Should I change my thermostat settings?

As the handyman in charge of thermostat settings for over 90,000 square feet of building, I can tell you from experience:

Setback thermostats save money. Letting the temperature drift downward overnight during the heat season will save you money. Let the temperature drift upward during the day during cooling season (when everyone is off at work) will save you money.

In some areas I just turn the system off during unoccupied times. The temp will drift as much as five degrees in the largest areas that don't have exterior walls. It only takes about five minutes to build the heat back up again, so it's not a big deal.

Rooms with their own thermostats get turned off entirely if they're going to be empty for more than a couple of days. No point in heating or cooling THAT, is there?

I don't let Unoccupied temperatures drift more than 10 degrees away from Occupied settings. It's not so much a consideration of whether it will cost more to recover the Occupied setting as it is a consideration of making it happen in a timely fashion. Wherever possible, I always set the thermostat to use the most economical option, process, setting, whatever.

Since we changed to the setback thermostats, our utility bill at work has gone DOWN by about 10%, even though the rate we pay for our utilities went UP 10%. So the savings was even bigger than it looks. And though we spent about $2000 on new thermostats (you read that right, $2000), we saved the entire cost in the first month. Everything since then has been pure gravy.

Good luck with it.

a set back of 2 to 3 degrees will save you money but any more than that will not because of the catch up time it takes to get back what was lost

Give elhigh the points........he said every thing I had intended to plus some more he is the one to listen to

you can pay less $$ to the gas company!