 69 and we have fans running in our bedroom too. I refuse to be hot. And like you, during the winter, we just bundle up! I would much rather be cold than hot.
I set mine at 78 when I am home and 81 when I am not (and at night). I am very cold natured. But I have a friend coming to spend the weekend and I realized this morning that I should probably adjust that…not everyone will find that comfortable.
I’ve always thought the 78 suggestion was crazy! We live in the South too and keep ours between 68-72 all year round. My husband and I are both hot-natured, and I’d rather pay more in the summer to be comfortable.
There is no way. I live in East Texas and it is hot and muggy. Since my fil lives with us we leave the thermostat set at 74 all day and night long. If we are all going to be out of the house for an extended period we program it to stay at 78 until about 2 hours before we are scheduled to return and then it drops back to 74. Truthfully by August, I am ready to lower it a little bit more.
I leave my thermostat at 78 when I am gone during the day but when Iām at home I usually have it set to 75. There is absolutely NO way I could have mine set to 67. I would freeze to death, ha! I am cold-blooded by nature and there is just no way, LOL!
I cant stand to be hot! So in the summer it is set on 67-68 and in the winter I try to avoid turning on the heat till it is absolutely necessary!
Ours is at 75 or 76 throughout the day and night. If we’re out of town, I turn it up to 78. Our downstairs stays cooler, so I don’t worry too much about our cat when we’re out of town (she can go downstairs if she’s hot.) I tried to keep it at 76 or 77 for a few days, but my husband complained about how hot it was.
We’re the same way in the winter, too. We keep it around 68 or 69.
I’d like to know what he actually sets his thermostat to. I bet he doesn’t follow his own advice!
In our current house north of Dallas (a newly built and energy-efficient home) we keep both stories at 74 degrees when we’re home, and it’s perfectly comfortable. Our bills are typically $200-300 during these summer months.
In our last house, we had a two-story ceiling in our living room. Boy was that hard to keep cool! Our bills in the summer months would be $500. You can bet we suffered a little to keep the thermostat a little higher. When we moved, energy efficiency was top on our list. š
I live in Oklahoma and I would be melting at 78 degrees for sure! We keep ours on 75 while we are at work all day so that it doesn’t take as long to cool down at night. We normally sleep with ours on 69 or 70 at night, but our house is small so it stays cold at 69 degrees.
We usually have ours set to 77-78 and change it to 74 if we have guests that are coming over. We are so use to sleeping with the covers kicked back and have the ceiling fan going during the night. It is sooo comfortable! Especially if you have some nice lemonade or sweet ice tea on the night stand. We have the temp up to 80-83 during the winter and I have a small heater going too. Actually yesterday in my office, I had a small heater going under my desk. The temp in our bldg is around 65-68 and I am miserable! My hubby and I were both born in August. Can you tell? LOL!!
We always keep ours 76-78 when home, 80 when not. We live in the Texas heat, which is pretty bad, but I can’t imagine how crazy big our bill would be if we kept it that low! Our house is newer, so I wonder if that makes a difference? We keep our fans on while we’re at home, and usually we’re good, only lowering it every once in a while. In the winter I’m just like you – keep the heat off until absolutely necessary.
I live in Knoxville, TN and it’s been above 95 every day for weeks with around 50% humidity. Our condo has cathedral ceilings so keeping our place cool is a battle. We keep our thermostat between 70-75. In the winter, we keep it at 70. We have gas heat and the bill is astronomical if it’s any higher.
I live in Central Florida where the heat index for today is about 105.
My house stays at about 77-78 when no one is home. Then, in the afternoon/evening, it gets bumped down to about 73. Anything lower and I’m freezing, lol.
