DIYbanter - View Single Post

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wrote:

wrote:
I'm trying to save money on heating bills (i have a gas furnace), and
so i keep it pretty cold when i'm not home. I usually keep it around
60 degrees when i'm not there. But in the morning when i wake up, i
programmed the thermostat to 70 or so for a couple of hours.

Someone told me that that actually would cost more in the end, b/c the
furnace has to work harder to get the temp up from 60 to 70 everyday,
than it would to just keep it at a constant 65. But, like i said, its
a gas furnace and it heats up the house relatively quickly. Plus, my
home is older (built in 1940) and is not very efficient. So, I'm
afraid the heat would be running much more often to keep the house at
65-67 degrees throughout the day.

Any advice?

I do the same thing with my gas-fired hot water system.

The furnace guy told me that if the offset is more than 9
degrees (f) colder than the "main" setting, you're right on
the line of not saving any money.

Your furnace guy is an idiot. The more you set it back, the more you
will save on that system. What magic effect is supposed to be
responsible for it going back to not saving anything at 9 Deg setback?

At the time, I was keeping my setback 9 degrees lower than
the main setting. (A shot of heat in the morning to get me
up and out in comfort, and temp down while I was at work,
and again at night -- I really like sleeping in a cool
bedroom.)

Using the setback will save you gas, and money.

Alan

==

It's not that I think stupidity should be punishable by death.
I just think we should take the warning labels off of everything
and let the problem take care of itself.

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