Up and down, or......?

[shooter1201]

Do you 'yo-yo' your thermostat up and down during the summer/winter, or do you 'set it and forget it'?

During the summer, I set mine on 76* and LEAVE it. During the winter, it's set on 73* and left alone.

My dad, however, SWEARS that I'll use up to '25% less' gas heating my house if I set the thermostat on 65* at night and when I'm away, then running it up to 70* when I'm home and awake.

What's the REAL scoop?

[jellybean40]

I have electric heat, controlled in each room, so i'm always fooling with the controls. each thermostat has it's own special glitch... i need new ones...

as far as AC in the summer, i have one big unit that cools my whole house and i just keep it on Ultra Cold

i dont worry about saving money, i just want to stay comfortable. i dont normally require much heat and have it all the way off alot of the time. ...except for a nite like tonite. i also lite the fireplace alot, even tho i know it takes heat from the house.

[ 01-17-2003, 12:19 AM: Message edited by: jellybean40 ]

[Traffic_Goddess]

I fire up the coal stove...it keeps it toasty enough that I barely need to wear anything.

[Mr.Orange]

quote:

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I fire up the coal stove...it keeps it toasty enough that I barely need to wear anything.

---

Do you take off the hair extensions too?

[shooter1201]

Barely, huh? LOL

[Sig220Man]

Once I invested in a programmable thermostat, my heating and cooling bills went down significantly.

I work nights and live alone. During the winter I set my thermostat to 68 from the time I come home to just before I go to bed, at which time it drops to 65. It again kicks up to 68 around the time I normally get up, but it drops all the way to 55 (the lowest it will go) at the time I normally leave for work.

What's really nice about the particular thermostat I'm using is that it "remembers" how long it takes to reach the desired setting. So if it normally takes 30 minutes to heat the house in the morning, it will kick on the furnace 30 minutes early. The result is that I come home to a home that's already nice and warm, without having to wait for the furnace

During the summer it's set to 78 when I'm at home, but normally won't come on until the afternoon unless it's a really bad heat wave. When I'm not at home it's set to not kick on below 85 (the highest it will go). Again unless it's a really bad heat wave the A/C won't come on at this setting.

[Traffic_Goddess]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr.Orange:

quote:

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I fire up the coal stove...it keeps it toasty enough that I barely need to wear anything.

---

Do you take off the hair extensions too?

---

Mr. O,
You really need to lay off the drugs, buddy.

[Piper]

Dang, I saw "Up and Down, or......" and was thinking something else. Heh, but I digress...

I live in a damn old house and I constantly play with the thermostat. I need to move!

[Steve in PA]

And.........you were thinking.......what??????

[RachelR]

Actually I was just griping to Crazy last night about how cold it is in my apartment.. I have gas heat so I don't have to pay for it.. but I cannot set it either! Sometimes it gets reeeeeallllly cold in my apartment.

[ 01-17-2003, 08:40 AM: Message edited by: RachelR ]

[Tprspouse]

I wish I could set it and forget it, but unfortunately we don't have the most airtight house. We have air vents on the floor that go directly into the basement. Return cold air vents. If you ask me, they just leak cold air upstairs. On a normal winter night when it's about 26 as a low, we can keep it at 68 and it'll stay there. But, lately it's been -1, -6 and I've had to kick it up to 72 to stay at 68. Please spring.......HURRY THE HELL UP!!!!!!!!!

[kirch]

In my last house the furnace repair guy was trying really hard to sell us a programmable thermostat. He kept saying how much we would save in heating and cooling costs.

So I sat down with my neighbor, who was a professor at the local univiersity. One of the classes he taught was thermodynamics. In the end (after a lot of talk that was WAY over my head), he convinced me that it was a good idea. So I sprang for the programmable.

Now that we're in our second winter in our new house (new to us, 96-years-old in real terms), we realize that we're going to have to buy one again. My average winter heating bill is upwards of $250!

Programmable is the way to go. It will easily save you the money you spend on it and then some.

[207]

I have a Honeywell 3200 programable thermostat (oil heat) which has 4 different time settings. (wake up, daytime, evening, and night/sleep).
I had it all setup to what I thought would save fuel/heat being wasted. Then I got the "It's too hot", "It's too cold", "can you turn it up a little bit?", "I don't think there's enough heat in the back room".
SO, after she had another 12' of baseboard heat installed to the tune of $850.00 I just set the thermostat at 75* across the board.
BTW, programable thermostats work great and can save money.... I just not that lucky. LOL

[shooter1201]

My biggest 'problem' with my thermostat is its location. It's on the wall of my den.....6 feet away from my fireplace.