Should We Turn Down The Thermostat?

[questions]

I do have a question that is similar to the point you made regarding an idling car. A co-worker and I had a debate about whether it is energy efficient to turn down the house thermostat during the day ( after leaving for work in the morning (7am) since no one is home) to say 50 degrees, then have it turn on automatically at say 3pm to 67 degrees to warm the house up for a 6pm return. My co-worker contends that too much energy is consumed to return the temperature to 67 to make it economical. Do you have information on this?

[zetta]

Utility companies promote electronic thermostats that allow you to do this sort of thing automatically -- if it were more energy-efficient to stay at the constant temperature, they would not promote turning down your thermostat when you are gone. So from this perspective I would argue that you are right.

[sweeps]

zetta is right. Lowering the thermostat during the day will save you money.

[cschin4]

No. Don't turn it down. I have found that when I turn it down and then come home and turn it up, that the temp does rise but the house still feels cold and uncomfortable because everything in the house cooled down so much such as the furniture, floors, etc. I personally just now turn it down a few degrees and try to maintain an even temp. I am much more comfortable and found that it didn't save me any money to play the thermostat game. And, frankly, if you can't afford to have a comfortable temp in your own home, then what is the point? Why not just live in the car?

[tinapbeana]

cosidering that the house is likely to be warmed somewhat by sunshine during the day even if it's chilly outside, it seems rather redundant to have the heat on when no one is there...

does your friend also keep her air conditioning on the same temperature throughout the day when no one is there? if not, how is the energy to cool the house at night any different a scenario than the energy to warm the house at night?

[sweeps]

In my experience, I feel warmer when the house is warming up. For example, 68 degrees while the furnace is running feels warmer to me than 70 degrees when the furnace is not running. (This is probably psychological, but that's all that really matters, right?)

The programmable thermostat suggestion is a good one. OP can have the heat started by the time he or she gets home.

[Hot dog]

I think the programmable thermostats have a feature that makes the house slowly come to the temperature that you set it to so tha it isn't a drastic change. It is more expensive when the auxilliary or emergency heat kicks on I think it happens when there is a two degree change but a probgrammable thermostat is supposed to slowly bring it back to the desired temp so that the emerg heat does not kick on

[Fern]

wel the compromise position is to turn it down, but not by so much. ay turn it down to 60 during the day.

[disneysteve]

This is one of those age-old debates and the correct answer is as zetta and sweeps have said. Turning down the heat saves money. It simply isn't possible for it to cost more money when your unit is not running than it does when it is running. The same is true for the AC in summertime. The less time the heater or AC runs, the less money and energy is used.

[cschin4]

When you turn down the heat and then turn it back up, the furnace is going to run longer to reheat than if it was just cycling on and off. So, I am not so sure that turning it down really saves you all that much. I think somebody needs to do a study on this!

[disneysteve]

When you turn down the heat and then turn it back up, the furnace is going to run longer to reheat than if it was just cycling on and off. So, I am not so sure that turning it down really saves you all that much. I think somebody needs to do a study on this!

This is not true. Studies have been done and always show the same thing. That's why every energy saving guide you will find recommends using a programmable thermostat to turn down the temp when you are away from home or during the night.

Besides, your furnace is actually MORE efficient when it runs for longer periods of time than when it cycles on and off in short bursts.

[Ima saver]

Steve is right. I am home all day, but I turn it way down if I am going on a trip. I keep my house set at 60 and just wear sweaters.