HWL similar to DWL

[Frank Lee]

Heating With Load similar to Driving With Load...

I've been "sort of" doing this for years but today is the first day I've put pen to paper with some actual thought behind it- no, really- in an attempt to clarify somewhat what I'm doing.

The premise is similar to DWL in that I believe it is not necessary or desireable to maintain a perfectly consistant indoor temperature all year around. As with our cars, we can have a variety of reasons why this concept may make sense- health, economic, energy conservation, or ?. It has been easy for me to do because there is nobody else in my house to complain, appease, or fiddle with the thermostat. However if you can get everyone on board- or if you rule with an Iron Fist- perhaps you can try it too.

I made a chart that is somewhat arbitrary because there are no calculations, measurements, tests, or formulas to derive it; just many years of living in the same house and already knowing pretty much what interior temps I can tolerate. I generally go about as cold as I can without undue suffering and since I live in a very cold climate, I'm acclimated to a large degree (PUN!) towards cold temps (some wonder if I'm some sort of Arctic animal...). I used Fahrenheit because that's what I do; I used easy round numbers for ease of remembering it; I broke it down into six temp zones of 15 degrees each (after several iterations) just because intuitively it seemed about right; and I used 35 as the temp starting point as a nod to the noticeably greater comfort inside when it's above freezing, plus a couple of degrees for good measure. This is not about chasing outdoor temps with the thermostat- the stat can stay put for days or weeks at a time, to generally conform to the guideline. Of course this is my chart and I wouldn't expect anyone else to follow it; adding 10 degrees to the stat for each temp zone would be far more typical yet still realize the concept. Without further ado:

Outside Air Temp.... Thermostat Setting
<-10F .... 50
-10 to 5 .... 52
5 to 20 .... 54
20 to 35 .... 56
35 to 50 .... 58 or Off
>50 .... Off

<35, Away from Home .... 45 (Grrr, that's as low as it goes)
>35, Away from Home .... Off

Note: My plumbing is all within a full basement where the furnace resides- no crawl spaces, lines running to uninsulated areas, etc., so I don't need much temperature "cushion" to protect against frozen lines, especially when I'm away from home. I know from lots and lots of bitter experience with mobile homes and older houses that this is not always the case.

In the past I experimented with how low I could go; at 45 I survived but sheesh, that was a little extreme, even for me. 48 was noticeably better but I'm not desperate and besides, the cat didn't like it one bit. One could find that minimum temp and just park it there all the time but I figure if I'm in the mood to reward myself with warmth when it's warmer out, this is a consistent way to approach it and not go overboard.

I'm not far from Canada and I made it to Novembrr 1 before turning the furnace on; after several days of freezing and below temps it hit 45 inside. Yes, my heating bills are probably in the bottom 1%tile for this region...

[HydroJim]

Another hidden benefit: less energy required to refridgerate your food.

I commend your efforts. You probably are healthier this way too. Humans were made to tolerate the cold by burning more calories to heat when physical activity is down. If you're always in a warm house, you'lo gain weight. Keep it cool, more calories burned while at rest

[Frank Lee]

Yes, it would be interesting to put a Kill-A-Watt on the fridge for, say, a week in January and then a week in July.

I have found that when I visit other people's houses in the winter I darn near keel over from heat stroke.

And more about thermostats: I highly recommend programmable stats for those with a regular work schedule that leaves the house empty for that time. I used to set mine back all the way to 45- as low as it would go- for the "away times", and sometimes I knew the furnace didn't kick in at all when I was gone because the temp hadn't got down to 45 yet. There was never any suffering involved since it kicked the temp back up right before I got home. But I don't have that situation now so I just program it for a single temp.

[gone-ot]

...or, a week in the garage in July vs. a week in January.

We have a 2nd refrigerator in the garage with a "dead" ice-maker, but otherwise it's perfectly OK.

[Frank Lee]

I've found that frost-free fridges get all goofed up out in the garage in near-freezing temps; they stop and let the freezer thaw out.

[redpoint5]

... and I thought I was a crazy living with 55 degree temps. I bought my 2100 sq/ft 2 story house 4 years ago, and whenever I didn't have roommmates, I would set the t-stat for 55 degrees and just wear wool socks, sweatpants and a sweater. Sometimes I'd wear a beanie to keep the ears warm. I just couldn't justify warming all that space just so I could be comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts in the winter. Cold hands do make it more difficult to type though!

Nowadays I set the programmable t-stat to 67F when the wife is home, and 55F at night and during the day while we're at work. You've inspired me to go lower to 50F.

I went until the second week in November without turning the heat on this year, but then again I live in the Portland area and it hadn't started getting too cold yet. With an unusually sunny October with only a couple days of rain, the house kept warm with the southern windows open to the sun.

Spending Christmas with the parents was miserable, with Mom running the heat to 80 degrees! Menopause does weird things to women, and I'm not looking forward to my wife roasting me out of the house when she gets old. Maybe they will invent personal environmental controls by that time. A "Select Comfort" of home heating of some sort.

[Frank Lee]

We just came out of a -20 cold snap; it's been below average cold since the end of Octobrr.

I use "extreme zone heating" via halogen worklamps with the glass removed. Works great, lets me keep the regular lights off too. There's nothing as good as plain ol' radiant heat. Be safe if you consider it.

I'll never forget a few years back when the price of heating oil or natural gas spiked, the TV News interviewed this big dumb oaf in his house as he whined about the cost... while standing there in an undershirt and shorts.

[JasonG]

I was doing the programmable thermostat last year set at 55•
This year we placed a 1500w ceramic heater on the living room and one in the bathroom.
This causes the furnace to run only when they can't keep up.
This roughly cut the gas bill in half without major effect on the electric bill.

[pgfpro]

Subscribe to this thread!!!!

Our Natural gas heating bill went from last months $54.72 to $98.21 this month.

As it got colder outside I noticed our house got warmer inside. From 69*f inside last month to now 72*f inside.

[Daox]

For those with changing schedules, I highly suggest a wifi thermostat. You can connect to it via a computer or smart phone and change your temperature remotely. They aren't that much more expensive than a 7 day programmable thermostat either. I recently picked one up for $80 (not a sale price). I did a write up on EcoRenovator on the options and my purchase, install, and usage.

wifi thermostat options:
Internet / wifi thermostats - EcoRenovator

install and review:
Motison CyberStat CY1201 WiFi thermostat installation & review - EcoRenovator