Best Temperature To Set The Thermostat In Winter To Save Money

With today's rising electricity prices, heating your home in winter has become one of the largest household expenses during the snowy months. It goes without saying that the majority of people overheat their homes without really realizing the cost impact at the end of the month. Just a small and simple thermostat adjustment can lead to significant savings during the season. However, we know it's not all about money and personal finances; it has to do with comfort as well. So the main question we must ask ourselves is: what is the best thermostat temperature in winter to save money without sacrificing comfort?

TL;DR

The best temperatures to set your thermostat to in winter are:

During the day: 68°F (20°C)

While you are away from home: 55-60°F (13-15°C)

During the night: 60 or 62°F (15 or 17°C)

How Thermostats Affect Your Heating Bill

To save money, we must first understand how thermostats affect our heating bill. No math here, I promise, just physics!

When we start a heating system, we can make it work just a little bit or a lot more; what will determine this is the difference between the outdoor temperature and the indoor temperature. The bigger the difference, the longer it has to work = the more it will cost. Additionally, we need to account for the heat loss our house has - this will depend on how well our walls, windows, and roof can keep the temperature inside. Just think of it as filling a bucket with a leak; we need to constantly pour more water on it, so it doesn't run dry. It works the same for our home!

Note: while doing your personal finance, you should have in mind that savings are pretty much cumulative over the entire winter. At first, it seems to be just a few bucks, but I promise it can add up to a huge amount.

The Recommended Winter Thermostat Temperature

So, should we put it in a “cold” temperature and call it for the day? Not necessarily.

We need to balance out cost efficiency with our comfort. Generally, a good rule of thumb when setting your thermostat during the winter day is to maintain it at 68°F (20°C) while you are awake. This is a good balance between comfort and efficiency, with emphasis on “generally”. Bear in mind, while this might be a general recommendation, it's not a universal rule, and each person might prefer a slightly different setting during the day. Also, as explained earlier, each home has its own differences in humidity levels, size, and insulation systems. This can directly affect your thermostat temperature in winter and how much you can save on bills.

One way to work around this structural problem is to prefer warmer clothing while inside your home. I am not talking about coats or layers of pants. Just a long-sleeve shirt or socks might just do it. Remember, this is a process of trying and noticing what works best for you.

The most important part of saving money on heating is during the night. So, here it is, the golden recipe for an amazing result: it's smart to lower your thermostat to 60 or 62°F (15 or 17°C) before you go to bed. This might seem too cold at first, but hear me out on this one.

This is a genius way to save money. When we go to sleep, we naturally add a few extra blankets, and we normally throw them around or do not use them at all. Plus, our body naturally prefers cooler sleeping temperatures over higher ones. With that in mind, we can set the temperatures at night to a slightly lower temperature and still maintain our levels of comfort. Also, we can set the thermostat to gradually adjust the temperature when we are about to wake up, so we avoid feeling cold in the mornings.

Just imagine how much we save when we account for 8 hours per day, 30 days in a month, over 3 to 4 months. This can quickly add up to over 960 hours in heat savings! This is massive, if you are in Chicago in an average-sized apartment, you would be saving around 10% on average during the winter months.

Thermostat Settings When You’re Away From Home

It goes without saying that when you are away from home, you can set your thermostat to a lower temperature; this is called being smarter with your personal finances. Quick disclaimer on this tip: if you are living in a very old house or your pipes might be at risk of freezing, just skip this advice. It might not be worth the risk to lower your thermostat.

The recommended temperature here would be around 55-60°F (13-15°C). Since you are away, there is no necessity to keep the temperature constant or at a higher degree. Oh, and if you might be thinking about how costly it might be to reheat the entire home, you are dead wrong. Reheating will not cost more than maintaining higher temperatures for hours. Since the heating system is already at its peak, it will not cost you more than you are already paying.

Therefore, if you work in the office or outside, you would be saving an extra 10% of your heating bill at the end of the day, which is fantastic for your financial freedom.

