Does it help save on the energy bill by turning the office thermostat up or down before employees leave?

Question

This is a recurring debate in our office. I say keeping the thermostat on a steady temp. is more efficient. Others think that by making sure the heat or AC does not cut on over the weekends or at night is most efficient. For example, for AC, this would be changing the thermo. from 75 to 80 to save energy. Doesn't that mean that the units just have to work harder to get the temp. back to 75 when the employees come back to work?

Answer 1

keep it at a steady temp

Answer 2

yes - you start saving energy the moment you adjust the thermostat. think about it this way, if you left for a month would you leave it at 70? no, of course not. you might turn it off all together and let the temperature float up into the 80's. sure, when you get back after a month it will take hours for the air conditioner to get back to 70, but clearly this would be far less run time, and thereby far less energy than if you had left the unit at 70 for the entire month. it's the same principle / concept for tuning it down for a week, a weekend, or even overnight. this is why programmable thermostats were invented and why many large businesses use them.

Answer 3

Setback thermostats do have a point of diminishing returns. It all depends on how much of a temperature change you are programming & how much the outdoor ambient temperature is compared to the indoor ambient temperature.
For example, if you setback to 90 overnight & go to 68 during the day & it was 90 outside last night the A/C units will have to work harder in the morning plus the office may not be comfortable at all during the day.
But if the set back is 78 overnight, 72 during the day & outside is in the lower 80s, you will save money & should not feel the difference.

Answer 4

Setting the temp 5 degrees higher when the area is not occupied will save money. The AC will not need to work that much harder to bring the temp back down. 5 degrees difference for 8 days (weekends) and approximately 15 hours per day will save considerable money in a month.

Answer 5

No it wont work twice as hard to get the temp back up. You guys should turn it from 75 to 80 on nights and weekends. You should try kepping the temp at 77 or so all the time.. that would even help.

Answer 6

USA Leaving the stat on one temperature can be expensive. Install a programmable thermostat, so you can set lower or higher temperatures for both heating and cooling for day - night - weekends. It will all be done automatically, and will save on your energy bills. The extra amount of work the units have to do to catch up in the morning is cheaper than keeping them running all night, or all weekend.

Answer 7

Definitely turn the thermostat to a higher temperature during weekends. The overnights is a toss up. Depending on your location, but generally AC would n't be on much during evening anyway.

This is also a great compromise for your on going debate: leave it along for weeknights and set at higher temperature on weekends.

Another thing that would really help for you is turn computer off on weekends. Computer generates a lot of heat and not to mention using lots of energy.

Best wishes.

Answer 8

Your best option is to get a digital thermostat that you can program to turn the ac off 30 minutes after everyone is gone and to come on 30 minutes before everyone arrives. That will save you more energy then just turning it down.

Answer 9

If you keep it on and temper the space. It uses less energy to keep it on, and doesn't work as hard to cool the space. You can turn it down in the evening, and raise in the morning. Plus, if you don't try to cool the space to 62 degrees and keep it at about 73. You will still have a cool space, and save money!