I find this hilarious because, as a New Englander, I didn’t even realize people set thermostats in the summer! (I assume people are referring to central air, right?!) We turn our thermostats off in May and back on in October and use it for heating purposes only. I wish we had central air right now… Boston feels like the South here these days with temps around 100. Our window-unit ACs aren’t exactly doing the trick! Being at work has never felt so good š
We bought a 7 day programmable thermostat from Lowes and love it. When we’re not home, it’s set at 78, but it also automatically turns back on when we’re home or almost home. We set it at 74 at night and sometimes bump it down to 71 in the mornings while I’m getting dressed and drying hair, etc.
I have this aversion to freezing indoors over the summer because I’m dressed for the heat outside. Work really stinks that way. I actually use a spaceheater at work over the summer most days. In Columbia. Crazy, right?
I’m sure this will come as no shock to Todd…but we just turned our air conditioning ON! And I think it’s only because I’m pregnant that I finally got Matt to do it. He came home from work the other day and I was sitting in front of the screen door fanning myself…and sweating like there was no tomorrow. A fan can only do so much, you know?
And I’m pretty sure it’s set at 78. MAYBE 76?
The a/c in our old house isn’t all that efficient… and the thermostats are broken. So in the summer, we leave the a/c between 78-83. It doesn’t make much of a difference to be on the higher end (in MD, where it’s been brutally hot). And in the winter, we leave the heat at 60. Yup. 60. Because if we put it any higher, the heat spikes and all of a sudden the house is a sauna.
Hello from Charleston! 1st time commenting but I love your fabulous blog and read every day.
78 is beyond crazy. I would melt! We keep it at 78 while we are gone and 70 while at home. We’re willing to pay the price for comfort. This weekend we are traveling to my husband’s grandparents’ home in NC. They refuse to put on the AC so it will be about 90 inside. I told my MIL I’m going to sleep in the car š
I agree. this made me laugh out loud!
75 is about as high as I can take it in this SC heat! Sometimes I will try 76 but always end up back at 74 or 75. We have a pretty energy efficient home and I still can’t imagine 78! (I also bet that weather man doesn’t keep his at 78!)
We program ours to a warm 85 degrees while we are at work and then, 1 hour before we come home it goes to 74. One hour before we go to bed it goes to 65. It works perfectly until you have a weekday off (like Monday) and you’re sweating to death in your house because the thermostat thinks you are at work and it is 84 degrees in your house! Oh and we live in Houston! So it gets to the 110’s in the summertime.
It always ticks me off when I see “summer outfits” in magazines that have jackets or sweaters picked out. I grew up in Mississippi! You will have a heat stroke if you wear that.
As for the AC…70 is perfect for me. I would love to be able to save some money, but in Florida, it just isn’t going to happen.
Ours is set at 76 and during the winter its at 69. We only use the air upstairs in our house, since we aren’t downstairs very often. So that makes the bill nice but I still want my bill as low as possible.
My husband and I just moved to northern California, and we haven’t had to adjust our thermostat yet! It’s set at about 75-77 degrees and it’s fine. I have noticed that between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm that it does get relatively warm in our house, but if I turn on the fans then it’s much better. In our area, it gets to about 100 degrees out, so it does get hot!!
Unreal. I can’t believe so many keep their thermostats set so low…expensive! We live in central Florida and leave ours set to 78/79 all day/ night. When the days are super hot & humid, the inside of our home feels just fine to me. And our energy bill is manageable to boot.
I’m the exact same way. We have a commercial running on how to conserve energy and they show the lady setting her thermostat to 82. 82!!!! It’s Arkansas – the air temperature is 82 by 6am outside. We keep our thermostat at 70 and at night, sometimes 67. I’d much rather snuggle in a blanket than sweat!
Love this! At night, it’s set at 70 bc with 2 people and a dog in the bed it gets hot!! But during the day I keep it at 80! I know I know!! But our house is really well insulated and KC hasn’t been that hot yet!
I grew up in Houston and that AC was cranked low all the time!!
I live in the South, too, but am always cold! My sister (and roommate) is quite the opposite, and since she owns our place and pays the electric bill, I don’t touch the thermostat. Last night she had it on 69 and I slept in socks, long pants, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt … and put an extra blanket on my bed! I’d prefer for it to be kept at 73 at night and 76 during the day, but when the day comes that I am at home chasing around a toddler all day I may be singing a different tune.
