On 9/28/2014 1:42 PM, nestork wrote:




Ed Pawlowski;3289628 Wrote:

Really??? How about the hundreds of thousands of homes built from other

materials? Stone, block, ICFs SIPS. brick. adobe, concrete, etc.

Ed: The heavier the construction materials used to build the home, the
greater the thermal inertia. If you have concrete block walls in your
house, you'll have the same situation as an apartment block where it
takes a much longer time for the building to warm up or cool down
because of the thermal mass of the walls.


Correct, but you stated houses were built of wood. Some are, some are not.




It only matters getting the temperature up at the required time,
lag to the lower is not a problem, not does it have to go that low. You

will have to anticipate the time for increase and the boiler will have
to come on before the required time to reach the daily minimum for
daytime.

No. You're suggesting that he can program his timed thermostat to come
one earlier and shut off earlier to account for the thermal mass of the
walls. You could do that if it was just a few hours that the walls
remained warm or cool, but we're talking days. How can you program a 24
hour thermostat to come on and go off several days in advance?

To maintain a day/night he can easily do only that with a thermostat.
The only additional thing he needs is a thermal switch so that if the
outside temperature is above some pre-set number, the boiler does not
start. There are controls available depending on how sophisticated you
want to get.

There are Honeywell thermostats that actually learn how long it takes to
get up to temperature and adjust the start time accordingly. It does not
have to adjust for thermal mass to cool down as it does not matter how
long it takes, He even has the option of keeping 68 all the time if he
should desire.




It does not have to reach the 55 degree at night, that is a minimum. He

can set it to whatever works and makes sense. I'd think that 62 or 64
minimum would be better in many respects. Happy tenants and easier to
maintain the swings.

What I'm saying is that it makes no sense to have daily swings in
temperature when the thermal mass of the walls is an important factor in
the heating of the property for more than 24 hours. He'd be better off
to just set the reset temperature control at a comfortable level and
leave it that way 24/7 from October to March. That's the way most hot
water heating systems with indoor/outdoor reset controls are operated.

That is probably correct. With the thermal mass he is unlikely to get
down to the 55 minimum, but if it stays mid 60 he will have happier
tenants and at reasonable cost..