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?

() wrote in
ups.com:

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.

Furnaces don't "work harder", they just run longer.

Some programmable thermostats have a clock which keeps track of how
long they've been running the A/C or furnace. If yours has that, try
a couple of different schemes and see which one has the least amount
of furnace on time.

If not, and you're reasonably handy, you might be able to cobble
together something yourself.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

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 think you're doing a good job now. Based on info from my gas company, if
true, a set-back of any amount will save money as long as the time at a
lower temp is a minimum of 8 hours. And the larger the set-back differential
and the longer the set-back period (above 8 hr.), the better for savings.
The gas company does suggest that cutting back temps for periods of under 8
hours may not result in a saving.

The folks that should worry about issues that you bring up are the heat
pump owners whose heat pump includes additional electrical resistance
heating for a quick early heat-up period.

Craig

Craig 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 think you're doing a good job now. Based on info from my gas company, if
true, a set-back of any amount will save money as long as the time at a
lower temp is a minimum of 8 hours. And the larger the set-back differential
and the longer the set-back period (above 8 hr.), the better for savings.
The gas company does suggest that cutting back temps for periods of under 8
hours may not result in a saving.

The folks that should worry about issues that you bring up are the heat
pump owners whose heat pump includes additional electrical resistance
heating for a quick early heat-up period.

Craig

The temp loss of a house is proportional to the temp difference. If
the inside temp is the same as the outside, there is no loss. Start
raising the differential and the bigger it gets, the more energy is
lost. So, setting back the temp for any period is going to save
money. As the house temp starts to drop, so does the heat loss.
When you restore the temp to a higher temp, sure the furnace is going
to run awhile, but this is just replenishing the heat in the house that
was lost as it cooled. If you do this overnight for example, had the
temp been left high, more heat would have been lost and the furnace
would have run longer during the night than it will now run in the
morning to restore the temp.

Bottom line, any setback period will help. The longer the setback and
the lower the temp, the more difference it will make.

wrote:
Craig 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 think you're doing a good job now. Based on info from my gas company, if
true, a set-back of any amount will save money as long as the time at a
lower temp is a minimum of 8 hours. And the larger the set-back differential
and the longer the set-back period (above 8 hr.), the better for savings.
The gas company does suggest that cutting back temps for periods of under 8
hours may not result in a saving.

The folks that should worry about issues that you bring up are the heat
pump owners whose heat pump includes additional electrical resistance
heating for a quick early heat-up period.

Craig

The temp loss of a house is proportional to the temp difference. If
the inside temp is the same as the outside, there is no loss. Start
raising the differential and the bigger it gets, the more energy is
lost. So, setting back the temp for any period is going to save
money. As the house temp starts to drop, so does the heat loss.
When you restore the temp to a higher temp, sure the furnace is going
to run awhile, but this is just replenishing the heat in the house that
was lost as it cooled. If you do this overnight for example, had the
temp been left high, more heat would have been lost and the furnace
would have run longer during the night than it will now run in the
morning to restore the temp.

Bottom line, any setback period will help. The longer the setback and
the lower the temp, the more difference it will make.


One additional note. The above applies to oil, gas, pure electric
systems and similar. If you have a heat pump system which uses
electric as backup and you set the temp back far enough that the system
then uses the backup electric during recovery, that obviously changes
things. Also, with a heat pump system, you have the consideration of
what the outside temp is when it runs. If you set it back during the
day when it's warmer outside and then restore the temp when it much
colder, it will use more energy, so the setback may be a wash or even a
net loss.

For programable thermostats, I like the ones that have intelligent
adaptive recovery. On these instead of trying to guess when to have
it switch to the higher temp in the morning, for example, you just set
it to the time and temp you want. The system learns how long it takes
to make that happen and constantly adjusts it. Honeywell VisionPro are
super and you can get good deals on them on Ebay.

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?

The programmable thermostat will save you money.

The comments on the furnace "working harder" are untrue.

In fact, what will happen is the furnace will actually work more
efficiently during the period of heat up. When you combine the
increased efficiency with the reduced total load during a 24-day ( see
post by trader4optonline.net for total energy considerations), you can
expect some noticeable savings.

Natural gas is about the cheapest way to heat a house in most places.
However, the cost has nowhere to go but up. The new high-efficiency
furnaces really do a better job than the older furnaces. You should
start looking at ways to generate the cash to switch to a high
efficiency furnace.

You have thought about adding insulin I hope?

-Jason

On 11 Dec 2006 14:47:30 -0800, wrote:
Natural gas is about the cheapest way to heat a house in most places.
However, the cost has nowhere to go but up. The new high-efficiency
furnaces really do a better job than the older furnaces. You should
start looking at ways to generate the cash to switch to a high
efficiency furnace.

Agreed regarding the effectiveness of the high efficiency furnaces:
ours works amazingly well compared with the older 80% single stage
models. Great heat! If you're due to replace your furnace, go for
the 92+ models. Ours is a 2-stage York that has served us well
through 3 winters so far.

In article . com,
says...



You have thought about adding insulin I hope?

-Jason


That wouldn't help his heating costs and would wreck havoc with his blood
glucose...

Banty wrote:
In article . com,
says...



You have thought about adding insulin I hope?

-Jason


That wouldn't help his heating costs and would wreck havoc with his blood
glucose...

Oops, I meant insulation.

I can speel gut, it's just thinking I don't do well with.

Jason

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.

--------------------------------------------------------

Is there a general rule for how far you should set back your
thermostat? If you will be away from the house for over 8 hours,
should you set it back 5, 10, 15 degrees? Currently I have mine set to
75 when we are home and 68 when we leave. We are gone around 10-12
hours per day. This is a brand new home with a seperate systems for
upstairs and downstairs.

Adding insulin? I want my furnace sugared up so it heats my house
better!!!!


wrote:
Any advice?
You have thought about adding insulin I hope?

-Jason

There's no magic number for a setback. You just need to see how low it
gets in your house during the day without heat coming on. Set it to
that temp and furnace wont come on for XX hours. No furnace burning
fuel= saved money.

Craig 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 think you're doing a good job now. Based on info from my gas company, if
true, a set-back of any amount will save money as long as the time at a
lower temp is a minimum of 8 hours. And the larger the set-back differential
and the longer the set-back period (above 8 hr.), the better for savings.
The gas company does suggest that cutting back temps for periods of under 8
hours may not result in a saving.

The folks that should worry about issues that you bring up are the heat
pump owners whose heat pump includes additional electrical resistance
heating for a quick early heat-up period.

Craig

In article , Alan
says...
On 7 Jan 2007 20:29:27 -0800, wrote:

Is there a general rule for how far you should set back your
thermostat? If you will be away from the house for over 8 hours,
should you set it back 5, 10, 15 degrees? Currently I have mine set to
75 when we are home and 68 when we leave. We are gone around 10-12
hours per day. This is a brand new home with a seperate systems for
upstairs and downstairs.

My furnace man says that a setback of 9 degrees f is really
the maximum -- even at 9 degrees, he says, it costs about as
much to reheat the house as if you kept it at the higher
temp all day.

Complete nonsense. The fuel needed to heat a house is proportional
to the difference in the temperature between the inside and
outside. The lower the temperature is held the lower the fuel
bill. There is no magic setback number where thermodynamics fails.

I'd set the lower temp at 8 down from your norm, and see how
that works.

I'd set it for whatever is comfortable and reasonable.

--
Keith

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