I work for the local utility–in a department that promotes energy efficiency! š Needless to say, it’s part of my job to go out in the community & help educate customers on what they can do to make their home more energy efficient & hopefully lower their bills. That being said, I have to at least try to practice what I preach! It’s been a game I play with myself at home & my hubby is a trooper. Our thermostat is set at 78 or higher in the summer (we do have a lot of shade trees & use ceiling fans) and normally about 65-66 in the winter. I admit that living in SC and the heat & humidity of our summers is definitely not ideal, but I’ll gladly sacrifice the thermostat setting if it means saving moolah for a new pair of shoes or a cute sundress!
Right now our temperature is set at 78 degrees, because our air conditioning is broken and it won’t go any lower! Thank goodness the repair man is at our house, because I can barely stand it! I have no idea how anyone in the Southeast could stand to set their temperature that high in the Summer. I’m with you….low 70’s is where it’s at!
In our old house, in Orlando, we set the thermostat to 78… in the summer! We had the same issue as you, with it being an old house, w/ really poor insulation. We felt like we were wasting money turning down the A/C when it wasn’t doing a proper job of cooling the house (due to the poor insulation). So, we suffered w/ it at 78 for a couple of days, and then got used to it! Surprisingly, we adjusted, and no longer felt warm. Now, in our house here in B’ham (new construction); we keep it between 76-78, upstairs and downstairs. Each degree lower than 78, is 5% more you pay on your bill!
Heck no, we keep it at 72 because, like SC, VA summers reach 100 degrees. I do not like to sweat in my house either. We try to shut the blinds and hang out in the basement, but it is still way to warm to have the house set at 78. Also, my newborn is attached to me most of the day, and our body heat makes me warm. I just keep crossing my fingers that our ancient AC unit continues to work!
This is a huge battle in our house! I’m always cold, ALWAYS, so I keep it at least 77 or 78, but sometimes even 80 when I’m just watching TV at home by myself! I figure as long as I’m comfortable why pay money to run the air non-stop. Nick on the other hand is always hot, and HATES when I forget to turn the air back down to the normal range before he gets home from work. He will come in and instantly start sweating…. I never hear the end of it.
In the winter it’s perfect here and we can normally go about 2 months straight with no A/C or Heat! I love getting our electric bills during those months!
Alex would DIE if the thermostat were set any higher than 68 degrees. We leave it that way in the winter as well. When we brought Amelia home from the NICU, she had problems keeping her body temp up and that was the only time in our lives that we kept the thermostat higher – we did it for her. And Alex thought he was going to die. LOL
I’m with you, sista!
I used to be very cold natured but after i had my son i seem to be HOT all the time!! I’d like to keep out thermostat at 72 but the bill would be a killer so we just keep it @ 75-76. At night it goes up to 80 & we have a ceiling fan & a portable fan all going, but i sleep good anyway.
78 degrees?!? No way! We’re having a heat wave in Michigan right now and with the temps outside hovering darn near 100 degrees, our thermostat has been at around 67 degrees. It typically stays around 70-ish degrees on “normal” summer days. I agree with you on it being much easier to manage in the winter, but when its hot like this, forget about it!!
It seems we are the only ones who do keep our thermostats higher. We have it programmed to go up to 84 during the day and cool down to 78 around 4:30 so it’s cooler when we get home. In the winter it’s about 65. We use our ceiling fans year round to push cool air up or down depending on the season. We have an older house too and this saves us a lot of money and we really aren’t uncomfortable.
