Best Thermostat Temperatures For Summer and Winter to Save Money

Heating and cooling account for roughly half of your total energy bill. For the average South Carolina household, that means somewhere around $75 to $100 per month goes directly toward keeping your house at a comfortable temperature.

The good news is that small thermostat adjustments can significantly reduce that number. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that setting your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day can save you up to 10% on annual heating and cooling costs, and the only thing you need to change is your thermostat schedule.

The problem is that most advice on this topic is generic. It assumes that every home works the same way, that every family has the same schedule, and that every climate demands the same approach, but that does not really happen in practice. The right thermostat temperature depends on the season, your heating system type, whether anyone is home during the day, and even how humid it is outside.

In this guide, we’ll cover the specific temperatures that work for winter, summer, sleeping, vacation, and everything in between, along with the reasoning behind each recommendation so you can adjust based on your own home and comfort level.

How Much Can the Right Thermostat Setting Actually Save You?

Heating and cooling account for about 52% of the average American household’s energy costs, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That is the single largest chunk of your utility bill, so even small thermostat adjustments can make a noticeable difference.

The average South Carolina household spends between $150 and $200 per month on electricity, and roughly half of that goes to heating and cooling. If your heating and cooling costs run about $100 per month, a single degree of thermostat adjustment can save you somewhere between $1 and $3 per month.

Most homeowners can comfortably adjust their thermostat by 3 to 5 degrees during sleeping hours and when away from home without noticing any difference in comfort. A 5-degree setback during the eight hours you sleep and the eight hours you are at work adds up to $120 to $360 in savings per year.

If you set your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees from its normal setting for eight hours per day, you can expect to save about 10% annually on heating and cooling. For a household with a $200 monthly electricity bill, that translates to roughly $120 per year.

One thing to note is that these savings estimates assume a conventional heating system, such as a gas furnace or an electric resistance heater. Heat pumps, which are common across South Carolina because of our relatively mild winters, work differently when it comes to temperature setbacks. We cover that in the winter settings section below, because getting it wrong with a heat pump can actually increase your bill instead of lowering it.

What Temperature Should You Set Your Thermostat to in the Winter?

The Department of Energy recommends setting your thermostat to 68°F while you are home and awake during the winter months. This temperature is the point at which most people feel reasonably comfortable without forcing their heating system to work harder than necessary.

Every degree you raise the thermostat above 68°F increases your heating costs by roughly 1 to 3 percent. That means bumping it up to 72°F because the house feels a little chilly could add $3 to $9 per month to your bill, or $36 to $108 over the course of a heating season.

If 68°F feels too cold at first, try lowering your thermostat by 1 degree per day from its current setting. Most people stop noticing the difference within a few days, and the gradual adjustment is far easier than dropping from 74°F to 68°F all at once.

One thing to note is that these savings estimates assume a conventional heating system, such as a gas furnace or an electric resistance heater. Heat pumps, which are common across South Carolina because of our relatively mild winters, work differently when it comes to temperature setbacks.

Heat pumps are the most common heating system in the Upstate because winters are mild enough for them to operate efficiently year-round. But heat pumps respond to thermostat changes differently than gas furnaces. When you set a gas furnace back 10 degrees overnight and raise it again in the morning, the furnace fires up and heats the house relatively quickly. A heat pump works by moving heat from the outside air into your home, a slower process.

If you set a heat pump back too far, the system may not be able to recover on its own and will kick on its backup electric resistance heat strips to close the gap. Those heat strips consume significantly more electricity than the heat pump itself, and the extra cost can wipe out any savings from the setback.

The general rule for heat pump owners is to keep setbacks smaller, around 2 to 3 degrees, rather than the 7 to 10 degrees the DOE recommends for furnace-heated homes.

Best Thermostat Temperature for Sleeping in Winter

The Sleep Foundation recommends keeping your bedroom between 60°F and 67°F for the best sleep quality. Your body temperature naturally drops as you fall asleep, and a cooler room supports that process rather than working against it.

This is one area where energy savings and personal comfort actually align. Lowering your thermostat to the low 60s at bedtime saves money and helps you sleep better. The DOE’s 10% annual savings estimate is based on maintaining that kind of setback for 8 hours, which aligns almost perfectly with a typical night of sleep.

The easiest way to handle this is with a programmable or smart thermostat that starts lowering the temperature 30 minutes before you go to bed and begins warming the house back up 30 minutes before your alarm goes off. That way, you never wake up to a cold house, and you are not paying to heat an empty living room at 2 a.m.

What to Set Your Thermostat to When You Leave for Work

The same principle applies when nobody is home. The DOE recommends setting your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees from your normal at-home setting when you are away. If your daytime setting is 68°F, that means dropping to somewhere between 58°F and 62°F while you are at work.

For heat pump owners, the same caution applies. A smaller setback of 3 to 5 degrees is usually the safer bet to avoid triggering backup heat strips when the system tries to recover before you get home.

