Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

We live with open windows, too, when we are at Lake Tahoe. But that is a rare practice on the Gulf Coast. Almost nobody does it who wasn't raised somewhere else. With central air conditioning being required for about eight months out of the year, one becomes accustomed to the low humidity, cleanliness, and low noise level that the fully air conditioned, sealed up house provides. One also becomes accustomed to the narrow temperature range of the air-conditioned house and tries to have that during the heating season too. Thermostats are much less commonly set back overnight in a centrally heated house than when I was growing up with floor furnaces. That tight range of 69-73 deg F is quite addictive and, for many if not most folks, it becomes preferable to letting the variable climate from outside into the house even in mild weather. When the interior temperature rises above 73 deg F, we switch to cooling. When it goes below 69 deg F, we switch to heating. I assure you we are not alone in our behavior with regard to home heating and cooling. We would set the same temperature for both, but we find that the temperature of the forced air makes a lower temperature desirable for the heating and a higher temperature desirable for the cooling. That helps a little with the power consumption.