The U.S. Department of Energy’s winter answer is 68°F when you’re home and awake. Set back 7 to 10°F when you’re asleep or away, and DOE projects up to a 10% reduction in annual heating costs. For a typical U.S. heating bill of around $900 per year, that’s roughly $90 back. If you paid $150 for a smart thermostat, it pays for itself in under two years.
Heat pump owners have one additional rule: don’t set back more than 6 to 8°F at a time. More on that below.
The core winter schedule
| Time | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Home/awake (6 AM to 10 PM) | 68°F | DOE recommended baseline |
| Asleep | 65°F | Sleep research sweet spot; 60°F if your household runs warm |
| Away (8-hour workday) | 62 to 64°F | Safe for pipes; gas furnace recovers easily in 30 to 45 minutes |
| Away (weekend, 2 days), gas | 60°F | Don’t go below 55°F in any occupied zone |
| Away (weekend, 2 days), heat pump | 62 to 65°F | Shallow setback; deeper recovery risks triggering AUX heat |
These are the starting numbers. Adjust by 1 to 2°F based on your household’s comfort, but keep the structure: one setpoint for occupied hours, a lower one for sleep, a lower one still for empty.
What 68°F actually saves
The DOE’s 10% figure is based on a 7 to 10°F setback held for 8 hours a day. The math works because your home loses heat proportional to the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures. A cooler house loses heat more slowly, so your furnace or heat pump runs less often.
That math only works, though, if you actually change the setpoints. A thermostat you touch once and leave at 70°F all day saves nothing compared to a programmed schedule. This is why smart thermostats outperform simple programmable ones in real-world energy studies: geofencing and auto-scheduling enforce the setbacks without depending on you to remember.
If 68°F feels cold at first, try 70°F for a week and step down 1°F per week. Most people acclimate within two to three weeks, especially once they adjust humidity. Below 30% relative humidity, 68°F feels significantly colder than 68°F at 35 to 45% RH. A whole-home humidifier or even a room humidifier on the first floor can close that gap without touching the thermostat.
Heat pump owners: the setback rule
A heat pump works most efficiently at small temperature deltas. Maintaining 68°F from 65°F is easy; the compressor runs at a steady, low-speed clip and the coefficient of performance (COP) stays high. Recovering from 58°F to 68°F on a cold morning is a different situation entirely.
When the setback is too deep and the outdoor temperature is low, the heat pump’s compressor cannot recover the temperature fast enough on its own. The system calls in electric resistance backup heat (labeled AUX or EM HEAT on most thermostats). Resistance heat runs at a COP of roughly 1.0, meaning 1 kWh of electricity becomes exactly 1 kWh of heat. A modern heat pump in mild weather operates at a COP of 2.5 to 4.0. One morning of AUX running for 45 minutes can erase several nights of setback savings.
The safe zone for heat pump setbacks:
- Sleep setback: 4 to 6°F below your occupied setpoint (68°F to 62°F is fine; 68°F to 58°F is not)
- Away setback: 6 to 8°F maximum on a cold day
- Vacation (1 week+): 62°F floor for most climates; 65°F if you’re in a zone that stays below 20°F regularly
ecobee handles this automatically when you enable the “Heat Pump Optimization” feature in installation settings. It monitors outdoor temperature and pre-empts recovery so the home is warm before you return without triggering resistance heat.
Nest: Set Heat Pump Balance to “Balanced.” The “Max Savings” setting can delay AUX activation long enough that a cold morning recovery runs late and leaves the house below setpoint well into the morning. “Comfort” is also fine if you don’t want to think about it. Avoid “Max Savings” in climates that regularly drop below 30°F overnight.
Honeywell T10 Pro: In the installer settings menu, verify that “Compressor Lockout” is set to the temperature listed in your equipment manual, typically 35°F for most air-source heat pumps. Below that threshold, the T10 Pro will switch to AUX-only operation rather than running the compressor inefficiently.
Night temperature: what to actually set
Sleep research from the National Sleep Foundation puts the optimal sleeping temperature for adults at 60 to 67°F. The body’s core temperature drops during sleep, and a cooler room supports that process. 65°F is the practical compromise for most households.
Adjust for your household:
- Warm sleepers: 62 to 63°F is comfortable and saves money
- Cold sleepers or older adults: 68 to 70°F is a reasonable call on comfort grounds, but note that cold sleeping environments are associated with increased cardiovascular strain in older adults, so erring warmer here is about safety, not indulgence
- Mixed household: set at 65°F and use an extra blanket rather than raising the whole-house setpoint
One thing to avoid: setting the night setpoint below 60°F anywhere in an occupied home. Below 60°F, exterior walls and surfaces near windows can drop to temperatures that cause condensation and sustained cold drafts at floor level. The pipe freeze threshold in unheated zones is 55°F; give yourself 5°F of margin in occupied spaces.
