Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Thermostat Temperature at Home

15 Jun 2018 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:39

In this YouTube commentary, Derek Cole critiques the common real‑estate advice of setting thermostats to 80‑85 °F when a home is vacant, explaining that in the hot, humid climate of southeastern North Carolina such high settings prevent proper dehumidification and can lead to mold growth and excess humidity. He recommends keeping vacant homes at no higher than 78 °F to allow the system to run and remove moisture. For occupied homes, he suggests a comfortable range of roughly 70‑75 °F, noting individual preferences may vary up to the mid‑70s. Cole also points out that slide‑bar thermostats and digital thermostats can display different temperature readings, urging viewers not to become fixated on exact numbers but to choose a setting that feels comfortable.

Chapters

The problem I've seen is that, and this is a big problem in the realty companies because every time I talk to those folks, they tell people when they sell their homes, set your thermostat to 80, 85 because no one's living in the house. Whoa, wait a minute, because that's going to be a problem. We're in southeastern North Carolina. It is hot, it is humid, so you need to dehumidify that space and cool that space a lot more at 85 and 80. I wouldn't go higher than 78. If you're leaving the home for a period of time, I would keep it at 78. That way it will come on, it will dehumidify. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of humidity in the house. Things are going to start growing, and that's going to be a whole nother problem outside of the energy bills you're trying to save. But going back to the question, what is good for you? I mean, between 70 and 75 is kind of what I've seen in homes. Some people like 72, some people like 75, some people like 76. I mean, whatever is comfortable for you. So someone I go to church with recently replaced a thermostat, and the problem when you go from a slide bar thermostat to a digital thermostat is that the digital is not reading accurate temperatures and the slide bar is not. So slide bar might be at 75, digital might be at 70. So whatever, I mean, don't get hung up too much on the numbers. So whatever is comfortable for you in your home is what you need to set it at. So if you're good with 70, go with 70. 75, go with that.