Central Heating and Air?

Question

With the Cold weather outside, whats the cost efficient thermostat should I keep. Whenever I leave for work, I keep the thermostat at 75 and the house is toasty, I like that. Keep in mind im from SC

Answer 1

If you really want to save $$$ and contribute less to global heating gases:

Your thermostat should be turned down to 60 F (Winter) and your AC should be OFF (Summer) when house is not occupied for longer than four hours.

75 F is TOO HOT for most Northerners except old people who often prefer 80 F.

ONLY AMERICANS heat their whole house like this. The Brits usually heat only one or two rooms, living room and bathroom. You can use an electric blanket in an unheated bedroom and save more $$$.

Just think, when you leave your American house on 75 F and go to work + commuting, maybe gone for NINE HOURS: Every room is being heated while NO ONE is there. Visualize the $$$ floating up the furnance exhaust pipe, consider the unnecessary contribution to global warming.

A programmable thermostat will let you choose when you furnance goes on or off, same for AC, perhaps even letting you set the temperature differently for night, day.

Why heat rooms that are not being used?? You could block the registers there. If you have floor heating, using electric, there should be a separate control for each room.

Your thermostat should be in the room most used, probably the living room.

An ATTIC FAN will help keep things cool during the summer. You can get one that runs off solar panel, to keep your cool even when the electric power is out! This will also lower your AC bill.

In your area the AC bill can be a worse killer than the winter heating bill, especially for folks who like to keep it under 80 F.

Better insulation helps save $$$$ both Winter and Summer.

More things to do: (see Blog Roll, scroll down Left Margin)
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7dNzZV06cpnGmuKQRUwj0WV6Ig--?cq=1&list=1

I would guess you can save $500 per year just by being more energy efficient, even more if your house is large.

If you heat or AC only the rooms necessary, but not when you are not there, you should save well over $1000 per year.

ATTIC FAN, Good Insulation, Programmable Thermostat (turns on your heat or AC about 1/2 hour before you arrive home).

If you are a sharpie, you can save more $$$ by installing these yourself. They cost less at Home Depot or Lowes than most other places, usually about 30% less than hardware stores, etc., especially if bought while on sale.

Answer 2

If you must keep the house at 75, a digital programmable thermostat is recommended. Set it up so when you leave it turns the house down to 65 and then back up to 75 a half hour before you get home. I recommend honeywell thermostats they are very dependable and say that a programmable can save up to 33% a year compared toa regular thermostat when programmed well.

Answer 3

Unless youre leaving for a long vacation, i would leave it right at the tempeture you want it to be...maintaining a tempeture is the best thing you could do for your gas bill. If you have a digital thermostat, with a hold feature, use it. Believe it or not it will cost the same to maintain your home at 75, as it would be to maintain anything less. If your suffering from high gas bills, try looking at other things like where the heat loss is going. leaking windows, insulation, etc.... hope this helps.... just think how long your furnace runs, trying to get back up to temp from where you left it, when you left for work... it may run up to a hour to get there...not good for you, but good for the gas company..

Answer 4

I'd kill to keep my thermo at 75. Our gas bills are so high up North, you'd cringe. How high you ask, let me fill you in...last winter, one of the warmest winters on record (but still freezing up here) I turned my forced air heat down to 56 degrees and shut myself in one room with a kerosene heater (one of the small ones for personal use) when I came home from work. I still paid a couple of hundred dollars a month for my small, well insulated apartment between the electric and the gas. So up here, we keep it at 62 degrees at night (Brrrrr) and 68 when we are home.....I'm moving to South Carolina.....

Answer 5

75 is dang hot when in the heating mode. Keep it at 70 when you are home and cut it back to 60 while you are gone.

Answer 6

68 degrees is what they suggest but if you need to be warmer it just cost a little more. good luck my friend, you'll get use to it.