Away settings: pipes, recovery time, and trip length
How deep to set back depends on how long you’ll be gone and what system you have.
Working from home, partial days: skip the away setback entirely. The delta between “occupied” and “away” is small, and you’ll spend more on repeated recoveries than you save. Hold 68°F.
8-hour workday: 62 to 64°F. A gas furnace recovers this delta in 30 to 45 minutes. Schedule the return recovery to start 30 minutes before you typically arrive.
Weekend away (2 days): 60°F for gas; 62°F for heat pump. If overnight lows will drop below 10°F in your area, consider 62°F for gas as well. Recovery from 60°F to 68°F takes longer when the outdoor temperature pulls more heat out of the envelope.
Vacation (one week or more): 60°F minimum, no exceptions. Leave cabinet doors under sinks open so the pipes near exterior walls stay above 55°F. In northern climates, also open doors to utility rooms where pipes run near uninsulated exterior framing. Turn off the water supply if the vacation runs longer than two weeks.
Pipe freeze note: The failure mode is not the living room dropping to 59°F. It’s a bathroom on an exterior wall staying at 55°F for 48 hours in a polar vortex while the main space holds 62°F. Low-cost Bluetooth temperature sensors in those problem spots are a $12 to $20 insurance policy.
How to program your thermostat
Nest: Open the Nest app, tap your thermostat, tap Schedule. Set four periods: Wake (6 AM, 68°F), Leave (8 AM, 62°F), Return (5:30 PM, 68°F), Sleep (10 PM, 65°F). For heat pump systems, go to Settings > Equipment and confirm “Heat Pump Balance” is set to “Balanced.”
ecobee: In the app, go to Comfort Settings. Edit the Home profile (68°F), Sleep profile (65°F), and Away profile (62°F). Then go to Schedule and assign those profiles to the appropriate time blocks for each day. For heat pumps, go to Main Menu > Installation Settings > Equipment > Heat Pump and enable Compressor Optimization.
Honeywell T6 Pro: From the front panel, press the Menu button and select Schedule. The T6 Pro supports two schedule types: 5+2 (weekdays and weekends) or 5+1+1. Set four periods per day. Wake at 68°F, Leave at 62°F, Return at 68°F, Sleep at 65°F. Confirm the target temperatures using the display before you exit the schedule menu.
Equipment efficiency and the winter math
Your settings only go so far. A SEER 15 heat pump and a SEER 20 unit can run identical schedules and produce meaningfully different bills. BidSmart’s 2026 analysis of 3-ton heat pump replacement bids in Austin, TX found equipment spread from $12,800 (SEER 15, budget Goodman) to $15,200 (SEER 20, Mitsubishi), with the SEER 20 unit delivering roughly 25% more heating per dollar of electricity. The same 68°F setpoint costs less per hour on more efficient equipment, which compounds with every setback and recovery across a full season.
That price spread, 44% from low bid to high bid on equivalent tonnage, is also a reminder that bids vary as much as models do. If you’re evaluating a replacement, comparing multiple bids before buying is worth it. See BidSmart for contractor bid comparison.
—
Frequently asked questions
What is the best temperature to set your thermostat in winter?
The U.S. Department of Energy recommends 68°F when you’re home and awake. When you’re asleep or away, setting back 7 to 10°F (to 60 to 61°F) can reduce annual heating costs by up to 10%.
Is 68°F a good temperature for winter?
Yes, 68°F is the DOE-backed anchor. Some households find 66°F or 67°F comfortable with added humidity, which makes the air feel warmer without raising the setpoint. If you need 70°F or above to stay comfortable, check your home’s insulation and window condition before raising the thermostat permanently.
What should I set my thermostat to at night in winter?
65°F is a reasonable default for most households. Sleep research suggests 60 to 67°F as the range that supports sleep quality in adults. If anyone in the household is older or has cardiovascular concerns, stay at 68°F or above overnight.
What temperature should I set my thermostat when I go on vacation in winter?
60°F minimum for a gas furnace system. For a heat pump, 62°F. Do not turn the system off. Leaving cabinet doors under exterior-wall sinks open protects pipes in unheated zones from reaching the 32°F freeze threshold even if the main living space holds 60°F.
Should I change thermostat settings differently if I have a heat pump?
Yes. The setback limit for a heat pump is 6 to 8°F, not the 10°F often cited for gas furnaces. Larger setbacks can force a heat pump to recover using expensive electric resistance (AUX) heat, which runs at a fraction of the efficiency of the heat pump compressor. Keep away setpoints at 62°F or above, and use your thermostat’s built-in heat pump optimization setting (available on ecobee and Nest) to manage recovery timing automatically.
—
The winter series: Switch Thermostat from Cooling to Heating · Thermostat Settings for Vacation · What Is AUX Heat · Heat Pump vs Gas Furnace in Winter
