PUSHING HEATER HIGHER WON’T SPEED TEMPERATURE CHANGE
BY KEN SHEINKOPF
Q: My husband and I disagree on the right way to set our thermostat,
with the result that our house is never comfortable. It’s always
either too hot or too cold. Should we keep adjusting it to the best
setting or just leave it at one level?
We visited several friends during the holidays, and I found many of
their homes to be either too hot or too cold to be called
comfortable.
Even though the weather was pretty cold outside, some of the homes
were so hot that it was hard to stay indoors, while a few others
felt colder than the wind chills outdoors.
Follow the rules
I usually tell people that there are a couple of basic rules that
you won’t find in an instruction book for properly operating their
thermostat or heater or air conditioner, but they’re strategies that
will keep their home more comfortable and help keep energy use to a
minimum.
Let’s talk about the heating season right now, though the general
ideas here work just as well in hot weather (with the appropriate
adjustments in direction of the thermostat setting, of course).
First of all, it is a good strategy to turn the setting down a few
degrees when the house is empty, like when you’re all at work or
school during the day. Maybe you’ve had it set at 68 degrees, for
example, so if it’s going to be empty for several hours, turn it
down to 62 or 63 while you’re gone.
I’ve seen research that shows that for every degree you can turn the
thermostat down from its usual setting, you can save anywhere from 3
to 10 percent on the heating costs during that time (the variance is
due to various factors including the overall energy efficiency of
the home, including its insulation levels, quality of windows,
etc.).
Second, when you come home at the end of the day to a house that is
colder than you’d like it, don’t immediately turn the thermostat as
high as it can go "to heat the house faster.” It’s just not going to
happen.
The furnace isn’t going to put out any more heat if you set it for
90 than if you set it for 68. What it will do if you set it higher
than you want it, though, is continue to put out heat until you
remember to turn it back to is desired setting. As a result, you
might be wasting an awful lot of heat when you don’t need it or want
it to get higher than your desired comfort level. Setting it higher
than you want it won’t make it heat any faster.
Levels differ
Finally, I often talk to people who think the best way to regulate
the heat is to find a comfortable setting and leave it there and not
keep fiddling with the thermostat. There are recommended set-points
for comfort that maximize energy efficiency — 68 degrees in winter
and 78 degrees in summer.
However, the fact is that everyone has their own comfort levels, and
while you may find 66 degrees to be OK in winter, your spouse may
want it to be 73 before he or she is comfortable. My recommendation
is that you set the thermostat no higher than 68 in winter, and if
it’s too cold for you or other in the house, first try dressing a
little warmer (it really is OK to wear a sweater indoors!) and if
that’s not enough, raise the setting just a little until you find
the desired comfort.
Every degree can make a big difference in the bills you pay each
month, so keep that in mind when pushing the thermostat higher than
you really need. Keeping these recommended settings in mind means
that it really is OK to adjust it higher or lower as conditions
change (like when you have company over or the outdoor weather has
warmed up a bit) and don’t be locked into one setting for the whole
winter.
Of course, if you have a programmable thermostat, it’ll do all these
adjustments for you once you set it to your desired comfort levels.
Whether you make the adjustments yourself or program the thermostat
to do it automatically, keep these rules in mind and you ought to be
more comfortable this winter without dreading the monthly utility
bill.
Ken Sheinkopf is a communications specialist with the American Solar Energy Society (www.ases.org). Send your energy questions to askken@ases.org