Rant of the day: Thermostats

[toggleswitch]

Bill:

We'll have to chat offline about the joys of downgrading living space in exchange for casting off dead-wood (parden the pun).

My house is soon to be on the market and the ex and I are temporarily room-mates. JOY! (no one is dead yet)

HA!

 

[toggleswitch]

Well, if the glass slipper fits, honey...

.....and VERY VERY soon my prince charming will come snatch me up.

 

[48bencix]

Keep fan running

I keep my t-stat on auto fan, which shuts the blower off when not heating. The blower in my central uses about 800 watts, at $.10/kwh that would be $1.92 per day.

Since I have a 100,000 btu furnace, about a therm, which is about $1.70 right now, that's $1.70 plus $.08 for the fan per hour ($1.78) So when I think how cold I am, I think about that cost. Right now it is quite mild here in Sacramento, around 45 degrees at night, so I'm using around 2 therms a day to keep the house around 63 when I am there and awake, 58 at night and OFF when I am not there. I like OFF and that's why I do not have a programmable t-stat.

When and if it gets colder it's going to be close to $4.00 to heat the house each day. (1800 sq. ft. pretty good insulation, but single pane windows with window coverings)

I have found that the best way to deal with a partner that uses t-stats illogically, just let him, it's a small thing. Your life will be much more pleasant than trying to change someone. This technique works for many situations, I have found in my older years.

 

[DADoES]

I set the blower on auto 99.9% of the time. The 0.1%, which I should perhaps do more often, is when heating, which helps keep the temp a bit more equalized in the master bedroom and bath.

I once had a White-Rodgers programmable 'stat that allowed setting the blower for on/auto for each period.

 

[Cybrvanr]

We can pull that out a little bit further by converting the wattage to BTU's. It takes .3 watts to make 1 BTU, so if your room takes 1,440 watts to heat it, that means it requires 4800 BTU's to heat it. A regular "plug-in" heater should suffice in this room. This is a good "ballpark" figure, but there is much more involved in calculating heat requirements.

This math, or course takes into account the room being properly insulated. There are many other factors determining the needed heat too, such as how many of the walls are exterior, and their surface area, what floor in the building the space is in, and of course, the proper distribution of the heat. Human bodies tend to be more comfortable with the heat at their feet (which is why baseboard and radiant floor heat feels so good!). What you guys are talking about using the blower for stratification will allow you to also operate the system at a lower setting if the heat within the room is properly distributed.

There's not much hope for my house. The vents are in the ceiling, which works great for AC, but it's terrible for heat. The ceiling will be 80 degrees, and the floors about 65 degrees! In the middle, 72 degrees at about the thermostat's level on the wall. Running the ceiling fans help a little, but really only makes the room drafty

 

[DADoES]

Mine are also in the ceiling. In this area, it's rare for them to be anywhere else unless one lives in a trailer house. Of course, cooling is priority on the TX coast.

 

[jasonl]

Fan set on auto

I have my fan set on auto because in the summer after the compressor shuts off the fan's just blowing warm humid air. We have an Amana system here and the fan will run for about 2 minutes after the comp has shut off to get the most out of the evaporator.

When I lived up north Bri's parents had the system fan on constantly and it worked fine.

Of course, window units are a different matter, they're ON no matter what (unless it's an Energy Star model with automatic fan).

 

[toggleswitch]

Cool.

I know it as 3.4 BTU per watt!

 

[toggleswitch]

Said: There's not much hope for my house. The vents are in the ceiling, which works great for AC, but it's terrible for heat.

Odd that in VA the supply air ducts and vents are in the ceiling as, in IMHO, the heating requirement is perhaps greater than the need for cooling.

One way to ensure comfort IMHO is to place the return-air vent [the one(s) that suck(s) in] nearest to or IN the floor.

Often-times there are two centrally located return vents (if not a system that has one in each room); one near the floor one near the ceiling. Simply close the damper the UPPER one in winter. Make sure the system still has an air-supply, of course. If the upper grille/register does not have a damper you may want to replace it with one that does, or make a SS or equivalent sheet-metal cover for the top one.

It will make a huge difference in comfort.

let us know.........

 

[gregm]

fan

My experience when living in FL is that during the peak summer, you had to run the fan (in central AC systems) MOST if not all of the time otherwise mold/mildew would build up inside the ductwork and on the condensor, it was nasty, but running the fan all the time got rid of the smell. I moved out of there, thinking if you can actually smell mold, that can't be a good thing to breathe and it sure is an awful smell.

 

[sudsmaster]

I also have turned my thermostat down from 65 to 63 this winter. This is also down from 67 last winter.

At night and when I'm not here during the day, the temp is set to 55. It's best not ot turn the heater totally off or let the temp drop below 55. Below that temp, most refrigerators don't work so good, and the freezer compartment may not stay frozen.

 

[toggleswitch]

GREAT point.

Better fridges have their temperature sensor in the FREEZER, and the other control opens a damper to varying degres.

This way the fridge runs to keeps the freezer (deep-freeze=>UK) frozen. Otherwise, the fridge stays cool on its own (from ambient temp. in the room) and the freezer melts.

The fridge in the below link is esp. made for the garage-- it has a HEATER to keep the ref. above freezing temp.

[Editor's note: ALL I can say is-- I can only imagine what other countries think of our use (read: waste) of energy. Maybe someone will TELL us. LOL]

http://www.gladiatorgw.com/detail.asp?BaseModelID=GARF19XXPK

 

[toggleswitch]

JASON:

You seem to like outwardly rugged testosterone-laden stuff.
Is that ref and the garage cabinets suitable rugged for ya?

 

[jasonl]

That's a MAN's fridge.

Hummmph hummmph hummmph hummph hummmph

No no no. You put the OLD fridge in the garage. Especially if it's a 50s fridge and fill it with BEER and COKE. Or the huge amount of pork meat you're about to barbecue.

 

[toggleswitch]

I with you on that one, man.

 

[whirlcool]

We have the vents in the ceiling and a huge return air grille in the hall (on individual returns in each room) we leave the fan on Auto. When the fan is on it does move a good bit of air in the room, which like mentioned in previous post would lead to drafty rooms if left to on.

After getting our last gas bill of $138.00 (previous high was $65.00)we now leave the thermostat at 70 during the day and turn it the heat off when we go to bed. The house only gets down to 66 or so overnight. We have a nice thick down comforter which keeps us nice and warm overnight.