Heating/thermostat question

[mtemm]

We really want to try to lower costs here...I won't even go into our gas bill this month...ugh. I'm wondering if this would make a difference...what do you guys think?

we have 2 thermostats, one for the first floor and one for the second floor (all bedrooms are on the second floor). would it help to lower the first floors heat when we go to bed? Or is it better to keep both floors at the same temp?

also, in our past homes we've had programmable thermostats and really liked them. Our current house has dial ones. how hard are they to change for a programmable one?

 

[bigmerle1966]

I have seen suggestions before about turning the heat down during the day while no one is home. Heat rises so unless you have an open floor plan where part of your upstairs is open to the lower I would think turning the lower floor thermostat down wouldn't be a problem.

As for how easy it is to change the thermostat I would like to know that as well. I am having work done on my house and would like to switch to a programmable one. Does anyone know what the cost would be like?

 

[imsorry]

When we are upstairs at night, we lower the heat downstairs to around 58-60.
When we go down in the morning, we lower the upstairs to around 58-60.
Understand, my DH is part polar bear and I am having "flash" issues, so this is not a problem for us - if you have children it might be too cold for them.

 

[Towncrier]

Do you have two furnaces? Or do the two thermostats simply control two "zones"?

We got into a debate about turning back thermostats a couple of weeks ago. I belong to the group that believes that it is better to turn down heat whenever you aren't using a particular area of your home. Without restarting that debate, lets just say that I think you would save money any time that you turn down your thermostat during heating season.

It is usually a simple matter to replace a single thermostat with a programmable model, but since you have dual zone heating, it might be more involved. You might try asking someone at a home improvement type store. Who knows. You might actually find someone who knows a thing or two about HVAC systems.

 

[FreshTressa]

Okay...what we did that has saved money is that we have the heat go off (down to 60) at around 8pm when we don't go to bed until midnight. Because it cools off so slowly we dont really notice. We used to turn it off on the way to bed, but this helped. We also turn it all the way down to 60 at night, not just down to 68 like we used to.

We also don't turn the heat on in the morning when we get ready. We all have huge bathrobes we put on when we get up, and we are all too busy running around getting ready to notice too much.

So, the heat does not go on in our house until 3 when the kids get home and then is only on until 8.

I have also turned the heat down on my water heater.

These little things have cut our heat bill down by 1/3

 

[safetymom]

When I added a 2nd story to my house in PA I added a furnace upstairs and installed a new furnace downstairs.

I doubled the size of my house and the heating bills went down. If we were on the second floor I turned the temp. down on the lower level. If I was working on the first floor I turned down the heat upstairs and the heat from the first floor rose to keep the chill off the second floor.

It worked well for me and saved quite a bit of money.

 

[FreshTressa]

When I added a 2nd story to my house in PA I added a furnace upstairs and installed a new furnace downstairs.

I doubled the size of my house and the heating bills went down. If we were on the second floor I turned the temp. down on the lower level. If I was working on the first floor I turned down the heat upstairs and the heat from the first floor rose to keep the chill off the second floor.

It worked well for me and saved quite a bit of money.

Wow, nice to know!

 

[disneysteve]

lets just say that I think you would save money any time that you turn down your thermostat during heating season.

This is the bottom line and is absolutely correct.

 

[Monte Cristo]

We have the same situation as you, one thermostat downstairs and one up. Mid last winter, I changed out the dial thermostats to the digital ones. They work great and you can set them to certain times/temps. We bring the heat up a bit in the morning a little before we get up so it's warm while we get ready for work, then goes down a few degrees during the day, then the same for after work and then down again at night. This was our first house so my first go around as a handy man....now I am not by any means useless around the house, yet I am not about to be asked to be on This Old House, but if you follow the directions, and you have some bit of skill, you can change them out.

