Winter Storms Back East (from me)

[CleanSump]

I misread the title as "winter storms middle east" and thought hell really is freezing over.

My step son says it was 35F in Chiang Rai, Thailand this morning. The world is upside down.

 

[Pew]

My step son says it was 35F in Chiang Rai, Thailand this morning. The world is upside down.

That's crazy! I wonder if Thailand has anything to deal with snow.

 

[andrew_j]

What college?

Quinnipiac

 

[CleanSump]

That's crazy! I wonder if Thailand has anything to deal with snow.

No. Officially no weather station has recorded snow even along the Myanmar border. Everyone thinks of Thailand as just the gulf beaches. That's like thinking North Carolina will be like Miami Florida.

 

[Thermo1223]

I did the propane fireplace this morning, thanks for some conformation! It kicks out quite a bit of heat with its automatic blower. Also sealed behind glass, vented to the outside.

Yeah, I get the setback thing and in the back of my mind I know its better to run long term then stop start. Also Yes, I was starting to understand a constant temperature with a Heat Pump so would only set back to 67 this year but we got tired of that real fast and recently went to 64 again. Daytime is 73 +/- 1 degree.

Thing is for us, we like sleeping in the winter cold 64 degrees. When we had gas heat we would go down to 58 in our old home over time that was too cold and moved it to 62. But man, when that gas HVAC unit turned on when time to get out of bed, nice hot blowing out of the vents, NOT SO WITH HEAT PUMP on super cold days!

We actually sleep better, maybe because originally from the northeast. Granted my siblings think we are nuts. *LOL*
Im not so sure about wasting energy or better said ties for #1 as a reason but also extending the life of the HVAC I think it is less wear and tear on the unit if it runs longer vs starting and stopping. I guess that would make sense to your statement that it is also more efficient. ? Less surges of power to start and stopped the compressor, fan and blower in the evaporator should help longitivtiy ?

These new homes are calculated to the last BTU taking into account even the R-Factor of the insulation and e glass in the windows. I think its too small having a 2 ton unit for 1800 sq ft... 2.5 would have been better?

I know a family member with same sq feet but the house is just over 20 years old and has a a 3 ton unit.

One thing for sure, if you overdo it on the coast, you would have damp humid air in the home come summer time. It is nice and dry during summer and not clammy ...

I get it, I'm the only one in my house who likes it really cold at night. Thermostat goes down to 60F but we have gas heat so the rebound is maybe 30 mins. to 68F

Generally speaking startup is the hardest part mechanically and electrically on a compressor. Steady state operation is the preferred operation but hard to do unless you go the invertor route and that has it's own flaws. This why as you noted your house is nice and dry in the summer. You need longer duration runs to effectively remove humidity unless you want the house like a meat locker. My 45 year old house has a 2.5 ton unit which does a decent job at humidity, any bigger and it wouldn't.

The worse part about setback on a heat pump is invoking the electric strip heat as AUX Heat. In can spin the meter something awful and dry out the air but on the coast you probably don't have dry anything.

 

[alarmguy]

In Michigan we are getting on average a few inches every day. Our coldest was -22f but this week we are averaging 5 to -10f each night so that's much better. Our snowblower has been getting more work this winter than previous years. (filled with HPL 0W-30) Dog boots required for all evening walks. ;-)

Sister down near Wake Forest NC got some ice but never lost power so she got lucky.

View attachment 321869

Wake Forest is nice and you have the fantastic Duke university Medical Center nearby and I think UNC as well. Late 2024 we went up there and met three specialists at the Duke cancer center. It was a fantastic experience. In September 2025 I went up there for a cancer conference.

We’re less than three hours from there on the coast and the whole storm was nothing for much of the state and not much in South Carolina either.
The media really poured it on, and it turned out to be well, a storm but nothing like the hype they were building up.

