This is not entirely up to date but shows part of my system:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WiuqWrX9iTE/S_...0st%202010.png

Here you can see part of the underfloor heating, before the concrete was applied. Those two wooden square things are actually two of the three openings down to the 290 USG tanks, as they are located below the floor you see here. The light tone is because I used this picture for printing, to see where the tubing is. Carpenter needed to drill fasteners into the floor and it is not really helpful if he perforates the underfloor heating pipe!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_WiuqWrX9iTE/TN...2/IMG_1304.JPG

And in the existing floor, which was there already, awfully hard concrete had some canals made for the tubing:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WiuqWrX9iTE/TN...2/IMG_1607.jpg

I am not sure if this is getting off topic or not, but I really think the actual temperature one keep does depend on how you get the heat. Even if the air is measured at 70F, then cold walls, drafts and even the humidity means something, as well as what activity level is performed. Doing office type work requires more heat than if running around and cleaning the house and so on ...

I think you would see some savings by turning it down to 55 at night, especially if your home isn't perfectly insulated , and you live in a cold climate.

Left the Sanyo set to 21C (69.8F) overnight last night and the master bedroom stayed around 19 to 20C all night.

I found it very pleasant getting up and making my Inka beverage in a warm kitchen.

Earlier, (at 5AM) I stood in the kitchen, barefooted for about 10 minutes,
looking out the window at the fingernail Moon with Venus beside it.
Amazingly, Venus looked like small but brilliant moon .
& it was nice to be warm, while moon watching. :)


Averaging about 7.5kWh($1.57) per day. We seem to be about 1 kWh higher per day than in 2009 on similar days.
If it's only going to cost us 21 cents a night, I'm going to try it for a few more nights..

Maybe letting everything cool down at night, and then trying to heat it back up (fast) in the morning,
isn't really that efficient.?.


Cheers,
Rich

I've started a new thread to answer your question.
Does cooling your house down at night really save energy?

This relates to the thread's title:
How warm is your home? - BBC News

Interesting article, a good read. I always thought people normally kept their houses around 68(20c)-70 degrees with a few at 72(22c). It is interesting to read the average is 17.5C(63.5f) because other than myself and people on this site, I don't know anyone who keeps their house colder than 65 degrees. I don't think it would be too hard to get used to 60 degrees for someone young and in decent shape.

Personally, I've got things setup a little different at my place and during December had the house at 50 degrees (10c) and then ramped it up to 55 degrees when I was home but not sleeping or on my days off. In January I kept the house at 50 degrees with no setback and ran it up only when people were over, I got used to it. After some testing to be sure the pipes weren't getting close to freezing I ended up keeping the house at 40 degrees when not home and temps above zero and 45 degrees when sleeping and 50 when awake by the end of January.

All of February if it I was away from home and above zero outside 45 degrees and if below zero at 50 degrees, home 40 degrees unless below zero outside, I'd run the furnace for 30 minutes when taking a shower, and would only run 50 degrees when out and about with activity in the house. One day in February I used a -10 degree night as a test for design load sizing and raised the house to 80 to at least partially emulate a -20 outside and 70 degree inside temperature, I could live with a 40k 90+% efficient furnace based on the runtimes in my 2200sq ft house at those temps and if I got a 40k 2-stage I'd probably never leave lower stage unless its below -10 and I've got the temp above 60 degrees.

As far as getting used to the temperatures I've become used to 45 degrees as being 'a little chilly' with a t-shirt but comfortable to sleep in or with a sweatshirt and pants on, 50 degrees as being comfortable enough with a t-shirt and pants, 55 degrees feels like summer at 70 to me now. Going to work I'm feeling a little extra on the warm side but comfortable. I don't mind walking around the house at 40 degrees with a sweatshirt on but am comfortable in bed. ...Using a heated mattress pad and two thick comforter blankets stacked will make you sweat even at 40 degrees inside.

The article says -9 or lower, hypothermia. My house is currently 45 degrees (7c) and was 40 degrees(4.5c) earlier this morning. I'm still alive but I think that spending 4 months at consistently low temperatures is required to get used to this and also to survive in it.

...for the record, next year I'll have the ceiling/attic up to R-60+ cellulose and will probably keep the house at 65 degrees the whole winter. This year is mostly a test to see how low the bills could be for a 1 year period(probably $250 including fees and taxes for a year for the furnace and water heater). If I get a new condensing furnace(all 90%+ furnaces), I can't set the temperature below 55 degrees on setback or 60 degrees continuously according to their manuals so if I upgrade efficiency, I might be required to keep the temperature warmer just to allow my heat exchanger to operate at a safe temperature to prevent it from condescending in the primary heat exchanger. ...at least that's why I think the minimum is 55 degrees on setback or 60 continuous, not completely sure.