HA! I’m the same as you!! We like it cool….and we set our upstairs between 67 and 69..perfect sleeping conditions!! Crazy anchorman!! š
I leave mine set at 78 all the time, and I am a stay at home mom, so we’re home most of the time. If I am doing housework or cooking and get hot, I turn it down to 77. Oh AND I live in Alabama! All my friends think we’re crazy, but we’re comfortable! The baby even wears long pants and socks to sleep at night because she gets cold if she’s in just a onesie! What’s funny though is whenever we have company, I always ask if they’re comfortable or too hot and they’re usually fine! Of course, I turn the AC down if they say they’re hot.
Before I had Cooper, I set my thermostat to 78 during the summer. Now that he’s here, I put the downstairs on 78 and the upstairs on 76. If I had my way, it would be much lower but even with those temps our electric bill is $200 a month.
I had this exact discussion with my dad this past weekend. He leaves it on 76-78 and we were saying how hot that must be! We keep ours on 74 during the day and at night. We have great insulation in our old house, though, so our house stays pretty cool at that temperature (even on those hot 100 degree days!).
This made me laugh because I’m from the Northwest and I didn’t get above 80* until just last week!
We keep our house at 72-75 year round. At night though, I like it closer to 65*. I HATE feeling hot when I sleep.
Oh my gosh, I’m with you! Unfortunately, we’re in an apartment that’s not very well insulated, so our ancient AC unit and electiricty bill dictate our temperatures. We’re at 80 (eighty!) during the day and 76 in the evening. It’s about 110 here during the day, so coming home to 80 is a relief, but it’s warm once you get used to it. We have many fans going to keep the air moving. If it were up to me, we’d leave at a comfortable 72.
I live on the East Coast, not the Southern part but definitely in the heat. It has been over 100 degrees the last few days and over 90 for the last few weeks. And I live without air conditioning. When it get very hot, like right now we let the window unit in my bedroom run and close up the rest of the house. It cools most of the house to about 83 or so degree. I find it reasonably comfortable.
If we had air, I think we would probably set it at 78. We like to be green. š
Our thermostat is set almost identical to yours, only at night the whole house is set to 70 degrees. I also sleep with a fan on. I know people LOATHE ceiling fans, but I love the breeze in my face.
Yes, our energy bill is high, but we cut out on other crap so we can keep it that way (i.e. no cable, drive old cars, no home phone line, etc)
I am soooo hot-natured. Luckily Hubs is too- we keep ours at 68 during summer, and probably 65 during the winter. I feel like our winter savings makes up for the AC bills?
I am from the Pacific NW and have never had AC before. It’s fine most of the time, but the next few days are supposed to be around 90, which is unusually hot. Guess I’ll pull the fan out! If I lived somewhere warm, I would definitely need to keep my house cool–no sense in being uncomfortable all day!
I don’t know how much electricity costs where you live but it’s SUPER pricey in So Cal. We usually don’t need air conditioning but when we do use it we set it to 74-75 degrees. We usually just run it for a week or two in August — and that month our electricity bill is more than triple our usual price — and we just live in a condo! We’ve never used our heat in our condo — I’m not even sure how to. lol.
Absolutely not! 78 degrees is crazy talk. We are in Phoenix, and our air condintioner runs twenty four hours a day (just about) for the entire summer. It’s about survival. š
I love hearing about what you set the temp to. Up in Chicago 78 is heavenly in our house! But I remember living in New Orleans had having our air on at all times down to 68ish and still having to run ceiling fans to cool the place down.
Right now we can’t actually set our thermostat for a temperature (just high, medium and low) but I’m right there with everyone about keeping things cool.
That weatherman is crazy! haha It’s way too hot in Georgia to do that š We keep the thermostat around 72-73 during the hot months and about the same in the winter!
78 during the day when no one is home and then 75-76 when we’re there. When I’m not looking Mr. A is either putting it on 73 or 80. He’s either inexplicably freezing or hot. I like to sleep in a cold room, and 75 is pretty cold in our place. We are in apt, but we’re in the middle of 5 floors so we don’t get too much heat in the bedroom. The living room is always a bit toasty though.
