What do you set your furnace to?

[red sky]

Unfortunately my cardboard box did not come with a thermostat. I let mother nature decide for me.

[Nage Waza]

I dropped the temp, now wear a sweater. I will see how much it saves me - I have a very efficient furnace, but gas is still gas. The motor itself uses barely any electricity. My condo used as much power as my house, about a 70 dollar electric bill a month. Gas I think hovered over 300 last bill!

[Flames_Gimp]

mine is between 73 - 77 always in winter, off in summer

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

I dropped the temp, now wear a sweater. !

For the life of me I can't fathom why this isn't something people do first before turning up the furnace.

[Nage Waza]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

For the life of me I can't fathom why this isn't something people do first before turning up the furnace.

It starts very slowly, it is the summer, and we lounge in shorts. It gets slightly cooler out, and the temperature is set a bit higher. This goes on until a large bill arrives in the mail, then the sweaters come out, the temperature get's dropped, then it gets hotter outside, then the shorts come back on, and so on. Repeat as necessary.

[pepper24]

Set for 22C when we get home from work and weekends. Dropped down to 20C when we're asleep and at work.

In the summer it's shut off.

[pepper24]

Originally Posted by Russic

We have ours programed to hover between 17-20 depending on the time of day. I've always wondered about the program vs. constant temp debate.

A buddy who works at Enmax said that if you use your programable thermostat but only vary from 2 degrees then it's the best. Constant works best if you have an older house without a programable thermostat as it probably isn't as well insulted as a new home.

Any change more than 2 degrees (say 17C during the day and 22C when you're home) you'll end up spending more money as the furnace has to work hard to increase 5C. The idea is to not make your furnace work that hard.

[ResAlien]

Keep it at 20C all winter, don't change it around.

Thought I heard at one point that changing the temp all the time, during the day etc, actually ends up costing you more? I could be way off, but I just leave mine where it is and I'm fine. Pay about 75 bucks a month on my energy bill.

[Stranger]

Does anyone set the fan to run constantly to circulte air, even when the furnace isn't fired up. I've been told that this help maintain a constant temperature. You spend a little more running the fan, but cut down your gas usage. I'm trying this now to see if it works.

[Hack&Lube]

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Stranger

Does anyone set the fan to run constantly to circulte air, even when the furnace isn't fired up. I've been told that this help maintain a constant temperature. You spend a little more running the fan, but cut down your gas usage. I'm trying this now to see if it works.

Are you sure that would help? I would think it would have the opposite result; as the fresh air intake on the furnace would draw air in from outside and also circulate that throughout the house.

I know on hot summer days once it cools down at night I run the fan to draw the cooler air in from outside to cool the house. Or at least I did prior to getting A/C installed.

I am going to install a ceiling fan at the top of my stairs to circulate air, so the theory is good. But to bring in cold outside air couldn't help at all.

[GGG]

I used to be 18 day 16 night but had a baby so its now a little to warm at 20 day 18 night. My old house in University from 1900ish we use to set it at 16 and still had 300 - 500 dollar gas bills split between 5 people

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Are you sure that would help? I would think it would have the opposite result; as the fresh air intake on the furnace would draw air in from outside and also circulate that throughout the house.

I know on hot summer days once it cools down at night I run the fan to draw the cooler air in from outside to cool the house. Or at least I did prior to getting A/C installed.

I am going to install a ceiling fan at the top of my stairs to circulate air, so the theory is good. But to bring in cold outside air couldn't help at all.

It doesn't draw from outside unless the flame kicks in to heat. Otherwise it just circulates the air within the house. I've been doing it for a few days now and it seems to make a diiference.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

For the life of me I can't fathom why this isn't something people do first before turning up the furnace.

Or wear socks!

My wife used to just turn up the heat but she realizes now that something as simple as putting on socks will warm you up big time.