The thermostat is at anywhere between 65°F and 68°F.

+1 to this.

We spike it up to 68 mornings and evenings, and keep it at 60 through the night and during the day while we are away.

Forget the winter, we are still using the heat almost all the time and it's late in May..
Today, it got warm out. At long last. But, the temp just dropped pretty quickly to 57F.

http://pauland.net/tempdaycomp.png

I just ran around shutting all the doors and windows.
At least we had a few hours of fresh air.

We keep the house at 20 to 21 C.. (68 to 69.8 F).
Since we are retired now, there's almost no time of the day, when the house is unoccupied.
If we both go out, we leave it at 19 or 20, if we plan to return within a few hours.
If it's mild out and looking like it might warm up, it goes off when we leave.

In the winter ours is about 75 upstairs and 70 downstairs during the day. At night, the inside temperature drops about 15 degrees--sending the downstairs bedroom down to around 55 if we don't use heat. In that bedroom we run a space heater for about an hour to keep from getting too cold. We rarely use the central heat. We did have a terrible cold spell this past year--the worst in 100 years--but it only lasted a few days. It got down to 19 degrees one night. I was glad to know the heat still worked as we had not turned it on in a couple of years. I'm sure we set the thermostat somewhere in the 70's.

In the summer, we don't use the central air until the inside temperature is almost 90. When we use it, we set it at 87. If anyone feels hot they just go outside and water some plants. The 110 makes the 87 feel much better.

It's 66.4°F w/ Humidity: 94 % here this morning (it's 1:36 am).

It was hot earlier today when I set the AC at 75°F.
So, now that it's cooler outdoors than indoors, the AC is hardly using any power at all..
The nice part is the indoor humidity is under 50% :)
It feels like winter in here!!

Cool to see this thread revived, I'd be interested in a thread for temperature during the summer. Mines all over the place but I stay more comfortable operating the air conditioning in a more humidity-reducing way. I'll post more detail if there is a thread for summer temps.

If my house was subjected to 19 degrees I could still leave my furnace off for multiple days without fear of a pipe bursting. Wouldn't be comfortable but it would work. Mild winter, that would be nice. Don't get me wrong, I'm from Minnesota and I love snow.

i was barely even inside the heated house for those three nights-- i was outside trying to save the trees. i sat with my little fire pit apologizing to the tangelo and blood orange trees for the horrendous conditions :p. it was the first time i had ever tried to build or maintain a fire. you can imagine how good i was at it lol!

i managed to save almost everything except all the veggies and most of my pineapple. the veggies were pretty young so i just replanted but i was pretty upset about the pineapple.

You might want to plan on doing the same tree rescue this winter too.
Just in case you get another extra cold winter cold snap..

Google news about the "Maunder minimum". We could be looking at a little delay in global warming.

I'm betting New England is going to be seeing deep snow for a few more winters.
Our snow thrower is going to need replacement this fall. It got over-worked the last few years.
I hate to spend money on gas-hog machines. (Well, maybe a motorcycle). :p

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...0slot/z030.jpg

Maybe we can have the Winter Olympics in Boston sometimes? :rolleyes:

yeah, i will definitely be more prepared this time around. i added clay pot irrigation to several trees this year. i plan on lining them with plastic bags and filling them with hot water if it gets cold like that again. i also discovered the rice sock trick the last night of it this year too. i will have rice socks ready to go for sure.

the other thing is i actually own enough blankets now. crazy tree hugger i know!

Once I wasn't careful and it got up to 79 during the winter :D Ah...the joys of wood heat. Usually we try to keep it around 75-anymore is a waste of wood. Plus neither of us sleep well when its too warm so we'll usually crack a bedroom window.

all these winter discussions are so refreshing. i haven't turned off the air conditioner in several days now. it feels so different with the humidity. i just checked the weather. at 10 pm it's still 100 degrees here with 20% humidity.

Citing Old Tele Man's signature:

"DRY heat!"
 

When I was a little boy living in South Texas, I would wake up on hot dry summer mornings,
and find a coating of dry white power on the inside of my arms at the elbows.
It was salt. I would bush it off and go swimming.. :)

It was so dry most of the time, your sweat would dry up instantly.
I sometimes notice my hat-band was moist and sometimes,
a little sweat on my face while eating Mexican food. :p

my friend's response to but it's a dry heat:

"So is my oven!"

