should i turn my electirc baseboard heat off in winter when not at home?

Answer 1

no.....the recovery time for electric baseboard heaters is very long. if you turn them off (or way down) and let the room cool down, all the objects in the room will cool down as well. when you turn the heat back up, it will run for an hour or two strait just to heat the air, then for another hour or so at 50% duty cycle to heat the objects (furniture). if you leave the heat on all the time it will likely run at 20% duty cycle

bottom line ........there is no real net savings

if you want to save some money, open the blinds on the windows as the sun hits them, and close them when the sun doesn't.....this simple act will save you about 10% or more on your heat bill.

Possum

Answer 2

Good Idea! It depends on where the heater is located. I lived in a house for 3 years that had electric baseboard heaters in the bedrooms/living room and had ridiculous electric bills (200 bucks a month). I started opening the shades and turning it down to the lowest setting and my heating bills were down 1/3rd to 1/2. If you don't get a lot of sunlight then this is not an option and you have to make sure that where your water pipes are heated.

Answer 3

If you are leaving for a long time I would turn it down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If you are only leaving for the day you might want to turn it down to 60 degrees just to conserve on your electric costs.

Make sure nothing is touching the baseboards in any of your rooms--they get very hot with electric heat and can cause fires. I know this from personal experience!

Answer 4

Certainly is a good idea if you do not want to heat an unoccupied home. You could purchase a timer that will turn it on at some preset time just before you get home so you do not come into a very cold space, and turn it off during typical non-use times, and allow for a manual bypass. Also, good thermostats can do the same, via programming. Then you could set for different temperature ranges or just on/off.

Answer 5

It depends.
If it gets below freezing where you live, you run the risk of frozen or burst pipes. Trust me that the money (electricity) that you save will pale in comparison to the damage caused by one burst pipe.
If you expect to leave for an extended period, you can 'drain' the water at the lowest point of the house, shut off your water main and fill toilets and sink traps with an anti-freeze. You may need heat tape on the water main to prevent it from freezing.
Copper pipe is stronger than PVC, but they will both break.
I own a house in Maine. For years we would 'drain the house' when we left. We still had pipes burst but with little damage to the house (of course you had to find and fix those pipes).
Since then, we leave the heat on at 50 degrees and a few exposed pipes get heat tape. We're fortunate that almost no pipes are in external walls. Those face the greatest risk because they're closest to the cold.

Answer 6

being that ur interior the top point of the duplex as long because of the fact the backside tenant retains his/her warmth on the pipes maximum in all possibility wont burst. Now directly to the 2d portion of your question the decrease the warmth vs shutting it thoroughly off is desperate by how nicely insulated your place is. If its poorly insulated turning it off will keep money because of the fact warmth will continuously escape and the grant will could artwork harder and greater generally to maintain that warmth. in the experience that your area is easily insulate then turning it right down to declare 60-sixty 5 is positive. I lived in the two varieties of places and tended to only shop it at sixty 5. particular it value some money greater yet i will domicile to a heat domicile. some human beings could declare thats chilly i comprehend my lady roommate does yet I dont care she isnt paying the expenses. in terms of utilities being greater or much less is desperate by how a lot you employ vs previous tenants and how a lot of a cost hike the appliance companies made. This final 12 months the cost on electrical energy in CT went up something like 50% so my electric powered bill went from a typical one hundred eighty to 380 a month.

Answer 7

NO! It takes it too long to heat back up. You can turn it down a little but do not turn it off.

Answer 8

do you have wood floors? If you do then I would suggest leaving it on a low temperature so that moisture will not get into the wood