 

[Luigi's Girl]

Okay, I had to go and get my DH because he is an HVAC technician. I am making him put his 2 cents in. Here goes... Right from the start you are saving money by having two zones. If you are able to lower the temperature in either zone your doing good. Changing your dial thermastat to a programable t-stat is a good move. Most thermastats can setback the temperature several times each day. The upstairs zone that has the bedrooms can be set to raise the temperature starting a 1/2 hour before you wake up then lower the temperature when you leave for work or school. Also a 1/2 hour before you come back, raise the temperature again. Lower the temperature 1/2 hour after you go to bed. The downstairs zone can be lowered during the night and raised before you wake up so that you can have breakfast while warm. If somone is home during the day , you can leave the downstairs zone up and the upstairs zone will most likely stay warm. If your going to buy a programable thermastat be willing to lower the temperature at least 4 degrees or it will not be worth it. Also if you have forced hot air you should have a humidifier installed so that the air doesn't dry out. If you have enough humidity in the house you will feel warmer at a lower temperature than if your house is dry. What happens if the house is dry your body will give off moisture producing a cooling sensation. Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps.

 

[mtemm]

Luigi's Girl, don't be sorry about it being long...it was very very helpful. I will definitely lower the first floor tonight. I can't really lower things during the day too much since I sah and my kids are all young and take naps during the day, but I am going to lower as much as possible and layer.

thanks so much to you and to everyone!

 

[Luigi's Girl]

Your welcome!

 

[golfgal]

Luigi's Girl, don't be sorry about it being long...it was very very helpful. I will definitely lower the first floor tonight. I can't really lower things during the day too much since I sah and my kids are all young and take naps during the day, but I am going to lower as much as possible and layer.

thanks so much to you and to everyone!

If the kids are on predictable nap schedules, you can set the programmable one to change the temp around nap time. You could have it set for 60 or what ever in the morning, have it go up to 65, which is what is recommended sleeping temp anyway, during naps and then have it go back down again. If I had a second zone for our upstairs, I probably wouldn't have that ever get above 65 personally.

 

[malibuconlee]

My DH is fairly handy, but he has installed programmable thermostats in two of our houses and he found it easy to do. They aren't very expensive. Depending on the one you get they're in the $30 range, although I'm sure there are more expensive ones.

Not sure on the specifics, but my guess would be if your DH can change an outlet or light switch, he'd be able to install the new thermostat.

Ours even tells us when to change/clean our furnace filter based on usage hours. We have a perma-filter that has to be cleaned.

 

[ead79]

My dad is an HVAC engineer, so he hooked us up with a free programmable thermostat for our apartment (he got it from a vendor they deal with). It really does give you more control over your bill since you have more control over the temperatures in your house, even when you’re not there. We keep our apartment at a certain temperature when we’re home, when we’re gone, and when we’re sleeping. The programmable thermostat lets us save money by letting the house get cold while we’re not there. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t let it get WAY too cold (or WAY too hot in the summer) when you’re gone. If the heater has to work a lot to bring the temp back up a bunch of degrees then you’ve lost your cost savings. My dad says not to let it get more than about 5 degrees from what you want it to be when you’re home.

You can get programmable thermostats at Home Depot. They are specific to what type of heating system you have (e.g. gas, electric, heat pump). They also have some that are 7-day programmable and some that are not. The 7-day programmable ones are a little more expensive, but they let you set a different program for each day of the week, which is nice since we have different schedules on Sunday, on Saturday, and on the weekdays. Also, the most expensive models have the ability to switch automatically from heating to cooling in the same day. This is especially useful in the fall and spring when you might need to heat your house in the morning and cool it at night.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Definitely lower the first floor heat. I believe the rule is you save 3% on your bill for every degree you lower it.

It is also very easy to change from a dial to a programmable thermostat. This will also save money since you will never forget to turn it back when you go to bed or are at work.

The programmable thermostats that we put in our bathrooms (had dial) cost about $30 and took DH all of 5 minutes to replace. Took me longer to program them than it did to replace them.

 

[puffkin]

My mom got my brother a programmable for X-mas and he said it was very easy to replace. Just unconnect the wires and reconnect the new wires.

Make sure you get a 5-2 or a 7 day programmable. They are a few dollars more, but then you can set programs for everyday. We have a 5-2, so we have a program for the weekdays and a different one for the weekends. It is easy to over ride the program though if you need to though. The 7 days allow you to set a program for each day of the week.