why does it take so long for my house to warm up?

Question

I recently bought an older house that's a little over 1000 square feet. I set the programmable thermostat to 60 during the day when I'm at work and 68 1/2 hour before I get home. The past 2 nights it has taken 2 1/2 hours to get up to 68. The furnace was checked recently and I was told it was a mid-efficient model with about 7-8 years worth of life left in it. Why is it taking so long to warm the house?

Answer 1

leave the stat set where it is comfertable for you. you are not saving any money by letting your house cool off then warming it back up

adding insulation is never a bad idea, but playing with the stat to make it warm a house 8 degrees every day is silly.

Answer 2

I'm going to vote for one the other answers, but add my .02
Always spend the money on insulation before you buy a bigger furnace because it's "undersized".
If you insulate, seal and replace the windows with just part of the money you would spend on a new furnace your existing furnace will be big enough. It's not the size of the house, it's the quality of the total insulation that determines the proper size of the furnace.

Better insulation mean the house is easier to heat and cool, and it's much quieter. Do the insulation yourself, so you can "overdo" it cost effectively.

Good reasons to change a furnace are that its unsafe or beyond repair...of course...but next is the large gain from direct venting. The furnace in your house now sucks a huge amount of air out of the house...air that must be replaced..and it is..through every opening in the house, so you feel that draft. With direct vent, the combustion air is provided directly to the burner, so it doesn't have to pull it through your windows. The increase in comfort is incredible...specially in an older house. Then, the efficiency is in the low 90% for most newer furnaces, so you would get a boost of at least 15%, in my opinion.

Answer 3

Proper insulation is the best way to keep your furnace from running too much, however, an undersized furnace is very common among many other heating issues. An undersized furnace is comparable to putting a lawnmower engine in a dump truck. The engine may still work , but it will work so hard that it will be inefficient. Improper dustwork sizing is another problem that may occur. If the duct work is too small than it is like your furnace has to push hot air through your whole house from a drinking straw. Have your energy company come in to do an inspection on your heating efficiency and they should be able to resolve some of the issues. If they can't resolve the problem, have a heating company take a look (get a couple of references).

Answer 4

Is the thermostat positioned too close to the boiler? Our thermostat cuts out if it's set at around 70 because it thinks the house is warm enough but it's just the air surrounding the boiler. I then increase the setting up to 75 and it kicks in, then adjust it down to 70 when the house gets steaming hot. At which point it can easily cut out again. My husband says it's easier to put a thick sweater on.

Answer 5

Insulation!

Older homes are generally poorly insulated. My house is about 65 years old. When we replaced the original windows we noticed immediately that the furnace didn't kick on so often.

If you can afford new windows right now or afford to have new insulation blown into your walls there are a few ways to help cut heating costs.

- Replace furnace filters often. The increased air flow helps your furnace run efficiently

- Check doors and windows for air leaks. Add weatherstripping to doors where it is missing or not working well. Use plastic window sealants.

- Make sure your fireplace damper is closed. Heat rises.

- Make sure that the dryer exhaust is not leaking.

- Add insulation to your attic and make sure you have weather stripping around the door to the attic.

-Check for leaks around the baseboards. In our house I pulled the quarter-round off the baseboards and shot in some Mono-Foam Calking. It made a big difference.

Answer 6

I'm missing all the important details, so I'm going to guess. A hot water system uses a pump to circulate the water through your radiators. If this pump does not work the boiler will still turn on however the hot water can only travel through the pipes by convection (heat, eventually rises). This would fit your scenario, and would be my first guess. Some older houses didn't use a pump and relied on convection alone to circulate the water. These are commonly refered to as gravity systems. If this is the case, you can have a plumber install a pump and you will get your heat quicker,although it seems to me some one would have done this years ago, but hey, you never know.

Answer 7

The problem with older houses is too little or no insulation at all. You can get the blown in type in your walls and ceiling, but that can't be applied to the under side of the house. If your house is built on a slab or any other way you can get thick foam installed with a good carpet on top of that.

Answer 8

Well, it's been getting colder outside, so your home is really getting down to 60, whereas a fewweeks ago, it probably wan't down to quite 60 by the time you got home.

And remember, when your furnace kicks on, it's got to heat up, not only the air in the home, but the furniture too. That's an easy thing to forget in heating and air conditioning situations...you're not just heating and cooling the air, but all of your furniture and appliances and stuff.

Answer 9

Now you settled be careful who you invite.We moved as quickly as and settled had the occasion and horra somebody were ill on our new carpet and stamp over the recent backyard....Then as quickly as we've been given the subsequent place we had a house warming occasion come paint occasion yet yet another disater ruined the domicile paint eveyehere..Then we've been given it as quickly as we moved right here domicile warming replaced into interior of two weeks and everybody got here and we had a cool time and each went or maybe with the situation looking a harm we had a great time as did our concentrated visitor and we knew we've been then going to make this a house.....

Answer 10

First check your attic for insulation. This is the reason most homes take a long time to heat or cool. Also check around doors and windows to make sure there are no air leaks.