House Heating

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I read different thing everywhere I go. What do YOU guys do?

 

Now, my Mom, turns down our heat at night to 60F, and when she wakes up, she kicks it up to 68F.

 

Personally, 60F is too low for me. I freeze my aff off in the morning.. I would personally have it ALWAYS at 65. When my Mom goes to Florida for 2 weeks in January, I keep it at 65 24/7.

 

Now, are we wasting more money by turning it down at night, and rev it up in the morning than at a constant temperature?

 

IMO, you are wasting electricity by running the heater full blast in the morning. Just running it through the night is actually cheeper, right? Technically, if it gets below 60F, the heater will kick in, but..

 

Let me know what you think/know.

[spaceelf]

I don't know what your local outdoor temps are.  Turning it down at night is not a bad idea at all as the amount it's working will be considerably less.  Some amount of the heat escapes the house at any given moment.

 

...but no, I couldn't do 60F either.  I prefer 65 minimum, 68 when I'm trying to sleep.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 25/12/2021 at 23:36, Nope said:

I don't know what your local outdoor temps are.  Turning it down at night is not a bad idea at all as the amount it's working will be considerably less.  Some amount of the heat escapes the house at any given moment.

 

...but no, I couldn't do 60F either.  I prefer 65 minimum, 68 when I'm trying to sleep.

It's 30F outside right now. we can get into the singles sometimes during the winter..

[sagum]

It depends on a number of factors.

But ideally you'll want to check the prices of your electric per kilowatt hour, and then go to the meter and record the number in the morning before she turns the heat back up.
When the heat is back to 68, you can check again and you'll know how much that costs.

Then the check the meter when your mother normally turns it back down to 60 at night, but instead keep it at 68 for the night and record the value of the meter in the morning when she would normally turn it back to 68.

Once you have the two numbers you can see what costs more.

 

[Marujan]

gaps in windows? all doors are sealed?

[Steven P. Administrators]

When I keep my airco's heat pump on 19C (66F) 24/7 I am using around 9.5kWh a day. (in mild weather)

 

When I schedule it to heat 20C between 7:30am - 9am and then 19C between 9am and midnight, then 14C between midnight and 7:30am I am using around 6.5kWh

 

This week though it has been below freezing at night and during the day, so my usage has gone up quite a bit. On the same schedule last week I used 34.6 kWh and this week it has been 64 kWh (so far).

 

 

Wednesday was my highest use at 16 kWh, but as you can see it stayed below freezing all day. But Monday and Friday on the same exact schedule only used 6.1 kWh.

 

It matters when I am not heating at 20C between midnight and 7:30am and saves me around 3 kWh day (in mild weather, such as Monday or Friday in above graph).

 

My house is 110 years old around about, and could do with an investment in isolation (all rear double glazed windows, facing South have a leakage).

[SnoopZ]

I'm in the UK and I've never had heating on overnight.

 

Gas Central Heating timer I scheduled to turn the heating on at 7am and go off at 10am it then comes on at 4pm and goes off at 10pm, the thermostat in the hall is set to around 22c(72f).

 

If someone is in the house during the day then they will manually turn the heating on after 10am if it's needed.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I have heat pump so I set mine at 63F. With a heat pump it's better to set it and forget it, as to raise the temperature any meaningful amount it has to use electric. But if it just as to hold a temp as is, it's really cheap. Last month my heat + Eletric was $90.

 

All that being said when the GF comes I will crank it up 3 degree's  ... but then when she leaves again I turn it down.

[devHead]

On 25/12/2021 at 22:50, Mindovermaster said:

It's 30F outside right now. we can get into the singles sometimes during the winter..

Yeah, 60F seems kind of low. I set ours to 69F at night and it's 71F during the day. Of course right now here in SC Arizona, it's getting only down into the mid 40s during the night. It might come on a couple of times, and during the day it's almost never coming on. That's probably why during Nov - March my electric bill is ~ $85.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

You guys are crazy - or maybe I am 

 

I am used to living in condos and now townhouse and my place is always 73f sometimes 74f.

 

I want to be comfortable in a t-shirt at home.

 

Maybe if this was a house with 4 sides of exposure I would consider saving on costs but it is not too bad all thing considered.

 

But yeah I sleep under a sheet rather then a warm blanket - I tried and even at 70f with a blanket I am not really comfortable. 60f would be crazy - never slept like that at home - only camping with seriously warm sleeping bag and I hated it.