Smart Thermostats vs Manual Adjustments

At this point, you might be asking yourself if you should invest in a smart device. To be honest, while saving money comes primarily from behavior, discipline, planning, and not just devices. Tools like a smart thermostat can make it easy not to miss temperature adjustments and schedules.

So, in a nutshell, a smart thermostat would do your entire scheduling, learning behavior, and automatic setbacks. Further, it would allow you to control temperatures from your phone. It's not a must-have tool by any means, but it makes life easier. While a manual control thermostat works, you need to have the discipline to check and manually change all your home temperatures. This can get very annoying over time. If you are like me and have an irregular schedule or constantly forget to adjust settings at home, get a smart thermostat. You wouldn't regret it!

Factors That May Change the “Best” Temperature

As you might already suspect, there are a few elements that might alter the best temperature to set your thermostat. As each case varies, the previous recommendation is a starting point for you to try things out, and you should begin testing around it to discover what works best for you.

With that out of the way, you should know that there are a few factors that may come into play when deciding on the most cost-effective thermostat settings:

Home insulation and window quality

As explained, your insulation system plays a major role in keeping the heat in and the cold out. If your home has an old insulation system, it might not be as good at maintaining heat. This logic also applies to windows and doors; depending on the material they are made of, they will insulate more or less.

Climate severity

If the climate is too harsh, you might not notice a large difference in your heating bill. For example, heating a home in Ohio will be cheaper than in Colorado during winter.

Heating system type (gas, electric, heat pump)

Depending on your system, you might be expending more to heat your home. For instance, electric heaters tend to be more expensive than heat pumps or gas heaters.

Ceiling height

It goes without saying that the more space you have to heat up, the larger your bill will be.

Number of occupants and activity level

The more people in the house, the more you will spend on keeping the heaters on and maintaining the temperature at home.

With these factors in mind, now you have an idea of what to expect to pay for heating bills at the end of the month and what will directly impact your savings. Nevertheless, saving money on heating is still possible, even if you have the worst setup at home.

Common Mistakes That Increase Heating Costs

Despite your house's infrastructure, there are a few common mistakes that people make during winter that affect their bills. These mistakes often go unnoticed; however, they play a large role in the number at the end of the month. Who said saving on heating would be easy?

One of the most common mistakes people make is cranking the thermostat higher to “heat faster”. I know it is counterintuitive, but this won't have the slightest impact on how fast your room warms. Honestly, this will only make the thermostat work harder to adjust the room temperature, which will soon drop.

Another common misconception is heating unused rooms or even blocking vents or radiators. It goes without saying that this will not only damage your heating system but also increase your heating bill. The same goes for leaving the thermostat unchanged day and night or for long periods. As discussed earlier, you can optimize your heating schedule.

Last but not least, ignoring drafts and insulation gaps, I often see these in older homes that need renovation. Gaps between walls, windows, and doors are just larger holes in a leaking bucket.

Practical Tips to Stay Warm Without Raising the Thermostat

There are smart tricks you can adopt at home to stay warm without necessarily raising the temperature on your thermostat. Bear in mind that these can be very effective while the temperature is not so drastic outside. A few common tricks are:

Layering clothing indoors

Sealing drafts

Using rugs and curtains strategically around the house

Ceiling fan direction in winter

Zoning rooms when possible

Beyond these, we can go even further and seal the gaps between the floor and the door. So, temperature is maintained for longer periods. With these small adjustments, we can manage to stay warm without necessarily increasing the temperature indoors.

Conclusion

Therefore, if we want to save money during the winter, we should maintain our thermostat temperature around 68°F (20°C) while at home and promptly lower it at night and when we are away, saving on gas or electricity.

We learned that small changes lead to real savings over time, and the most common mistakes to avoid when configuring your thermostat. It's all a balance between comfort and efficiency; also, it's all about testing and adapting.

Let's start by testing what we learned here. I highly recommend testing these adjustments for a week and seeing how it goes. Remember, a healthy personal finance is a long-term saving mindset.