I wish I could say that, mine is a natural gas oven, therefore there is condensation inside the oven itself as it humidifies and heats my house during BOTH winter and summer. If I want a frozen pizza, I put a Pizzazz pizza cooker on the back porch so my house doesn't get hotter or more humid from using an oven during the air conditioning season. Works very well for me and does a good job of keeping the cooling bill from my inefficient 25 year old A/C unit down. I do the same thing with a toaster oven for small stuff.

it's so great to hear other people do these things too :thumbup:.

I'd say anywhere between 57-60. After I changed over to the heat pump it can't keep up after January hits so I just set it to 74 and let the dissipate out to the ends of the house. We just wear a base layer of smart wool and its completely fine :D

You might try closing off the parts of the house that don't absolutely need to be heated. Then your struggling heat pump might be able to pull the grade.

I only heat the kitchen when I'm preparing a meal or eating, otherwise, I close it off, and let it go cold. Less work for the refrigerator.

I don't heat the bathroom either (See AC Hacker's Mini-Loo). When I take a shower, the hot water heats the bathroom. I do think that a winter-time electrically-warmed toilet seat is in my future, however.

I have stopped heating my bedroom in the winter. I found that an electric blanket (actually electric mattress pad) makes the situation much more palatable. I turn on the bed warmer a few hours before I retire, and then when I get into a nice warm bed, I turn the bed warmer off. I have lots of warm covers and I have found that I sleep much better that way. The cost of electricity for the bed warmer for a few hours a day is really cheap... way cheaper than heating the whole room 24/7.

BTW, I keep the rooms that I choose to heat, around 67F. It has been interesting to see how the heat gradually flows into the other non-heated rooms, on its way to the great heat sink in the sky... kind of like recycling heat.

Best,

-AC

Main living areas during the day are at 21c|69.8f after bedtime, 20c|68f


"It has been interesting to see how the heat gradually flows into the other non-heated rooms, on its way to the great heat sink in the sky..."

It does seem a little odd. So much heat going sideways. Maybe it's the light duty door?
We have one small bedroom that gets zero heat, it's door is closed 24/7.
But leakage and it's daily solar gain keep it above 50F all winter!

I checked the master bedroom temp this morning and it was 63F over in the far corner.
We keep our bedroom door closed until around midnight, when I go to bed.
So, it warms up for about 8 hours, before it's closed off again.
If it's a cold night, I'll crack the door open a few inches around 8 or 9 PM, to take the chill out.

My wife can't sleep if it's a little too warm (which feels cool to me), but many times,
I'll wake up cold, because she's taken all the blankets! :eek:

At the risk of looking sexist.........this is very typical of almost every woman i have known. I am trying to do my best to not heat the un-used rooms but she of the cold fingers/toes won't let me go too far.......bummer.

Hahaha!
I have to admit she was right about the Christmas Eve party, 18 guests in a house this size,
means not much heat needs to be pumped in. :)

The blanket thing is a little odd, since she has suffered from chronic hot flashes for the last 15 years.
So, when I jump into bed late at night during the winter. She's emitting about 700 BTUh and I'm toasty in no time. :p

Sometimes, when she's outdoors, surveillance satellites report her location as a forest fire.. :rolleyes:

I used to set my thermostat to 58 when I was gone 63 at night 68 morning/evening when I was home. Propane costs too much. My thermostat has been set to off for about 3 years now. I still spent too much using electric heaters so this year I gave them away. The upstairs bathroom is heated with a baseboard heater to 65 - 67. My son's room also has one and is kept about 68. I use a heated mattress pad in my room. The blower on the furnace stays on to circulate and the rest of the house is whatever the wood stove gets it too. Lately its been around 20 F outside at night and 34 in the day. Even though I haven't been getting up at night to put wood in its been about 63F when I wake up and get home from work. I measured the temp of the stove itself this morning at about 120 with enough coals left to restart a fire.

So your furnace fan is going 24/7? Do you know how much power your furnace blower uses? When my furnace is on it is pulling at least 400 watts. If you run that all day that is almost 10kWh. You might consider putting a timer on it, or finding a way to reduce the motor's speed? Sizable gains to be had if that is the case!

Yeah I have a lot of room for improvement in this old house. I've thought about the power usage of the fan. For now it's a huge improvement over the 2 -3 1500 watt heaters that used to run almost 24/7. I used to spend $350 - $550 a month during the winter on electricity. Before that I spent $250 a month electric and about $2,000 in one year for propane. So far this year $200 a month electricity and the wood I've burned up to now only cost me the gas for my truck to haul it and for the chainsaw I cut it with.

