Cacher_Chick
Test, Don't Guess!
It's been said time and time again that turning down the thermostat saves money. At what point might this not hold true anymore?
I have a 1300 sq foot ranch with decent insulation. I have a lot of big windows which are my biggest heat loss. The forced-air natural gas furnace is a 90% efficiency unit, 80K BTU. If I allow the temperature in the house to drop to 58F while I am at work, the furnace has to run about 2 hours before the house is 68F and holding. If I had not turned it down, i'm not sure that it would have run 2 hours cumulatively over the course of the day.
Obviously there are a lot of things to consider, but I'm wondering what might be the simplest way to determine a what point it no longer becomes worthwhile. If I'm only saving $.30 a day for instance, it might be better for the house to just to maintain the temperature?
There are obviously some knowledgeable people here, thus I'm interested in hearing other's ideas on how this works.
I have a 1300 sq foot ranch with decent insulation. I have a lot of big windows which are my biggest heat loss. The forced-air natural gas furnace is a 90% efficiency unit, 80K BTU. If I allow the temperature in the house to drop to 58F while I am at work, the furnace has to run about 2 hours before the house is 68F and holding. If I had not turned it down, i'm not sure that it would have run 2 hours cumulatively over the course of the day.
Obviously there are a lot of things to consider, but I'm wondering what might be the simplest way to determine a what point it no longer becomes worthwhile. If I'm only saving $.30 a day for instance, it might be better for the house to just to maintain the temperature?
There are obviously some knowledgeable people here, thus I'm interested in hearing other's ideas on how this works.