[JMC49]

I set mine at 76/78 day and night when I am home. If I leave for a period time I set the AC at 80. So far no mold or mildew problems. I also have ceiling fans in the kitchen, bathrooms and all bedrooms.

[StarfishKey]

This has been driving me crazy, and I'm glad to see an old thread about it. Wondering if there is a difference in what the common temps are, given the changes in the economy since the thread was started.

I have lived in SFL for over 6 years, but in the past year and a half in my current home I cannot seem to get the right inside temp. I work from home now, so it costs more to run it all the time, and I try hard to keep things as cheap as possible. The house has virtually no insulation, and all the windows need to be replaced, but that will have to wait behind a long list of other priorities. I also had to cut back some trees so a lot more sun is hitting the house now. The only way I can help insulate the house in the meantime is to keep the windows covered in the daytime for any room I'm not using. Even still, I can't figure out what is the right temp, as I continue to try a range of them for the right fit. I was for the longest time at 79 daytime/76 nighttime, and with fans this feels good to me. But the problem is, the thermostat often doesn't bother to kick in even once it records an 80 degree temp, and if I have to cook or do some kind of work indoors, before you know it I'm pouring sweat and wondering why it's so hot and humid indoors. But then if I switch it to 78 degrees, then it turns on constantly and then suddenly I'm freezing (it's amazing how sensitive you become to temp changes when the outdoor temp and humidity stay within a 15 degree range virtually all year!). What I'd like actually is probably an industrial dehumidifier (with higher fan settings and maybe the thermostat set to 80 in the day and 77 at night), but that will have to go on my list after the insulation even! This year when it got cold I set the heat to come on only below 65 degrees, but that did feel painful at points given what a major difference in humidity and temperature with the rest of the year.

I'm relieved actually to see the temps listed here by others from a few years ago are so low - although few of them seem to be posted by native Floridians - so at least by comparison I'm not doing so bad for electricity costs!

But I wonder, what are the temps people here set their thermostat to this year? In the outdoors, I enjoy hot temps but it is often a lot windier, and/or less humid. Inside within minutes after the A/C shuts off it's back to being terribly humid indoors, and without running the fans at High (which would be annoying) there is also not enough circulation to stay as comfortable as outdoors at the same temp. No matter what your comfort temp, I think you need to cycle the A/C or heat at least once a day to keep out mold, all the more so in SFL, unless you have an industrial dehumidifier working around the clock for you. But the rest of the time, what do you all set it to just for comfort?

[StarfishKey]

Here is an article about recommended thermostat temps in Florida, and what a difference in power usage it makes to raise or lower it by just one degree:
Set Your Thermostat For Savings - Sun Sentinel

[OptimusPrime69]

I feel like I keep mine relatively cool compared to other people, I keep my day time at 73 and my night time at 68

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime69

I feel like I keep mine relatively cool compared to other people, I keep my day time at 73 and my night time at 68

We keep ours at 76 degrees all the time. We used to keep it at 78 degrees, but found the difference in comfort at 76 degrees was significant. We're air conditioning about 2000 square feet in a house that although it has 10 foot ceilings, is very well insulated, with well-installed hurricane impact windows ( no air leakage) and built with overhangs plus the lanai that keeps the afternoon sun from shining directly in the windows. We also have ceiling fans in every room. The builders must have done a great job with the AC system too ( although we keep it checked and maintained) as it unobtrusively and quietly keeps the temperature just where we set it. Our FPL bill usually runs between $125 and $150/month, with the highest bill we ever got during the summer heat about $240- and just one of those. I can't complain.

[SDPMiami]

I keep mine at 78, and lower it to 76 at night sometimes if I'm uncomfortable.

[OptimusPrime69]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

We keep ours at 76 degrees all the time. We used to keep it at 78 degrees, but found the difference in comfort at 76 degrees was significant. We're air conditioning about 2000 square feet in a house that although it has 10 foot ceilings, is very well insulated, with well-installed hurricane impact windows ( no air leakage) and built with overhangs plus the lanai that keeps the afternoon sun from shining directly in the windows. We also have ceiling fans in every room. The builders must have done a great job with the AC system too ( although we keep it checked and maintained) as it unobtrusively and quietly keeps the temperature just where we set it. Our FPL bill usually runs between $125 and $150/month, with the highest bill we ever got during the summer heat about $240- and just one of those. I can't complain.

wow, that's great! Considering the square footage you're air conditioning, that's not bad at all.
I too live in a high place with high ceilings and I feel like it's just a lot of volume to air condition, but so worth it.... My place is not as large as yours however, so Winter months average about $90 to $100 FPL, but Summer are more like $150 to $170...

[OpinionInOcala]

78 during the day, 77 at dinnertime, 76 with guests, and 75 when sleeping. On the rare occasion we turn the heat on during the cooler month of the year (lol) it's set to 70 because my wife seems to believe that our small army of people-sized dogs will freeze (while inside of our home, no less) otherwise.

[Sweetbottoms]

72 day and night, all fans on and at night we sleep with two fans. One on the ceiling and one at the foot of the bed.

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime69

wow, that's great! Considering the square footage you're air conditioning, that's not bad at all.
I too live in a high place with high ceilings and I feel like it's just a lot of volume to air condition, but so worth it.... My place is not as large as yours however, so Winter months average about $90 to $100 FPL, but Summer are more like $150 to $170...

We don't think it's bad either, especially when we compare it to the FPL bills we paid for the house in Miami. Of course that house was bigger ( around 2800 square feet), but it also had awning windows which were notoriously leaky and a source of AC loss ( I think we air-conditioned all of Palmetto Bay with those). We replaced the AC system in 2009 there, and while that made the bills somewhat smaller, they'd still get up to about $350 or more in the summers, although we did keep the temperature at 78 there. And we had a pool in Miami, which we elected not to have in the house we live in now.

I don't think your FPL bills are that bad either- especially under $100 in the winters. $150-170 in the summers IMO isn't terrible either, considering the AC has to fight against those hot temps and high humidity in Miami summers. I don't know if you have ceiling fans in your place, but they help a lot in that you can set the AC a degree or two higher with those fans and you'll still be comfortable. FPL just cautions people to turn the fans off when you leave the room- something I have YET to convince my husband he should do.