Stop Adjusting the Thermostat: Why I Don’t Turn Down The Heat at Night
By M. Beddingfield, December 15th, 2008 | 37 Comments »
I tend to be a bit bullheaded at times. Well, maybe more than a bit, but just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do. This is my opinion from my own experience and I suggest you do your own research to find out what works best for you and how your heating bill reacts to different adjustments.
Take the advice that you hear everywhere about turning down your thermostat. Many people turn down the thermostat when they leave for work or are away from home for a day. No one will be there to get cold, so why leave the heater running? It doesn’t make sense to heat an empty house. That’s where I say they’re wrong. It does make sense to heat an empty house because it’s easier for your heater to maintain a certain temperature than to spend an hour or more trying to bring the heat up to a comfortable level. Making your heater work so hard will wear it out much quicker than letting it do its job and maintain the heat in your house.
I’ve often heard people say they turn the heat down at night. Why? Don’t people get cold at night too? Isn’t night often the coldest time? If you are turning the heat down for your own personal comfort then that’s a personal preference, but if you are turning it down to save money, then I must ask, why? Why suffer being cold for the first hour you are up and about every morning? Why make your heater work so hard to heat up your house? Why not just set the thermostat at a comfortable level and leave it there?
In the winter time, our thermostat is set at 68 degrees. That is our comfort level. Yours may be more or less. If we get chilled, we snuggle under blankets or put on a sweater. If we get hot, we strip down to t-shirts. We have hard wood floors that tend to be cold, so we wear socks and slippers. We also have numerous throw rugs that help to keep our feet warmer.
I’m not saying to put your thermostat at 80 degrees. I know some cold-natured folks that would still feel chilly at 80 degrees. I’m saying that if you set your thermostat to a reasonable temperature, and leave it there, then you can regulate your own body heat by adding or subtracting clothing. By the way, some experts say that 72 degrees is the optimum ambient room temperature in both winter and summer. This philosophy works in the summer too. We set our air conditioner at 78 degrees and leave it there.
Our heating and air conditioning bills are usually less than our neighbors who have houses that are very similar in size and construction to ours. They, like so many people, adjust the thermostat several times a day according to how they might feel at any given minute. Here’s a novel idea, stop adjusting your environment to fit you and allow your body to adjust to your environment. The human body is a marvelous piece of machinery, it adapts quite well to temperature changes.
No one person is the same when it comes to comfort levels. In an average family of four, at any given time, one will be hot, one will be cold, one will be comfortable and the last one won’t notice the temperature. By setting the thermostat to a reasonable level and leaving it there, each person can adapt by adding or subtracting clothing. Your heater will thank you and perform its job longer and more efficiently because you are letting it do what it is designed to do, maintain a certain temperature.
If you are concerned with your heating bill, try setting the temp just a few degrees less than you would normally set it. Allow your body time to get used to the new setting. Leave the thermostat alone and you might be surprised at your savings.
I agree with you and so does my husband. Our thermostat stays at a steady 65 degrees and when we have company we turn it up to 67 or 68. We feel just fine at 65. We have lots of warm comforters on our bed and we keep blankets in the living room and cozy up when we watch tv. Our kids’s rooms are upstairs and seem to stay more warm in general.
We are comfortable AND we are saving energy and money!
I generally agree with your posts, but not this one.
For one, I would disagree that a heater needs to work “harder” to bring a house up to a higher temp in the morning than if the setting was constant. Two reasons here… First, while the heater will definitely be on more during the morning “recovery period” It will be off, likely for a longer period, in the evening as the house is allowed to cool down. Second, keeping the house at a higher temp through the night causes more mini-cycles as the heat come on and goes off. Like many machines i suspect that this cycling is the source of wear and tear.
You asked if people get cold at night and if it is generally colder at night. Yes and yes, but this is not reason to leave your thermostat set high. For one, the only time that 90% of someone’s body is routinely covered in three layers of insulation including a down comforter, is at night, so they’d be less likely to catch a chill. Second, from a comfort point of view, the temp outside and the thermostat setting are not related. If you set your thermostat at 68 to be comfortable, then it doesn’t matter if it is 10 or 45 degrees outside. Oh, yea I think it probably also makes a difference that a person is unconscious for most of the night which makes the sacrifice almost unnoticeable. Lastly, there is no need to be cold in the morning if you set your programmable thermostat to revert to a daytime setting an hour before you wake up.
Lastly, an adjustable thermostat can really save you money. Check out the following link to calculate how much you could save:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/cool_change/downloads/CalculatorProgrammableThermostat.xls
Wow.. the only sound advice in this post is the last paragraph! I guess the first paragraph is accurate too.
