Don't touch the thermostat!

PineRidge · Jan 20, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

Some years back I lived in an apartment for about 5 years while I was sorting out a divorce. The apartment used electric baseboard heating. Didn't matter where we set the stats we were always cold and our electric bills ran about $450. -$500. per month for 900 square feet.

Our present home that we built is heated with a high efficiency gas furnace. Our monthly winter gas bills run $140-$170. per month for a little over 4000 square feet. So you do the math, in my opinion gas has always been cheaper than electric heat. And our new home is always pleasantly warm. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Inspector507 · Jan 20, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

A lot depends on the insulation too..........if it's non existant, the bills will be high no matter what.

frank_f15 · Jan 20, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

agreeing with u on this one, we keep ours low during the day 66 deg. and down to 58 at night. our gas bill never seem to be as high as our friends, do turn it up when company is over, but then me and the bride roast, guees we are just used to the cooler temps. what is odd that when i was a youngster, many many years ago(1940's) our house only had a wood/coal stove in the living room, only heat that got upstairs was up the stairwell. it sure was cold up there , but blankets and longjohns took care of it. seems like it did no harm as i am still here /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BIGUN · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

AndyM,

This one is pretty easy to figure out just using common sense. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Yes, you save energy turning down the heat in winter or up the A/C in the summer for any period of time. The longer, the more you save. Do you think the Mrs. would not think turning it down for a week would save more energy than the energy it takes to recover when raised back up, how about after a month, or a year? It will take extra energy to recover, but not as much as was saved during the night and it is easier to see how this works with the longer periods of time. If you are turning the heat completely off, after a period of time the losses will stop completely when the inside/outside temps equalize and from then on it’s 100% savings.

As for gas versus electricity for heating, in the past when gas was cheap or if your power is generated with mostly gas today, it is definitely less expensive to use gas for heat. The reason being is that in the conversion of gas to electricity you lose a very large percentage of the gas energy as heat at the power plant. Then you must convert electrical energy back to heat at your home. Heating with gas at home you get pretty much all the heat generated by burning it, depending on the type of heater you use. The thing is, nowadays much electricity is generated by burning coal which is about 1/7 the price of gas, so even with all the conversion losses at the power plant and the losses converting it back to heat at home you may save money heating with electricity.

AndyM · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

( Hi
Which cost more Gas or Electric? We have always lived in an all Electric home because of the danger of Gas. Last year our total for the year was approx 1400 dollars. How does that compare to someone using gas and electric in the home for a year? )

As we were building our house last winter, I filled out a spreadsheet firguing up the cost of heating with natural gas, oil, propane, and electricity. Around here, natural gas was the cheapest, followed by oil, then electricity, and propane was the most expensive.

After the house was framed out, we discovered one thing-- the realtor who sold us the lot told us there was gas at the road. He didn't say the gas line stopped 400 feet short of our property line. I filled in my spreadsheet with amounts it would cost to heat the house for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc with each energy source, and discovered that if we paid to have the gas line ran down the road to our house, it would pay for itself in seven years versus the cost of heating with propane! Since we don't intend on moving again, natural gas seemed to be the way to go. The costs of each energy source in your area is available on the internet, just do a search...

By the way, we also figured in the extra costs of 2 x 6 walls and thicker insulation, and even though it costs more to begin with, it pays for itself in savings after a couple of years! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Now I'm just trying to save even more by turn down the thermostat when the wife isn't looking! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

PBMAX · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

We use an all gas heat pump. Based on previous run ins with other places...No electric coils period i insisted on it. I spend on average $600 a yr on propane for the heat and stove both. that for 2 fill ups of a 250 gallon tank. My power bill is about 90 amonth yr round(agust usually runns $100-125. I would not have the electric heat pump here. The weather is to flaky. We run at 68 in the winter and 72-74 in the summer. SO the end bill would be about the same as some others including cooling and daily power usage.

My wifes sisters house is built by the same builder and is 2 story open loft and master bed upstairs and about 1500 sq ft. with a large say 4' high crawl space Ours is 1625 with a full open unfinished basement. My house stays noticable more comfortabel than theirs with ther 2 full electric heat pumps. (Which really spins the meter on long cold streach's) They supliment their heat with a karosine heater or fire place to keep the power bill down during the winter.

The problem is they never feel like it gets comfortable with just the heat pump. Wife's sister even comented that the heat from our vents is much warmer than theirs. Which to me is kinda odd. I mean they both work of the same concept...
Would Gas really be naturally that much warmer.? mabye its just cuase prefer gas,,, /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif but to me gas heat just seems warmer and the systems don't seem to stuggle to keep the house warm. Plus, my system doesn't run nearly as oftern as theirs seems to and it's always feels comfy...

PineRidge · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

 The problem is they never feel like it gets comfortable with just the heat pump. Wife's sister even comented that the heat from our vents is much warmer than theirs. Which to me is kinda odd. I mean they both work of the same concept...
Would Gas really be naturally that much warmer.? mabye its just cuase prefer gas,,, but to me gas heat just seems warmer and the systems don't seem to stuggle to keep the house warm. Plus, my system doesn't run nearly as oftern as theirs seems to and it's always feels comfy...


It's not your imagination electric heat pumps do not offer the same air temperature rise as a straight gas furnace or a combination heat pump with gas backup. Register temperatures on all electric heat pumps are much lower and as a result create quite a few complaints from homeowners.

Stand next to the register on a gas furnace and I think you will quickly see that there really is no comparison.

Another factor is how quickly a gas furnace can bring an unheated area up to temperature such as a pole barn. My barn is 24 X 36 with a 14 foot ceiling. I can go out any day of the winter and turn the stat to the heating position and be comfortable to work in 15 minutes. That is with a 75,000 BTU input Reznor forced air overhead furnace. Try that with a heat pump, and it will get warm about June or July. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

frank_f15 · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

had a new furnace installed ayear ago, i slowed the blower motor down to give me a 55 deg rise across the exchanger, the max allowable is 70 deg. the air never seems warm, but the house is at the set temp. i think they design tehm so it don't feel that warm, for when it shuts off u feel colder. iam pleased with it and it is quite efficient.

thcri · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

( had a new furnace installed ayear ago, i slowed the blower motor down to give me a 55 deg rise across the exchanger, the max allowable is 70 deg. the air never seems warm, but the house is at the set temp. i think they design tehm so it don't feel that warm, for when it shuts off u feel colder. iam pleased with it and it is quite efficient. )

Frank,

Over the years the manufactures have lowered the temperature of the plenums due to increased efficiency of the burners and also they have increased blower speeds. The higher blower speeds do give you temperatures that make you feel cooler. Kind of like the wind chill factor. Start moving air around you body and you feel colder. That is part of the reason DC blowers are taking over and we are selling more and more of them furnaces. They typically will run continuous but at much slower speeeds giving you a more even temperature throughout the house. We are also starting to see more and more people heat their homes with wirsbo type heat systems because of the warmer heat it produces.

murph

BIGUN · Jan 21, 2004

Re: Don\'t touch the thermostat!

( had a new furnace installed ayear ago, i slowed the blower motor down to give me a 55 deg rise across the exchanger, the max allowable is 70 deg. the air never seems warm, but the house is at the set temp. i think they design tehm so it don't feel that warm, for when it shuts off u feel colder. iam pleased with it and it is quite efficient. )

I think the higher blower speed is one of the ways they use to increase the efficiency of the furnace. Running the blower slower makes the air warmer but also makes the flue gas exiting the furnace warmer, losing heat to the atmosphere.