Ha Ha! I live in the pacific northwest and yesterday was our hottest day yet at a mere 87 degrees. We don’t have a thermostat. Our house was built in the 40’s and it doesn’t have central air or heat for that matter. But blessedly it is surrounded by huge old trees which keep it well shaded and it is always cool amost to a fault. Last night was the first evening after work it was warm enough inside to wear a tank top. I spent a summer in college in DC without air conditioning and let me tell you if we’d had a thermostat it certainly would have been set lower than 78 degrees!
Coming from the “dry heat” of Phoenix, they tell us to keep our thermostat at 80 during the day. Not happening, but most people around here to do keep it there or higher. Ours is at 77 and then if I can get away with it, I bump it down to 75-76 at night, but I freeze my family out. We just spent 5 days in NYC and you all can keep that humidity to yourself. Yuck! I’ll take my 115 temps any day of the week over the humidity.
I grew up in a house where my mom kept it at 72 in the day and froze us at night no matter the temp outside. In college, I had to pay the power bill, so I learned to live hotter. The first few times you live hotter (i.e. at my house is now kept at 78 all day long!) it is hard. But now I do not notice the difference. In fact it still feels “cool” compared to outside and refreshing to me now.
I also have to point out that when you set an ac at more than 20 degrees below the outside temp is “stresses the system” and make it work harder and potentially increases the money spent on repairs and refilling the freon.
Ours is at 76 in the summer. It’s been anywhere from 80 – 88 outside lately and it seems 10 degrees hotter in the sun. Walking into our 76 degree house feels like sweet relief! Any cooler would be too cold. I don’t want to be cold when I’m in the house. We’re in and out so often that I need to be able to wear shorts, a tank top and flip flops both inside and out.
I say keep the house at a temp that makes you comfortable – I hate all the “how tos” and hints that are provided….if I’m sweating in my house, it’s too hot for me – no matter what your tip says. As long as you keep up with the maintenance of your a/c system, everything should be fine. We keep our house at 70 at night (we both love to freeze our butts off in bed) and 74 during the day. We’ve actually gotten a lot better since my husband set a schedule – we used to change that setting up and down depending upon our moods, but now I try to adjust since the temps we use are more than comfortable. I just want to be happy and non-glowy in my own home!
We live in Southern California, but the Valley, which gets over 100 through July and August. Our house is old with inadequate insulation and original (1945) windows. Even if we set the AC to 50, the house wouldn’t cool below 78. I’ve learned to deal. We actually haven’t even turned on the AC yet this summer, and believe me, there have been times when I was sweating sitting still. Need to save where we can!
No way could I last with our thermostat at 78 degrees! It’s typically 74-76 in our house, although in the mornings if I’m running around blow drying my hair or cooking, I’ll bump it down to 72 or 73. In the winters, we keep it cold- last year we only ran the heat for a few months and that was with temps down in negative ranges. As long as it’s between 60-65, it’s safe and we just wear a sweater, cuddle under a blanket, etc. My husband checked our energy bills and it actually works out to a savings by having our heat so low even though our AC runs like crazy in this heat + humidity!
YOU LEAVE YOUR THERMOSTAT AT 69 DEGREES?!?!
ERIN!
Holy cow, how much is your electric bill?!
Love,
Your 77-degree 60-yo housed Columbia neighbor
I use the same settings, it is just to darn hot in LA to not put it on 68 at night. During the winter I keep it turned off until I wake up and the house it 55…then I put it on 68. I get really hot when I sleep and wake up miserable, I’d rather pay for a good nights sleep than save money.
I hate being hot and I sweat too much as it is even in colder temps. We live in New England and right now we’re in a heat wave. I leave the AC at 68 during the day! At night I turn it up to 70. I know it’s better money/energy wise but I don’t want to sweat!
There is no way my husband would let it be 78, but we do program the thermostat to go that high during the day. At night, the lowest I’ll let him set it is 73, but even then I’m freezing. I just shopped around for better energy rates because we were paying way too much, and I was pleasantly surprised how low our bill was for Dallas in June!
