Preferred indoor heating/cooling temp

[DriveHard]

see attached

 

[gathermewool]

Did some "Spring" cleaning today in our "cold" house, and it was great! We just finished after 4-5 hrs of work about an hour ago. Temp this morning was ~49F. I'm sitting here in the now-cozy 55.7F living room typing this. The increase in temperature throughout the day was solely solar (skylights on south roof and south-facing windows).

 

[Garak]

75 is more cozy. Of course, I don't set it that high. One of my rooms is really well insulated, and gets warmer than the other room, plus has a plasma TV, which adds to it.

 

[gathermewool]

Our master BR is 71.0F right now. It's almost too warm to sleep in!

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted by DriveHard

see attached

Our house came with a programmable thermostat. Not sure how I feel about it.. I've always been of the impression that the constant change in settings makes the furnace work that much harder thus consuming more energy than just leaving it alone. Sleeping better in cooler temperatures is one thing, but I'm unsure of actual energy savings if one say turns it down when they leave for the day. Perhaps you could shed some light?

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted by dlundblad

Originally Posted by DriveHard

see attached

Our house came with a programmable thermostat. Not sure how I feel about it.. I've always been of the impression that the constant change in settings makes the furnace work that much harder thus consuming more energy than just leaving it alone. Sleeping better in cooler temperatures is one thing, but I'm unsure of actual energy savings if one say turns it down when they leave for the day. Perhaps you could shed some light?

I have a programmable thermostat but from day to day I just leave it at the same temperature 24/7. I do believe that the big swings in temp (those that turn their heat down by 10F while they sleep and while at work for example) don't really benefit you too much. I personally believe a smaller swing in temperature is better (say 5F or so) if you do want to have the heat lower at those times.

 

[gathermewool]

1. Delta-T Makes the World Go Round: Any time the temperature in a room(s) is lowered, the differential temperature between that room and the colder outside temperature lowers. Heat transfer is based on this delta-T, so the warmer your room is, the more heat you're losing, regardless of level of insulation. It is absolutely more efficient to lower the temperature for as long as you can, any time you're able to. The argument that keeping a room at a constant (high) temperature appears to use less energy is 100% false. 2. Many furnaces work much more efficiently when they're allowed to run for longer, less often. My old condo had a programmable thermostat that was programmed with the minimum temperature on/off setting / droop. I believe it ran every 15 minutes or so when it got really cold out. When I checked the housing of the old furnace, it was cold to the touch. I changed the on/off/droop setting to max soon after moving in (4F, IIRC). When the furnace ran or longer, it ran hotter and transferred more energy through the vents. This does mean that more heat was lost through the ducting, but the ducting was all in the center of the house, so it wasn't a total net loss. The main benefit, I believe, is less heat cycling of the furnace heat exchanger. Instead of going from cold to hot to cold every 15 minutes, it would stay off for longer, then burn for longer to makeup that 4F, letting the heat exchanger to reach its max temp and stay there until it turned off again.

 

[gathermewool]

I bought one of those low-voltage heated blankets. Man, it's almost TOO cozy here in my living room @ 54.6F, watching Band of Brothers. I haven't seen BoB since college, so I bought the Blu-ray set on Black Friday for ten bucks.

 

[Garak]

You'll die of hypothermia yet.

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted by Garak

You'll die of hypothermia yet.

I'm no muscle man, let me tell you. I've got just enough brown and regular-type fat to keep me warm! The whole lot of you could do with some more brown fat, it seems!

 

[xxch4osxx]

I keep the thermostat at 19 Celcius summer and winter. Stays the same day or night.

 

[terminaldegree]

Winter here in GA: 67 all the time. Spring/Summer/Fall: 74-76, depending on time of day and outside temperature. All electric house with a heat pump.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted by dlundblad

Originally Posted by DriveHard

see attached

Our house came with a programmable thermostat. Not sure how I feel about it.. I've always been of the impression that the constant change in settings makes the furnace work that much harder thus consuming more energy than just leaving it alone. Sleeping better in cooler temperatures is one thing, but I'm unsure of actual energy savings if one say turns it down when they leave for the day. Perhaps you could shed some light?

Here is the "light" *L* Without question, turning down the thermostat as much as you can does save energy. I understand your thinking (and others) that you then use just as much energy warming the home up again. Its much more complicated then what most think. Yes of course your furnace does have to use more energy to warm up the home again but here is the part that people miss and this is why, its a fact, you save significant energy by turning down the heat, its just fact, world wide. Here is one reason that I never knew either and its all easy to research on the internet. Again, indisputable. The warmer a house is, the more heat that escapes into the atmosphere as the pressure for the heat to escape is higher. The warmer the air in your home, increases pressure to escape to the outside, through any means possible as the greater the difference between outside and inside increases. Look at it this way, hot air balloon. Crank up that flame to heat the air in the balloon, the hotter it gets, the higher the balloon goes. Put a pot of water with lid on the stove, keep it at a slow simmer or crank it up and blow the lid off. Programmable style thermostats are best for saving energy in my opinion. I dont go for the wifi self learning thermostats, to me, just snake oil marketing for huge profits. Set and forget a programmable thermostat, learn to live with it, night time schedule and a day time schedule, it cant be any more simple then that vs a wifi thermostat where everyone in the house will have their hands on it, turning it up and down as they see fit, doesnt make sense IF you simply want to save energy. If energy savings is not a concern, then wifi is great but dont buy one and think its best for saving energy, that is just googles marketing getting inside your head. Wifi does make sense for unoccupied and vacation homes and some others, but not the vast majority running into the home improvement stores buying them. Its such a a scam to sell new high profit thermostats, use the excuse that you will save money better then a plain old programable because marketing put that in peoples head. (and sure I will be slammed by those that have them)

 

[Stephen111]

I purchased the ECOsmart ECO 18 tankless water heater during one of their open box warehouse sales for a very cheap price. I’ve owned this unit for 2 weeks and installed this and upgraded my outdoor panel in one Saturday. I ran 3 runs of 8/2 with bare ground Romex on 3 40amp individual breakers. I planned to update to one of these units over a year ago, I work as a lineman and was able to run a 4/0 urd service to my home for a true 200 amp service I also upgraded my transformer for the “potential demand this unit would require 6months before installation.

 

[PWMDMD]

Winter 64F
Summer 67F

 

[brianl703]

Some...."interesting" people like to have the summer temperature at 70F and the winter temperature at 75F or higher. They also tend to be people who aren't paying the energy bill.

 

[supton]

Mid 60’s is fine most of the time. 66-68 is comfortable in most of the house, bedroom a bit lower, like 64, for sleeping. Much cooler and I simply feel cold.

But I am quiet comfortable sitting around doing nothing at 70+. Which is the rub: with WFH I have my office in the basement and I find I need to emulate the office setup where temps are in the low 70’s. Sitting in front of a keyboard at anything less than 70 means my fingers and toes get cold. Luckily I have a small office that retains heat well, so I can heat just that room to as toasty as I’d like.

 

[Skippy722]

66F is our winter compromise between my wife and I. Her and my oldest like it cold, me and my youngest like it warm. If she could have her way it’d be 60F year round in the house, I’d have it set to 75F.

 

[PandaBear]

66F for heat if temp dip below 54F, 78F for cool if temp rises above 84F. I always make sure everyone is already wearing at least a sweat before I will turn on the heat.