Horrible stuff.. readers, please ignore the ignorant.
I agree with Bill. You’re info about the heater having to work harder if you turn it down during the day is simply wrong. This bogus advice appears year after year but it is not true. If you want to save energy, turn down the thermostat. As for wearing out the heater, that’s false, too. Your heater actually runs much more efficiently when running for an extended period rather than in short bursts. It is those short cycles that cause more wear and tear.
It’s kind of funny. We bought a programmable thermostat but since my wife and children are home during the day we actually have 4 time zones per day programmed to the same temperature and have a M-F and then a S-S setting of that.
I agree to a very small extent. My experience is it cost about the same to heat the house to 60 degrees as it does to 68, so we just heat it 68. If we turn it to 70 it does seem to run a lot more, so 68 is kind of the sweet spot.
Why? The reason for us is we like it cold at night and we do turn off the heat at night. So if we kept it at 60 inside and turned it off at night, it would drop into colder territory. So we would pay about the same to turn it to 60 every morning anyway.
I also agree with you if we leave the house for like an hour. We just leave on the heat – certainly cheaper to maintain for short periods of time.
Otherwise, I disagree. If you live in a very cold area, I could buy that perhaps that would wear out your heater a little faster. Our heater really doesn’t work that hard, so eh. It generally heats up the house in the morning and is off most of the day and night, so I am kind of with Bill on that part. If we kept it on all day at a constant temp it would cycle on and off a lot.
I have to agree with Bill on this. I believe it’s the short cycling that wears out the furnace and uses more fuel. We always turn the heat down at night and when we’ll be away from home for more than a couple of hours.
I’m afraid this posting leaves me with more questions than answers at the end. Are there any studies from Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) organizations that support this theory? Do any heater manufacturers advertise this theory as being true? The only evidence you give is comparing your bills with your neighbors. What range of temperatures do they use (yours is 68 and 78)? Are you comparing gas bills, electric bills, propane? You may be onto something solid, but I need more evidence before jumping on board.
Lori, and all, here is what the US Dept. of Energy says about programmable thermostats. According to them, you can save up to 10%/year on heating and cooling costs by turning down the thermostat at night or when you are away from home.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/thermostats.html
Here’s another article:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-thermostat-tips-save-money.html
And here is a physicist explanation of why you should turn down the thermostat. Read the cartoon and then click on discussion.
http://www3.amherst.edu/~physicsqanda/Thermostat.htm
All the experts! Shut up! You save about 6 dollars a month to be uncomfortable in your own home. Great, and no thanks. I like comfort. Dufuses!
Uh, what are you backing your assertion on? Can you provide proof that it does take more to heat a cold house then it does to maintain the heat?
The physics are pretty straight forwards (and someone can correct me if I am wrong) but once your house has lost a certain amount of heat (the rate of the heat loss slows the temperature difference with the outside drops), it can’t lose anymore heat, but constantly heating it to a set temperature means that you are constantly losing heat at a high rate.
My explanantion probably makes no sense, but here is a link to a site that explains it better…
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cooling.html
The explanation is for leaving the A/C unit on when you are not at home, but the physics are the same (in reverse).
“Heat goes to where it’s not. That’s why heat from outside goes into your cooler home. With the AC off, at some point your house will be so hot it can’t absorb any more heat. When you come home and turn the AC on, the AC removes all that heat.
But if the AC is on when you’re gone, then you’ve turned your house into a heat magnet. But keeping it artificially cool, there’s no limit to the amount of heat it can absorb. It can always absorb more heat. And your AC has to remove that heat constantly. Your AC kicks in and removes some of that heat, then the house is cooler so it sucks in more heat from outside, so your AC kicks in again and removes that heat, and so on.
This means that throughout the day, your house has absorbed way more than one houseful of heat. And your AC had to remove it all. By contrast, with the AC off all day, then it has to remove just one houseful of heat when you come home and turn it on.
Let’s say you leave the AC off, and your house absorbs 20k BTU’s of heat and then stops, because that’s all it can absorb.
Now let’s say that you have the AC running instead. The house absorbs 5k BTU’s of heat, so the AC kicks in and removes it. Then it absorbs another 5k BTU’s, and your AC kicks in and removes that. Repeat that process several times during the day.
The actual numbers will vary, and I haven’t tested this to see exactly how much the penalty for leaving the AC on during the day is, but there is zero question that running the AC all the time uses more energy than turning it on when you get home. This is not a gray area, it’s simple physics, and no person with any knowledge of this subject disputes it. Running the AC when you’re not home wastes energy, period.”