Ha!! I laughed when I read this because I keep mine at 78!! I hate being cold and i still sleep with a huge blanket each night! Which is why I love living alone, because it’s just me!! And my electricity bill has been around $50/month! When I get married though I’m in trouble because boys always like it freezing!
we live in Northern Nevada, where it is generally in the 90’s and very dry. I wish we had a thermostat to set in the summer, but we don’t have A/C! Right now it is 77 in our house and I am a little warm, but comfortable. If I had an A/C, I would keep it between 72-73 (but my hubby would try and lower it!) And we set the heater in the winter at about 68. We are lucky that it cools off really well at night here, and we almost always have a breeze (though it’s not always a cool one!) so we open up the windows at night and in the evening and it helps keep the house cool. =) But boy do I wish we had an AC!
We leave our thermostate at 74. We’ve bumped it up since we had kids (and a bigger house to cool).
On another note, I’d like to make the Paula Deen flag cake. Can you please post the recipe or link to it? It looks so good and I love Paula! Thanks!!!
78?!?! That’s nuts! I live in IL and we keep ours set at 73-74 during the day…though I do occasionally bump it down a degree (or 3!) when I get warm. At night it goes down to 70-72. We’d keep it cooler and be perfectly happy, but our bill is about as high as we’d like it to be. We also live in an older home (1940), so our insulation is questionable at best and our windows are drafty. We also keep our house pretty cool in the winter. Before our daughter was born (she just turned 1) we kept our thermostat at 64 at night in the winter and had it set to start warming up before we got up in the morning. It was awesome…unless you had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night!
I would melt if I had to leave my thermostat on 78! Living in Texas, sometimes even with the air set on 68 I’m still sweating. It doesn’t help that I am very hot natured. During the winter we rarely use the heater at all (and sometimes sleep with the windows open).
I love being cold!
I totally agree with everything you said, like i could have just written that exact post!! I will skrimp and save money in a million other ways, but i will pay to be cool and comfortable in my own home!!!
That is too funny! My parents think our house is freezing! We keep it at 72 degrees during the day and night. We have a brand new home, so insulation isn’t a problem. My parents keep theirs on like 76 and they have an old home. I like it cold at night but we have stopped setting it cooler at night because I worry that Lilly is cold because she can’t have any blankets.
We live in Alabama and keep ours at 74 in the summer at all times, unless we’re going out of town and I’ll kick it up. We make good use of our ceiling fans and find it to be quite comfortable.
Haha! I live in nothern MI and we keep our place chilly and we love it! During the day, 68, at night, 61 – yep, I’m totally serious. I sleep amazing every night!
We are just TODAY installing a swamp cooler (our house is 100 years old and cannot handle the ducting work required for AC, so this is an attic fan that cools essentially), and I’ve been DYING. It can get up to 86 degrees in our house! I hate it! This is our second summer here and at 95+ degrees outside, we can’t take the heat anymore. Once our cooling system is installed we’ll have it set to 71 degrees. BLISS:-).
Oh wow. We live in Las Vegas, where temperatures in the summer can reach 115 degrees. Yes, it is a dry heat, but the sun is out nearly year round during the day. Hardly any overcast, cloudy or rainy days to break up the heat. We keep our house between 80-78. We lived in Mississippi two years ago and kept our house at at about the same temperature, but had ceiling fans running. Our house in Vegas is lacking in the ceiling fan department. I cannot imagine having our a/c set any lower if we wanted to do anything fun at all during the summer. Our bill would be sky high!
I completely agree! In the summer I set it to about 75 even though I’m not home. I figure the dogs could use the cool air and I would hate to walk into a home warmer than that. At night it’s usually around 67 or 68 and that’s with my ceiling fan and another fan going. I like to be COLD at night. In the winter, it barely gets turned above 65. I enjoy snuggling up with blankets!
