What temperature do you set your Central Air at?

I’m right there with you, I set mine at 69.

P.S. just a little side question to this, CPS came into my house a few months ago and put this new digital thermostat in my house for free, I had my air turned down when I slept the other night it was down to 69..I woke up and someone had put the temp back up to 75 and noone was in the house, everyone was on a vacation except me I was home alone. Are they remotely controlling my energy? If so I don’t like it, has anyone else had one of these things put in their house by the power company? They talked about how much better it is to have one of these put in but didn’t mention they’d be able to regulate my usage remotely.

In the interests of economy and the environment I set it just a degree or two below the temperature at which I start to feel really uncomfortable. For me, that would be around 75 Fahrenheit. I hope that helps.

The right temperature may be quite different for you during the day and at nighttime.

A thermostat you can set to change automatically at different hours of the day may also save you a lot of money if there are large chunks of time where the house is usually unoccupied.

I thought CPS was the abbreviation for child protective services and was really starting to wonder about you :)

But seriously, I would be on the phone with the power company getting that thing out of my house. That is just creepy.

And I keep it at 70 normally but lower if it’s extremely humid.

Summer: 77 day, 74 nite

Winter: 72 day, 68 nite

I usually crank it up to 90 when I’m home alone, winter or summer. I can’t stand it below that.

I don’t have central air. Temp in my house probably ranges from 72 to 85 ish which in comfort terms is “so cold I need to light the fireplace NOW” to “so freaking hot I need to go to the beach NOW”.

When I stay in places with central air, I prefer it to be between 75 and 78 ish.

When designing a/c systems in my former life, the standard cooling design setpoint was 75F, occasionally 72 for higher end retail spaces – this is for a tropical climate. Heating is probably something like 68F in places that need it for a balance between energy demand and comfort.

If you’re really interested in indoor thermal comfort, track down ASHRAE Standard 55.

I keep mine at 87 but it’s usually quite chilly in here.

@earthduzt In the last apartment I was in there was a digital thermostat and it had all kinds of things that you could set. You could set it for Monday through Friday and Saturday and Sunday for waking, sleeping, leaving, and returning.

But you could also adjust it on the fly. So, like if I had it at 79 one day at night and I turned it down to 75 it would stay at 75 until it hit one of the set triggers. So, if I set to 75 at 8pm Saturday night but it was programmed to go to 77 at 10pm Saturday night then it would start to follow the program again.

So, if I explained that well, have you checked your thermostat to see if you can program in different temperatures for different times on different days?

I guess I should also say that I set it to this only when the temperature outside is between 78 – 95 degrees in the middle of the summer in Southeastern Pa. Thanks for your responses. My husband asked one person at work and of course they said 72–73. Growing up, I remember my parents setting it at 69–70 and they had a new, well insulated house, and now my husband and I just built a new house last year as well, so I thought the temps would be similar and that it would be somewhat normal, as I don’t remember people complaining of being hot or cold growing up.

@SublimeLover That’s because you never lived with us. My dad is… frugal. Messing with the thermostat was a grounding offense. The winters weren’t too bad because, as I always say, you can always put more clothes on but there’s a limit to what you can take off.

I guess my dad was naturally heat resistant, though, because the summers could be brutal for the rest of us, begging him to turn on the AC.

We don’t have A/C. The house never gets above 77. We live near a lake.
In the winter we keep the stat at 64 during the day and 59 at night.

In the summer when the temperature gets in the 90’s, I usually set mine at 78 to 80, day and night. In the winter, I set it on 66 to 68, but I have a wood burning fireplace I use most evenings.

I set it at 79 degrees when the AC is on.

holy crap, I’m starting to think I am an eskimo. Somebody prove me wrong lol!

The A/C is kept at 80°F in the summer – just enough to make it noticeably slightly cooler than outside, but it doesn’t feel cool when we’ve been in it for a while. I still melt in that kind of heat, but we have to balance comfort with cost.

(Similarly, the furnace is set to 60°F in the winter.)

I keep mine around 80, but turn it down to 75 sometimes when it gets really hot upstairs. I miss having the programmable thermostat like @mrentropy mentioned. We had one of those at our old place and I loved it.

HVAC costs are at an all time high so I try to just get by and 75 is where I like it set as on a hot day 75 feels like a freezer.

I try to keep the house at around 77–80* during the day time during the summer, though I relent and crank it down to about 71–73*.

During the summer, I keep the heat set at about 55* just so the pipes don’t freeze. And I enjoy my $50 energy bills. It balances out the $200 bills during the rest of the year.

I’m about 70 in the summer….I am hormonal and prone to flashes.

winter 65. I think. I have my fireplace.

I have both central air and a window unit in my favorite room and sleeping room.

I usually keep the central air off, and use the window units. I keep the air at 72 degrees summer days, 68 degrees summer nights, 75 degrees winter days, and low-as-can-go on winter nights.

I can’t spend more than 5 minutes in any closed room that’s hotter than 76 degrees. Never could.

My electrical and heating only runs about $60 a month average.
But I’d pay far more, if I had to, to keep this place cool. It’s worth the cancellation of cable TV, cell phone, and entertainment… to keep the house cool.

Do you live, then, in a very tiny place, @Kraigmo?

In Germany for 255 out of 365 days a year we don’t need air conditioning. Climate is one reason. Quality of house insulation is another. For the 10 very hot days we use fans.

I found this energy saving tip: If you have central air conditioning, set your thermostat at 78 degrees or higher. For every degree you raise your thermostat setting above 72 degrees F, you’ll save 5–7% on your cooling costs. Most people can live quite comfortably at a temperature of 78°F. Rather than reducing your air conditioner’s temperature setting to a chilling 72 degrees, try raising it one degree at a time to see how warm it can be before you become uncomfortable.

Whenever we are in the US the 78 degree setting is perfect for us.

http://www.bge.com/portal/site/bge/menuitem.5586c28fb223006509c031e0da6176a0/

http://www.greenyour.com/home/appliances/air-conditioning/tips/raise-your-air-conditioners-temperature-settings

75 in summer.

@laureth, yeah, it’s a small house. Well at least the bottom floor that I rent, is small.

78 degrees is usually comfortable in the absence of physical work.

“maturing” can change the range of comfort, when it comes to temperature. I used to have my electric blanket on high, practically year round. Now, it’s in the garage rafters. I’m menopausal. Now, I set the thermostat at 60 at night, with a fan in my bedroom, just a sheet, linen blanket and a thin coverlet. During the day, I like it at 69 to 70. I love having control of the temperature. I turn the thermostat off, when the temp is right and it will stay stable, like after warming the house up in the morning. I don’t completely depend on the AC to cool the house. I have a high ceiling in the living room. I put in a skylight that opens. I open the bedroom windows in the back of the house, turn on a fan in each room, open the skylight and the front door and windows and blow the hot air out. Moving air with fans is less expensive and sometimes, all that is needed. I’m, fortunate to live in a pretty temperate climate and humidity isn’t usually a problem. Aging can effect men too. Has your husband always gotten cold easily?