@rod gozinya
Your comment is a great glimpse of what is wrong with our current ‘me’ society. Just because you can afford it, doesn’t make it right. You have a responsibility to lower your impact on the environment. If not then we can all drive giant 100 litre Hummers and leave them idling so we can be comfortable – as long as I can afford the gas! Big deal it’s only a couple of bucks!
Big picture. Millions of people saving $6 a month, or even reducing emissions by 10% would have massive implications on our world.
So, M. Beddingfield, have you read any of these comments?
Do you have ANY urge to correct your ignorant post? Or better yet, remove it completely?
Yes Stephen Waits, I have taken the time to read the comments. I realize that this is a controversial subject, but everyone is entitled to an opinion. Even professionals who work with heat systems will have different opinions as to what works best. I simply wrote what works for me. Perhaps I have a different system than others?
I noticed that all who replied seemed to dwell on what they disagreed with. The point was made in the article that you shouldn’t keep adjusting the thermostat every time you felt cold or hot. Why do you think businesses have locks on their thermostats?
Just because you disagree with something doesn’t mean you should put the person down and call them ignorant. This post opened up a discussion and that’s a good thing.
First of all, these aren’t opinions. We’re talking in facts here. It’s simple science.
Second, we’re disagreeing with you because you are flat out wrong. You’re now acting like you said “you shouldn
http://www.greatinspector.com/faq-hvac-thermostat-set.html
OMFG.. joe & bubba’s hvac says something, so it must be so!
Look, the links have been posted.. you clearly haven’t read them, or your ego won’t let you admit you were wrong.
Meanwhile, you’re hurting people who may read this post. You’ll cost them money.
SAVING ADVICE.. not living up to the name.
Arguing with ignorant people is a waste of time. I tried to help, for the sake of others who may read the post, and sadly join the ranks of the uninformed. I’m done here, this is my last post on the subject.
Best of luck to you M. Beddingfield.
“Why do you think businesses have locks on their thermostats?”
There are a couple of main reasons for this and they have nothing to do with the topic of this thread.
1. Business owner doesn’t want every random employee adjusting the temp up and down throughout the day just because he or she happens to be hot or cold. Owner wants to set one temp that is comfortable for most people and leave it at that.
2. Business has a programmable thermostat and owner doesn’t want people messing with it and overriding the programming.
3. People screw up. They raise the heat because they’re cold and forget to turn it back down so the heat ends up blasting all night, resulting in a huge bill. Or they turn it down because they’re warm and forget to turn it back up so the next morning you arrive and it is freezing in the office.
I was going to look for examples of other ignorant posts on the internet to help prove a point to the ‘author’. I figured I’d show some links to people who think the world is still flat, and people who think the president is an alien, and the earth is the center of the universe etc. Sadly, there is no shortage of misinformation on the internet. Now I am depressed.
I hope people who read the article take the time to read the comments and then take the time to figure out the laws of physics. Better yet, I hope the author takes the advice of previous posts and updates this article.
There’s nothing wrong with admitting you made a mistake. I used to think that ‘revving’ (spell?) my car engine made the heater warm up faster. I learned. I’m smarter for it…
I keep my programmable thermostat at 72 Fahrenheit when the humans are gone, 74 when the humans are awake, and 72 overnight. However, it is hard to leave one
I have my room ‘stat set to 19, and if chilly I put another layer of clothes on. I turned the ‘stat down on my hot water – if you think about it, most people add cold water to a bath etc to bring the temperature down, so why heat up water so it’s piping hot, just to cool it down again? There could be an issue with Legionnaire’s disease, but as long as the water temp. is at 55 to kill any Legionnaires disease bacteria [though this is mainly a large scale water system problem, rather than domestic], you’re okay.
The physics is straightforward. The rate of heat conducted across a boundary is proportional to the difference of temperature. That means that when the thermostat is set high when you aren’t there, or covered with blankets you lose more heat per hour than if you had the interior temperature set lower. That is a fact, not an opinion.
Would insulating the crawlspace of a house help with the floors being cold or would they be cold regardless?
I agree with Bill and others here. Frankly this is awful advice, for saving money anyway. There are numerous studies on this, and I’ve also done my own tests at home. Setting the temperature lower at night and when away saves money. Maybe it’s not true with a really old inefficient furnace, but even mine which is 5 years old, in my 60 year old house with inadequate insulation, saves money turning it down. Yes it takes longer to heat it from 55 to 65 (about where I keep it) than it does to go from 63-64 to 65 if maintaining a temperature, but the furnace was off for such a long period of time that it more than saved the natural gas expended in catching up, plus wear and tear, etc. Also, your body temperature drops when you sleep, so you dont need it as warm to be comfortable. It is why most people start out comfortable or cold, become hot, and then maybe back to comfortable or cold again through their sleep cycle. Im not sure if the reverse is true with central air conditioning, but I suspect it is.