Your site is lovely! š
Thank you for the visit here and also the laugh. I loved your post, and I agree that would cook me out! We keep ours set more to 65-70 degrees. Then again I am a northernEr.. somehow who ended up in the Midwest for a little while.. š
much luv!! xx Jenn
I grew up in FL where AC year-round was a must. Now that I live in Germany (land of no AC) I’m dying. Very few places in Germany (and Europe in general) have AC, just heat and this summer has been a hot one. Luckily it only lasts for a couple months but I’m counting down the days till fall! š
I think I would pass out if my house was always 78 degrees! I’m like you…I’m almost always hot…not cold. We keep our house at 66 at night–and I still wake up sweating! Haha…78 would likely give me heat stroke!!!
Wow, I would die if I left my thermostat at 78 degrees!! I do about the same as you, 69-72 during the day and 68 at night. I keep it on 67 in the winter time and I always have a blanket handy! Haha š
I agree! 78 when you’re home is crazy š We keep it at about 73-74 when we are home and 78 when we are at work. If we let it go too high during the day, it would never cool down before we got home. I was so proud of myself when I learned how to program the thermostat! I can’t wait until it cools down a bit. Over a 100 is a bit much!
OMG! My husband tells me the exact same thing. You can put on more clothes, I can’t take more off when I’m down to my underwear (well he could…). Anyway, the hubs is SUPER hot natured (think sweating at all times. poor thing) and I’m much more cold natured. We have a tiny house and even when our thermostat is set to 74 it’s about 70 in the house. We have a constant battle as to where it’s set. But, I have to agree, 78 is awfully high.
Unfortunately living in France we don’t have AC. It was 95 degrees all last week and I thought I was going to melt. Funny thing is that every year it is really hot here for about two weeks and everyone rushes out to buy fans. You would think we Europeans would plan ahead a little better…
I would be sweating my booty off if I left ours on 78! too hot!! we keep ours on 70 and have every fan in the house on.. sometimes if its really hot we put it on 68
Haha this made me laugh because we live in the Pacific Northwest and we had a high of 96 today and let me tell you, I would NEVER leave our air set at 78. I prefer 67-68 but my husband insists on around 72 š
Being hot is the WORST! We bump it to 74 during the day and 68 when it’s bedtime. In the winter, we don’t turn on the heat unless the thermostat gets below 60. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, we’ve seen it at 59 and below IN THE HOUSE. And yes, we hate heat. But sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
I live in the Pacific Northwest… and it’s 8:22PM right now, and still 90 degrees outside… but we live on the desert side of Washington State LOL so it’s not the same as back there, where it’s humid!
We set ours to about 75… because otherwise our electric bill goes through the roof….
I think 78 degrees is way to high for comfort. We set our thermostat at 73 which is perfect for us anytime of the year.
Since I live in the south and have no air conditioning, 78 sounds positively chilly!
Thank you so much for posting this. I seriously thought I was perimenopausal for wanting it set at 74 rather than the 76 my husband prefers. Last night I was drenched in sweat at midnight and got up and re-set it to 74. Good thing I got to work this morning before he noticed because I’m sure he would have had a few choice words for me. But you’re right – why have AC if you’re not going to use it??? It was probably less than 76 degrees outside anyway so we might as well have opened the windows!
My thermostat is currently set to 66 degrees, and…I live in the Pacific Northwest! Yesterday was 101, and today is supposed to be more of same. We also have around 90% humidity. I’m with you though, 78, no way!!
This is so crazy to me since I live in Arizona where on a “cool day” in summer it’s 105! Our averages run about 115 at any given time of day. BUT even with this, it’s considered “wasteful” by most if the thermostat is lower than 77. In fact, most of my friends keep their houses around 80 simply because it’s too expensive to keep it cooler. š
i agree. my parents keep theirs at 78 and it KILLS me every time i go home. dad and i got in a war at the beach over turning it up and down … it was kind of funny! we keep it at 74 during the day and then down to 70 at night and it is pure fabulousness.