How hot is hot? How cool is cool? As you probably guessed, this is a trick question. The answer depends on, ‘Who’s asking?’
The reason we ask is because the comfortable air conditioned temperature varies widely from one climate zone to the next, from one building to the next, and from one individual to . . . yup. You guessed it. What’s comfortable for Grandma feels like a sauna for her son-in-law. (‘Course it doesn’t help that Grandma grew up without air conditioning, so she feels the technology has made us all a bunch of wussies.)
In this day and age, when no building seems to exist with HVAC and auto-sensored heating and cooling, it’s a vital issue. Not to mention the environmental impact. (http://www.acdoctor.com/get-educated/be-efficient/)
One pundit points out that so-called ideal temperatures were generated from looking at averages. The averaged best temperature for 1,000 people was 68 degrees in an office situation. The majority of those polled were men wearing suit jackets, ties and having greater muscle mass (which generates more heat than adipose tissue, the softer stuff that women are made of). This meant that the ideal average temperature was some degrees higher than most women would have preferred.
But we are discussing your home temperature. You control it, and it’s not designed for the ‘average’ person; it’s meant to please your family. Where should you set the thermostat to achieve the most comfort for the greatest efficiency?
We suggest starting out at 78 degrees, which is the Energy Star recommendation. If this is tolerable, Energy Star suggests raising the temperature one degree at a time until you find your threshold. Then use this highest-possible setting for the hours when you are home and active. If 78 is too warm for you, lower the setting one degree at a time. You can increase the comfortable air conditioned temperature by at least 7 degrees while you’re away from home. If you don’t have pets, you can increase it even more.
A couple of other tips: A ceiling fan will help you feel cooler. But it doesn’t do a thing except create wind chill, so turn it off when you’re not home.
A programmable thermostat is a money-saver, since it automatically turns up the thermostat at night (as long as it’s programmed to do so).
And finally, Consumer Reports ran an unscientific poll of their readers, and found that the most popular home temperature among their respondents was 76-78 degrees. The second most-popular was 73-75 degrees. So either CR’s respondents are very green, very heat-resistant, or they are warm beacons of light to the rest of our chilly souls!