Heat Settings

[rockundergirl]

So I have been thinking, my home is split into two zones for heating and cooling. Upstairs and down stairs. Right now I have them set to 68 when ever we are home/awake. and 54 when ever we are not home sleeping. My soon to be mother in law suggested that while home but not upstairs ( like on weekends when we are all home but in the family room's down stairs to let the upstairs stay at 54 to cut the bill down.
Question... Since heat rises, wouldn't the heat from down stairs wonder up wasting money anyway ? We have a very open floor plan.

 

[dzorn]

So I have been thinking, my home is split into two zones for heating and cooling. Upstairs and down stairs. Right now I have them set to 68 when ever we are home/awake. and 54 when ever we are not home sleeping. My soon to be mother in law suggested that while home but not upstairs ( like on weekends when we are all home but in the family room's down stairs to let the upstairs stay at 54 to cut the bill down.
Question... Since heat rises, wouldn't the heat from down stairs wonder up wasting money anyway ? We have a very open floor plan.

I assume the bedrooms are upstair? If so just have them close the bedroom doors and any other doors upstairs.

Denise in MI

 

[mrudman]

I assume the bedrooms are upstair? If so just have them close the bedroom doors and any other doors upstairs.

Denise in MI

In the house that I'm living in now (was my grandma's house), she would do this, and also would close off the vents to the upstairs bedrooms (not sure if all houses have that option, but ours is an older house, and I remember my grandma always closing the vents in the rooms...

She also had a accordian style door that was installed at the top of the staircase that we could close.

The upstairs sure got cold when she did both these things, lol! Remember staying Saturday nights with her, and having to sleep under down blankets cause it was so cold up there,

 

[swilshire]

We also have bedrooms upstairs and tend to leave the heat set to the absolute lowest setting in the winter (which is around 50) except in the coldest weather. There is some heat rising from downstairs and the boys just put on a sweatshirt if they are playing or working in their bedrooms.

Likewise, the air conditioning is seldom on downstairs because it just doesn't get that warm except in the hottest weather.

Sheila

 

[rillsung]

Yeah we have 4 zones in our house, 2 downstairs and 2 upstairs. I do set each one according to the use of the rooms. So our bedroom is cold during the day and I have it get warm before we normally go up for bed and then cool off again about the time we go to bed. The girls' rooms are warm for nighttime and naptime.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

That would never work for my open floor plan. The cold would come downstairs and the heat would go upstairs so I'd be freezing all day.

We compromise and put the heat at 70 downstairs and 65 upstairs when the kids are in school.
Then the thermostat upstairs is programmed to come on and heat the upstairs to 70 an hour before the kids get home.
I've found that if I have the upstairs colder than that, it takes all night for it to heat up.

I hate the cold and hate being cold so I cut back elsewhere in the winter to keep the house warmer.