 

Maybe it is just a habit though developed through years living in a condo with no separate heat cost - just one flat condo maintenance fee. Never had the reason to adjust heat levels.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 26/12/2021 at 03:16, Steven P. said:

When I keep my airco's heat pump on 19C (66F) 24/7 I am using around 9.5kWh a day. (in mild weather)

 

When I schedule it to heat 20C between 7:30am - 9am and then 19C between 9am and midnight, then 14C between midnight and 7:30am I am using around 6.5kWh

 

This week though it has been below freezing at night and during the day, so my usage has gone up quite a bit. On the same schedule last week I used 34.6 kWh and this week it has been 64 kWh (so far).

 

 

Wednesday was my highest use at 16 kWh, but as you can see it stayed below freezing all day. But Monday and Friday on the same exact schedule only used 6.1 kWh.

 

It matters when I am not heating at 20C between midnight and 7:30am and saves me around 3 kWh day (in mild weather, such as Monday or Friday in above graph).

 

My house is 110 years old around about, and could do with an investment in isolation (all rear double glazed windows, facing South have a leakage).

We DO have the option to set a schedule. But my Mom doesn't want to mess with it, and she doesn't want us to mess with it..

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I just thought of something..  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-CG511A1000-Thermostat-Prevent-Tampering/dp/B000BPGP6M/ref=sr_1_1_mod_primary_new?keywords=thermostat+lock+box&qid=1640536212&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=8-1

[zikalify Editor]

We do not have a thermostat so we just have to set the water temperature on the boiler and the timer. I think we get the water to like 50c (this is not the room temp, this is water temp) and it comes on 6 times through the day for an hour each. The gas bill each day is like £1.25 - £1.40. Expecting that to rise significantly next year, however, because there's a price cap right now purging all the competing energy suppliers who can't stand the losses (wholesale costs are very high; thanks, Russia). In my bedroom on a cold day it gets to 15/16 so sometimes put the electric heater on a little bit, it doesn't cost much if used sparingly.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 26/12/2021 at 18:01, zikalify said:

In my bedroom on a cold day it gets to 15/16

 

Nest suggests keeping the gas central heating temp set to no lower than 14C to prevent frozen pipes.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 26/12/2021 at 14:03, Steven P. said:

 

Nest suggests keeping the gas central heating temp set to no lower than 14C to prevent frozen pipes.

Reminds me of this:

 

[zikalify Editor]

On 26/12/2021 at 20:03, Steven P. said:

 

Nest suggests keeping the gas central heating temp set to no lower than 14C to prevent frozen pipes.

This is why I put the electric heating on! Though, I was not aware 14c was the temperature where things start going bad lol I'm just too cold xD.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

In answer to the other question about leaving the heating on low, or off...

 

Nobody really knows and each house is very different.

 

I frequent another forum that has this debate often and the consensus is that turning it off and only on when needed is a little cheaper than on all the time as when you're out, the heat is still escaping from the house and you don't feel any benefit from it.  However, when you turn the heating on, even when it's warming, you will still feel the heat even before it gets the house to temperature.

 

Ours is currently set to 16.5°C (61.7°F) over night and 18°C (64.4°F) in the early morning and evening time.  In the day, it's 14°C (57.2°F) and boosted when needed.  Generally in the summer it's off all the time for about 4-6 months.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 04/01/2022 at 22:22, Sir Topham Hatt said:

In answer to the other question about leaving the heating on low, or off...

 

Nobody really knows and each house is very different.

 

I frequent another forum that has this debate often and the consensus is that turning it off and only on when needed is a little cheaper than on all the time as when you're out, the heat is still escaping from the house and you don't feel any benefit from it.  However, when you turn the heating on, even when it's warming, you will still feel the heat even before it gets the house to temperature.

 

Ours is currently set to 16.5°C (61.7°F) over night and 18°C (64.4°F) in the early morning and evening time.  In the day, it's 14°C (57.2°F) and boosted when needed.  Generally in the summer it's off all the time for about 4-6 months.

You are right, except for me, when the outside temp goes below 4C heating costs double whether I keep it off between midnight and 7:30am or keep it on (at 14C) at night. Although I know it kicks in at night because of the outside temp, it will cost less energy to get back to the target temp of 19C.

 

Even at night I don't want to be sleeping in a fridge 😛  

[Marco Smith]

I love when the house is warm so that I can walk around in a T-shirt.Also I insulated my house a long time ago and installed energy-saving windows. In winter, I never turn off the heating. The thermostat is always set to 74f.