 

[alarmguy]

I get it, I'm the only one in my house who likes it really cold at night. Thermostat goes down to 60F but we have gas heat so the rebound is maybe 30 mins. to 68F

….

The worse part about setback on a heat pump is invoking the electric strip heat as AUX Heat. In can spin the meter something awful and dry out the air but on the coast you probably don't have dry anything.

yup, the rebound with gas is fantastic and I miss that!

It’s funny you should mention auxiliary heat.
It seems the newer homes do not have that anymore. It’s called emergency heat and it only comes on if you manually turn it on.
I’m wondering if that’s some energy thing on new construction requirements or would it come on if the house got way too cold?

I think about it all the time because our other house of 16 years-had two units with gas on the main level, heat pump on the second and I know for a fact, the electric elements would kick on if I push the thermostat up very quickly on the second level heat pump. You would hear a more substantial click from the thermostat along with the AUX on the screen turning on

What bothers me is what if you’re traveling and the compressor unit or something fails? Will the emergency heat automatically come on?
Another thing that bothers me is, I’m wondering maybe if it’s in the thermostat programming? Where I could either activate aux or reduce what might be a big spread between compressor, heat, and auxiliary heat?

Our last thermostat was labeled auxiliary, this one is labeled emergency and all the homes around us, including some in another community as much as 20 years old say emergency heat.

I’m wondering if the Honeywell T5 Wi-Fi thermostat has a programming option for auxiliary. I was meaning to check it, but I have not looked up the programming guide for it meaning the installer side of the guide.

If so I may or may not be tempted to activate it. Here is why, our electric is dirt cheap here, at least after a three hour peak period, It’s only slightly less than eight cents a kWh

Then again, if I’m better off, just letting the compressor run maybe I’m better off after all? Oh, and I know for a fact that the heat strip is not as robust as it was in our past home because I tried the emergency heat one time for the heck of it and I was not overly impressed! I mean, it’s a Lennox system, which may not be the best but it’s a Lennox system not exactly horrible by any means.

The two units in our last home were Heil and turned out to be dead on reliable for 16 years and we still drive by our old house sometimes and they’re still there not replaced yet.

Based on your input, I think I’m just tempted to leave well enough alone, although I would like to look at the backend of the thermostat programming just to see now out of curiosity

 

[Thermo1223]

Well it could be disabled on the unit itself or the thermostat, hard to say but it should always kick in during a defrost cycle just for comfort alone. It really depends how the unit is configured and how it was installed. At the very least go into the panel box and make sure your electric strip breakers are on.

Emergency Heat will not kick on it's own afaik. However Emergency & Aux are one in the same on most thermostats.

My office one for example, just a basic digital Honeywell.

 

[zhaarnak02]

My step son says it was 35F in Chiang Rai, Thailand this morning. The world is upside down.

I have been to Bangkok a couple of times, the temperature of 35F seems absolutely insane to me. I bet the people there think the end of the world is upon them! In Newport, WA where I am, the temp has only been down in the low 'teens", with little snow. A couple of years ago we had 4' of snow accumulation, but not much last year. We have been lucky so far temperature wise. We have had a LOT of Black Ice, and it has "claimed" a fair number of motorists.

 

[Ranger83]

Curious about how many of BITOG patrons are in the East portion of the US, and how you are doing in these dang winter storms.

We got somewhere between 10-15” in Boston. But very powdery, easy to clean up.

Our place in NH got a little more. Also light.

 

[CleanSump]

I have been to Bangkok a couple of times, the temperature of 35F seems absolutely insane to me. I bet the people there think the end of the world is upon them! In Newport, WA where I am, the temp has only been down in the low 'teens", with little snow. A couple of years ago we had 4' of snow accumulation, but not much last year. We have been lucky so far temperature wise. We have had a LOT of Black Ice, and it has "claimed" a fair number of motorists.

Bannock is only having lows around 70F and highs around 90F right now. It's about 500 miles South of Chiang Rai.

 

[buster]