Not to beat on a dead horse, but this post is runs against well-understood science. Publishing incorrect facts and calling them opinions doesn’t mean it isn’t misinformation.
Believe it or not, I’m a physicist. I have a good understanding of there is NO WAY that maintaining your house at a higher temperature, rather than turning the heat down when not needed, is more cost-effective in terms of fuel usage. Fact. Not opinion.
I only stumbled on this blog because, as a new home owner, I wanted to know if there is any reason, except for the possibility of freezing pipes, I shouldn’t just turn my heat off when I don’t need it. Possible wear-and-tear on the furnace, etc.
Although I think Stephen Waits could have been less belittling in his replies, I agree that the author should either correct or remove this post.
There is no sense in belittling anyone here. I was glad to see all the opinions on the subject. My wife and I are always in disagreement on the thermostat. Ours is 3/4 of the way up the wall so it always is at least 4 degrees different from the floor temp. I like it set at 69 and my wife thinks 65 is ok. I have diabetes and the extra warmth helps a lot. We turn it down to 65 during the day when we are at work. My question is how much difference is there between 69 and 65 in a months time on the heat bill. I don’t think that there will be much difference as rod gozinya noted with the $6 a month reply. At least I would be comfortable in my own home. I turn it up and she turns it down because holy heaven above, we don’t need it 70 degrees in our home even if it is 10 below outside. Right now it is 67 in our home and I have long johns on and a big comfter on also. When your hands get cold when you typing – It is time to turn up the heat!
This is a classic example of why the internet is dangerous. Not only do you get backwards advice that will cost you money, but you get it from someone who has absolutely no idea what he is taking about, yet he’ll swear up and down that he’s right.
Furnaces don’t ‘run hard’ when they are raising the temperature of a house many degrees. Furnaces are not like car engines – they run at one ‘speed.’ To raise the temperature of a house ten degrees, a furnace runs exactly the same way, but longer. If any harm is done to a furnace, it would be through cycling on and off – and a furnace cycles on and off more often when you keep the thermostate set high at one temperature.
Set your thermostat where you want, but don’t look to this article for good advice.
Heres the professional reason it saves money. As a pipe fitting and maintenance technicians sister I will tell you. Your pipes get cold you waste heat heating your pipes back up. Not that this shouldn’t have been common sense.
Take this article down. It’s misinformation.
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12720
I say keep the post up.
The author has OBVIOUSLY been proven wrong. I have been researching this exact topic and found all the resources I needed by reading through all the comments.
Of course, it does make the author look completely ignorant.
I started my c/h off last autumn [2010] in October, a month earlier than usual. Due to the colder than normal winter, I left the c/h on 24/7 and have clearly used less oil than the previous winter [2009/10], when the boiler was off overnight. I suppose ‘tickling’ the system, saves heating it up from stone cold every day.
I think the real lesson in this article is to always read the opinion section and don’t just read the article only. It’s amazing how the collective brain power can steer the ship toward the truth. Whether it was any intention of the author, I think the lively discussion that ensued was just the sort of thing we need pay attention to. I also get a lot of opinions from HVAC contractors and I can’t always tell whether its bologna or reality. I admit I’m no expert. No one needs to belittle anyone. On a different note, does in-rush current of heat pump caused by cycling on and off make a big difference to the heating bill? I thought even though in-rush is 10x normal amperage, that it lasts for a short while so you make up the difference. Any thoughts?
This post is correct. If you leave your home for the day and turn down the temp to 55, not only is the air in the house cool now but this also allows the walls to cool down. To reheat the walls takes a very long time and this is where the problem lies and people get confused. Think about it, the walls of your house go down to 55 and then you walk in and turn the heat up to 70, now the furnace kicks in and the furnace after working an hour to get the air warm stops, the cold walls generate more cold air and the furnace needs to quickly kick back on. The walls and structure take a very long time to heat up, but once they are warm they stay warm, trying to get them warm again takes a long time. Leaving the temp at 68 may get you upset because your furnace will run and the temp will go up to 70 or more when it shuts off, but if you leave it at 68 it will stop doing that because the most it will have to run is 5 mins at a time. Trust the man on this post, he is so right.
Danny I’m sorry, but you’re incorrect. I suggest taking a course in thermodynamics if you are having trouble or just read the first chapter out of a thermodynamics book.
Check out this link from Union Gas. They say that turning down the thermostat will save energy and money.
http://www.uniongas.com/residential/energyconservation/managebill/tstat.asp