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Posted by Jeffrey Lebowski on January 19, 2007, 5:15 pm
> Travis Jordan wrote:
> > brianthiede@hotmail.com wrote:
> > > I have a gas furnace and a programmable thermostat. What is the
> > > most energy efficient way to set it up during the day when nobody
> > > is home
> >
> > > A) Set it to a very low temp (but warm enough to keep pipes
> > > warm) so it is essentially off until it kicks on with enough time
> > > to bring the house up to a comfortable temp before we get home in
> > > the evening.
> >
> > By the way, the concept of "working hard" is unknown in terms of
> > furnace energy usage.
>
> Citation for your reading pleasure:
> http://www.energyguide.com/esu/RefContent.asp?bid=pnm&id=8
>
> " A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace
> works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable
> temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little
> or no savings. This misconception has been dispelled by years of
> research and numerous studies. The fuel required to reheat a building to
> a comfortable temperature is roughly equal to the fuel saved as the
> building drops to the lower temperature. You save fuel between the time
> that the temperature stabilizes at the lower level and the next time
> heat is needed. So, the longer your house remains at the lower
> temperature, the more energy you save."
>
Place where it get's tricky though is when you have a heat pump running as
primary but calling in aux strip heating ( or even fossil, depending on
current energy pricing structure ) to effect rapid recovery...this is esp
true where the setback was of relatively short duration.
--
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