58 Degrees & Comfy in Bed

For two Winters and a month into this last one, we turned our thermostat down to 67 degrees at the lowest for us to sleep comfortably upstairs. Then in January we had an energy audit that led to air-sealing a few big gaps and adding cellulose insulation to our attic. Ten days later, I gave a TV interview for NBC4 news that mentions we'd turned down our thermostat four degrees. But that's not where it stopped!

We turned down the thermostat one degree every few nights until we got down to 58 degrees. It's still true that it's a lot warmer upstairs than down (other suggestions from our audit should help with that): most winter days when we're home and evenings downstairs, 67 has been O.K. since the work. But with a blanket of 85% recycled paper above us, we've been cozy in our bed at nine degrees lower. And Spring came before we were finished experimenting!


For details on our audit, see Our Home Energy Audit and for a quick photo tour of the work, see Air Sealing & Insulation.