On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:54:59 -0500, the infamous Ignoramus10802
scrawled the following:

On 2009-10-29, Pete C. wrote:

Ignoramus10802 wrote:

On 2009-10-29, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Please forgive me while I troll for a moment.....

Is it energy saving to turn the thermostat down, when
leaving the house? I mean, the furnace has to run to catch
up when I get home. I have a way of looking at the matter.
I'll explain my point of view after the argument is
underway.


Imagine for a minute that you have to leave house for a month.

Would it be energy efficient to turn thermostat down? Of course, as
less heat will be produced for a whole month, with only a few minutes
to catch up.

The same applies to only one day.

i

It's far more complicated than that. Factors such as insulation / heat
loss, type of heating, multi-stage heating, electric backup heat on heat
pumps, etc. all come into play in determining the away duration and temp
reduction where savings begin, and in some cases (typically high
efficiency homes) it can require a multi day absence to see any savings.

This is patently untrue.

Think about what you just said, Ig. The better insulated homes can go
days without an injection of heat or cooling. Poorly insulated homes
can't go an hour without in exteme climes. Using a setback thermostat
in a well insulated home has much less impact (if any for a day) than
it does in a leaky old shack. Your comment was the untruth.

I've used setback thermometers since 1975, when I got my first home.
(It was a leaky old shack, but that wasn't too bad in temperate LoCal)

--
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free
than Christianity has made them good." --H. L. Mencken
---