What Should I Set My Thermostat to in a Minnesota Winter?

For most Minnesota homes, set the thermostat around 68–70°F while you're home and awake, and lower while you sleep or are out. That's the Department of Energy's winter suggestion in its Energy Saver guide to programmable thermostats, which also says turning the thermostat back 7–10°F for 8 hours a day can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling. Two exceptions matter here: heat pumps with electric backup need smaller setbacks, and when the house is empty in winter it should never go below 55°F.

What thermostat setting does the DOE recommend for winter?

The DOE's guidance is simple: around 68°F to 70°F while you're awake, lower when you're asleep or away, and a programmable or smart thermostat to bring the house back up before you wake or get home. The savings figure, up to 10% a year for a 7–10°F setback held 8 hours a day, is the number most people quote.

Two parts of that same guidance matter in Minnesota:

• The percentage is smaller in cold climates. The DOE says the percentage of savings from setback is greater for buildings in milder climates than in more severe ones. Our heating bills are large, so a smaller percentage can still be real money, but don't expect the full 10%.
• The furnace doesn't "work harder" to catch up. The DOE calls that a common misconception. A cooler house loses heat to the outdoors more slowly, so the longer it sits at the lower temperature, the more energy you save. The morning recovery doesn't cancel the savings.

The DOE also says a stretch of four hours or more with nobody home is worth a setback. For a household that's out 8:00 to 5:00 and sleeps 10:30 to 6:00, that's two setbacks a day.

A sample schedule

These are starting points, not rules. Comfort varies, and older people, babies and anyone with a health condition may need it warmer.

Start the setback a little before bedtime and the recovery a little before your alarm. A smart thermostat learns how long your system takes to recover and starts early on its own. Our smart thermostat guide compares the common models for Minnesota weather.

Boilers with radiant floors and cast-iron radiators respond slowly. The DOE notes that their response time can be several hours, and suggests starting the setback well before bed and the recovery two or three hours before you get up, or using a thermostat that tracks the system's response. Many St. Paul and Minneapolis homes still heat this way; our post on boilers vs furnaces covers the differences.

Should you set back a heat pump thermostat in winter?

Heat pumps are the big exception. The DOE's thermostat guidance says programmable thermostats are generally not recommended for heat pumps in heating mode, because setting one back can make it run inefficiently and cancel the savings. The problem is the recovery: when the thermostat asks for several degrees at once, many systems bring on the electric heat strips to catch up. The DOE's heat pump guide says many controls are wired to start strip heat when the setpoint jumps by more than 3°F, whatever the outdoor temperature.

What works instead:

• Keep the setting steady, or set back only a degree or two. The DOE says a moderate, steady setting is the most cost-effective practice for heat pumps.
• Use a thermostat built for heat pumps. The DOE notes that some programmable thermostats use special algorithms to limit backup electric heat during recovery. Most smart thermostats have heat pump settings for this.
• On dual fuel, where the backup is a gas furnace, a normal setback is much less of a concern, because the furnace recovery costs what furnace heat costs. Our dual-fuel guide explains the switchover.

If you see "Aux Heat" on the thermostat every morning, your setback is probably too deep. Our post on aux heat vs emergency heat explains what the thermostat is doing and which lockout settings control it.

How do thermostat setbacks affect window condensation?

Setbacks and humidity interact. Cooler rooms and colder glass make condensation more likely, and a humidifier set for November will soak the windows in January. The Minnesota Department of Health suggests keeping indoor relative humidity between 20% and 40% in winter. In practice, aim lower as it gets colder outside: roughly 25–35% in ordinary cold weather, and lower still in deep cold.

If you have a furnace-mounted humidifier, an automatic control that lowers the target as the outdoor temperature drops does this for you. Water or frost on the inside of the glass, especially at the bottom of the window, means turn it down. Our whole-home humidifier guide explains the controls, and our humidifier service page covers installation.

What is the lowest safe thermostat setting when you're away?

The energy savings from a deep setback are small next to the cost of a burst pipe. The American Red Cross says that when you go away in cold weather, you should leave the heat on at no lower than 55°F. Its other advice fits Minnesota houses well:

• Hold the same temperature day and night during a cold snap. The Red Cross says suspending the nighttime setback may raise the bill but can prevent a much more costly repair.
• Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors so warmer air reaches pipes on outside walls.
• Let cold water drip from a faucet served by exposed pipes when it's very cold.
• Keep garage doors closed if water lines run through the garage.

The 55°F figure is the air at the thermostat. Pipes in an outside wall, a crawlspace or over an unheated garage run colder than that, which is why the cabinet doors matter. If you'll be gone for a while in January, have someone check the house, or use a smart thermostat that alerts your phone when the temperature drops. A furnace that quits while you're away is the real risk, and a fall tune-up is the best way to catch a weak igniter or inducer before it strands the house. Our no-heat checklist covers what to do if you come home to a cold house.

Where the thermostat sits changes the numbers

A thermostat in a sunny hallway, over a supply register or on an outside wall reads the wrong temperature and runs the schedule off that reading. If your setpoints feel wrong for the room you're in, check its location first; see our guide to thermostat placement.

What to do next

A smart thermostat installed runs $225–$400 per HomeGuide's national cost guide, plus $90–$135 if a C-wire has to be run. We install thermostats that match your equipment, including heat pumps and dual fuel, and set the schedule and heat pump lockouts with you. See our thermostat service page. A furnace or AC tune-up is $129, and if something's wrong, a service call is a $79 trip charge, waived when you approve the repair. We're open 7 days, 7am–9pm. Call 612-429-3465.

Questions

Sources

• HomeGuide cost guides (2026 editions) homeguide.com
• Minnesota Department of Health health.state.mn.us
• U.S. Department of Energy energy.gov