One common concern is that it costs more energy to reheat a cold house than it does to maintain a constant temperature. This is a myth. Your home loses heat more slowly when the interior temperature is closer to the outdoor temperature, so letting the house cool down while you are gone actually reduces total energy loss over the course of the day.

You will always save money with a setback, as long as the setback is appropriate for your heating system type.

Best Temperature to Set Your Thermostat in Summer to Save Money

The Department of Energy recommends 78°F as the baseline thermostat setting for summer while you are home. That tends to surprise people because 78°F sounds warm, and it is warmer than what most households actually set their AC to.

But the same 1 to 3 percent savings per degree applies in reverse during the cooling season. Running your AC at 72°F instead of 78°F could add $6 to $18 per month to your electricity bill during the hottest months.

To make 78°F feel comfortable, focus on managing humidity and air movement rather than just dropping the temperature. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, and ideally between 30% and 50%. At 78°F with humidity under 50%, most people feel perfectly fine. At 78°F with 65% humidity, the same room feels stuffy and uncomfortable. If your home feels warm even with the AC running, it might be due to high humidity rather than a thermostat issue.

Ceiling fans can make a significant difference in maintaining comfort. A ceiling fan running counterclockwise in summer creates a wind-chill effect, making the room feel 3 to 4 degrees cooler than the actual temperature. That means you can set your thermostat to 78°F or even 80°F with the fan running and still feel the same level of comfort as at 74°F without it.

One thing to avoid is setting the thermostat to a very low temperature when you first get home on a hot day. Your AC cools at the same rate regardless of how low you set it. Dropping the thermostat to 65°F will not cool the house any faster than setting it to 78°F. All it does is keep the system running longer than necessary and drive up your bill.

Summer Thermostat Settings When You Are Away

The DOE recommends raising your thermostat to 85°F or higher when you leave the house in summer. That is a bigger setback than most people expect, but your AC does not need to work nearly as hard to cool a house from 85°F down to 78°F as it does to maintain 78°F all day in an empty house.

If you have pets at home, 85°F is too high. Most veterinary guidelines suggest keeping the house below 80°F for dogs and cats. A setting of 78°F to 80°F is a reasonable setting to protect your pets without running the AC full blast for an empty house.

For homes without pets or plants to worry about, keep in mind that you should not let the indoor temperature exceed 90°F even when you are away for extended periods. Extreme heat can damage electronics, warp wood furniture and flooring, and cause issues with certain medications that need to be stored below a specific temperature.

Best Thermostat Settings for Spring and Fall

Spring and fall are the easiest months for your energy bill because outdoor temperatures often fall within a comfortable range. A good rule of thumb is to open the windows and turn off your HVAC system when outdoor temperatures are between 65°F and 75°F.

In the Upstate, that typically covers most of October and November in the fall and April through mid-May in the spring. During those stretches, your heating and cooling costs can drop to almost nothing if you take advantage of the mild weather instead of running the system out of habit.

When temperatures start swinging between warm afternoons and cool mornings, most modern thermostats have an auto mode that switches between heating and cooling as needed. If you use auto mode, set a temperature range rather than a single target. Something like 68°F on the low end and 76°F on the high end works well for most households.

This creates a “deadband” where neither the heater nor the AC kicks on, and the house just stays wherever it naturally lands within that range. The wider you set that deadband, the less your system runs and the more you save.

One common mistake during transitional seasons is running the AC during the day and the heat at night within the same 24-hour period. If your thermostat is set to a single temperature like 72°F in auto mode with no deadband, the system can cycle back and forth between heating and cooling multiple times a day, which is inefficient and can put unnecessary wear on your equipment. A range of at least 4 to 6 degrees between your heating and cooling set points avoids this problem.

Vacation and Travel Thermostat Settings

Leaving for a week-long trip and forgetting to adjust your thermostat is one of the easiest ways to waste money on heating and cooling. But setting it too aggressively in either direction can cause real damage to your home.

In winter, never set your thermostat below 55°F while you are away. That is the minimum temperature needed to prevent your pipes from freezing, which can lead to burst pipes and thousands of dollars in water damage. If your home has pipes running through exterior walls, an unheated garage, or a crawl space, you may want to keep it closer to 60°F to be on the safe side. The few extra dollars in heating costs are not worth the risk.

In summer, you can raise the thermostat higher than you would for a normal workday since nobody is home to feel uncomfortable. A setting of 85°F keeps the house from overheating without running the AC all week when the house is empty. Do not let the indoor temperature climb above 90°F, even in an empty home. Excessive heat can damage wood floors and furniture, harm electronics, spoil medications, and create conditions that favor mold growth, especially in a humid climate like South Carolina’s.

If you have houseplants, the most common indoor varieties do best between 60°F and 75°F. Anything above 85°F for an extended period can stress or kill them, so factor that into your summer vacation settings if you have plants you want to keep alive.

The easiest way to handle vacation settings is to use your thermostat’s vacation or hold mode if it has one. This overrides your normal schedule with a single temperature until you manually switch it back or set a return date. Smart thermostats can also detect when nobody has been home for a few days and adjust automatically, though it is still worth setting a specific range before you leave rather than relying entirely on the automation.

