A poll on thermostats

[Ray]

We are on a barrier island in southern NC, so 1 mile from the ocean and 50 feet from the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), which dampens the temperature extremes, year round. My front yard (facing south, to the interior of the island) routinely exceeds 90F in summer; the back yard (facing north, on the ICW) has only broken 90 6 days in the 5 years I’ve been here.

Winters are quite variable, but rarely do we get below freezing, and when it does, it might be only for a few days, if not warming in the afternoon. Days in the 50s & 60s is pretty normal. The first few winters we were here, I probably wore a jacket a total of 20-30 days all winter. Last year was unusual, as it stayed cold (upper 30s/low 40s) for weeks at a time.

We don’t have a programmable thermostat, but with our copious humidity, our heat pump is very efficient, so it’s set at 74F pretty constantly.