Can Smart and Programmable Thermostats Help You Save More?

Everything we have covered so far assumes you are actually adjusting your thermostat consistently. In practice, most people set it once and forget about it, or they manually adjust it when they remember and skip it when they do not. That inconsistency is where a lot of potential savings get left on the table.

A programmable thermostat solves this by letting you set a schedule that runs automatically. You program your wake time, leave time, return time, and bedtime temperatures once, and the thermostat handles the rest. There is no ongoing effort required, and the savings compound every single day because the setbacks actually happen, whether you remember them or not.

Models from brands like Ecobee and Google Nest learn your habits over time, detect when you leave the house using motion sensors or your phone’s location, and adjust temperatures automatically without you having to program anything. Some models also track your energy usage and show you exactly how much you are saving, which helps you figure out whether your current settings are actually working.

The DOE estimates that a programmable thermostat used correctly can save the average household about $180 per year. The key phrase is “used correctly,” because studies show that a significant number of homeowners with programmable thermostats never program them. If yours is sitting on a permanent hold at 72°F, it is doing the same job as a $20 manual thermostat.

Does Thermostat Placement Affect Your Energy Bills?

A thermostat reads the air temperature immediately around it, and if that reading is skewed by its location, your system will heat or cool based on inaccurate information.

There are a few spots you want to avoid. A thermostat in direct sunlight will read warmer than the actual room temperature, which means your AC runs longer than it needs to in summer. A thermostat near a kitchen will pick up heat from cooking and appliances. A thermostat in a hallway near the front door gets hit with drafts every time someone comes and goes. A thermostat mounted above a supply vent gets a blast of conditioned air that does not reflect the temperature in the rest of the house.

The ideal placement is on an interior wall in a room you use frequently, about five feet off the ground, away from windows, vents, and direct sunlight. If your thermostat is in a bad location and you are getting uneven temperatures throughout your home, relocating it is a relatively inexpensive fix that can make your entire system run more efficiently.

What Does Changing Your Thermostat by 1 Degree Actually Cost?

We mentioned earlier that each degree of thermostat adjustment saves roughly 1 to 3 percent on heating and cooling costs.

The numbers below are based on an average South Carolina electricity bill of $175 per month, with about half of that going to heating and cooling. Your actual costs will vary depending on your home’s size, insulation, system type, and local utility rates, but these figures give you a realistic ballpark.

Those numbers are for a single setback period. If you combine a 5-degree sleeping setback with a 5-degree away-from-home setback, you could save $120 to $300 per year from thermostat adjustments alone.

The savings also work in both directions. If your household is in the habit of keeping the thermostat at 74°F in winter instead of the recommended 68°F, that 6-degree difference is costing you an extra $72 to $180 per year in heating costs.

Ways to Save on Heating and Cooling Without Touching Your Thermostat

In addition to maintaining thermostat settings, there are several things you can do around the house that reduce heating and cooling costs, regardless of the temperature you set.

• Seal air leaks. Gaps around windows, doors, electrical outlets, and where pipes enter the house let conditioned air escape and outdoor air in. The Department of Energy estimates that air leaks can account for 25 to 30 percent of heating and cooling energy use. A can of spray foam and a few rolls of weatherstripping can make a noticeable difference for under $50.
• Insulate your ductwork. In many homes, ducts run through unconditioned spaces like attics and crawl spaces. If those ducts are uninsulated or poorly sealed, you can lose 20 to 30 percent of the air your system produces before it ever reaches your living space.
• Use ceiling fans strategically. In summer, set fans to spin counterclockwise to create a wind-chill effect, letting you raise the thermostat 3 to 4 degrees without noticing. In winter, switch them to clockwise on a low setting to push warm air that collects near the ceiling back down into the room.
• Keep up with regular HVAC maintenance. A system with dirty filters, low refrigerant, or worn components has to work harder to maintain the same temperature, which means higher energy bills even if your thermostat settings are perfect. Replace your air filter every 60 to 90 days and schedule an annual tune-up.
• Control indoor humidity. In summer, a whole-house dehumidifier removes moisture from the air, so your AC doesn’t have to work as hard. In winter, adding humidity makes lower thermostat settings feel warmer. Either way, managing humidity means your system runs less to achieve the same level of comfort.

Conclusion

The thermostat is one of the few things in your home where a small change produces a measurable financial result. Setting it to 68°F in winter and 78°F in summer, using setback schedules while you sleep and when you are away, and making sure your system is actually running efficiently can add up to hundreds of dollars in savings per year.

But the thermostat can only do so much if the system behind it is not performing well. Dirty filters, leaking ductwork, low refrigerant levels, and worn components all force your HVAC system to work harder than it should, which drives up your bills regardless of the temperature you set. An annual maintenance visit catches those issues before they cost you money.

If it has been more than a year since your last tune-up, or if your energy bills seem higher than they should be, schedule a maintenance appointment with our team, and we will make sure your system is running as efficiently as possible.