What I'd like to do is have the blower come on at a set temperature. It can already do that in heat mode. I just have to find a way to bypass the furnace trying to ignite and burn propane. Seems like it should be easy enough. Maybe I can spend one day figuring it out since I have a couple days off for the holidays.

If I might poke around your business a bit, I think the best way to turn it on/off would be to setup a small controller for it. Perhaps we should start a new thread since its not on topic for this thread, but I'll outline the idea. Basically, you want two temperature sensors. One goes in a colder area of the house, and one in a known warm area. When the cold temperature sensor is X degrees cooler than the warm sensor, you turn the fan on to equalize the heat. Once it is within a degree or so, you turn it back off. Basically a thermal differential controller for your furnace blower. Something like this wouldn't be hard to setup or even buy for a relatively cheap amount, and would pay for itself very quickly.

That would be perfect for my setup. My wood stove is in the kitchen and the living room on the other end of the house is the cold area I'm trying to get the heat to. At times it could be 85+ degrees in the kitchen and could be 60 in the living room without the furnace circulating. I'm just starting to poke around in electronics and I don't know much. Any help you can give on the idea would be greatly appreciated.

This discussion continued here: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/applia...ontroller.html

66F or 67F at the tstat...but the temp varies a lot by bedroom/kitchen/etc... lots of warm/cold spots in this old box. Kitchen can be near 70F on sunny winter days (winter sun exposure), while the north facing bedrooms are chilly all day. I burn natural gas and my bills run at most $150 (total/winter) and that is with an energy hog 50 gallon electric water hater and 3 little kids who like to waste hot water. 3 bedroom ranch, uninsulated cinderblock basement, walls with maybe an inch of old fiberglass/tar paper insulation.

Our house gets up to about 78 at night (80 in the loft) and drops to around 68-72 by morning depending on how cold it gets outside and how late the last logs are tossed on the fire.

I'm updating things since I just turned the heat on for the first time last week. I've changed my heating scheme a little bit. It is now 70F when I'm at home at night and on the weekends. It is 60F during the night and morning. I do not turn the heat on when I get up in the morning before work. I did notice a bump in my usage going to this as I did it at the end of last year.

I also just added a duct to my sunroom while remodeling my office. That is going to mess with the vent settings and make me re-tweak things.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...-house-006-jpg

for reference: my electricity bill is around 68CAD/2 mnths, typical daily usage around 12kW, with winter time both my master bedroom + kids room will have a bit of supplementary heat from electric radiant oil heater (mine is on timer on low (500watts), turns on @ 4am and off @ 6:30am only). With electrical heater on low during bed time during winter months, electrical bill would be within 76~83CAD/2mnths.

(*of course, electrical range for cooking as well*)

The whole house (2k sq ft) is heated by natural gas--radiant hydronic in-floor heating, 3 zones. I have them all locked down to 21C (my wifey and I would suffer from chill-related headaches if temp indoor falls below 18C). During the coldest winter mnths (outdoor temp typical -2C daytime, -6~-10C nitetime, our natural gas heating billing can go as high as 183CAD/mnth, with nominal average (winter mnths) around 138CAD/mnth. This also includes hot water heater tank (recently replaced with a GeeEee 12yr 40gal tank, natural gas..high efficiency storage type).

Summer time: electricity typically around 68CAD/2mnths, natural gas (hotwater only) can go as low as 38CAD/mnth.

Q.

I would look again at the GeeEee water heater for its efficiency rating. Many people think that it is high efficiency because it is wall vented and it is not. It is about the same 55% as a natural draft model. What it gains from not venting all the time up a open chimney, it loses by use of a venter motor.

Thanks for the hint, Mikesolar.

Fact is, the high efficiency part of the GeeEee heater is not defined by me, but their classification makes it qualify for our local natural gas company energy rebate (which I got) I know they aren't that "efficient" but compared to my previous 6yr warranty A.O Smith "skinny", this thing does save me some $$.

It could also be a myth or some kind but the local installers and market do not carry/sell any power-vent type hot water storage heater (none that I've seen so far, but crossing the border down-south..I've seen some). That would raise the efficiency a few more points.

Lastly: I did experienced backdrafting shortly after replacing the A.O Smith skinny with GeeEee....(both water heater tank and radiant boiler shares the same rooftop exhaust to the outside)...and that was attributed to less standby heating loss (smaller pilot light?) to that of AO smith skinny, for there's absolutely no change on the radiant floor boiler side.

Q.

I keep the house at 60*F when at home and 58 when away and night.

At night I have a portable electric oil radiator in my room. Turn it on low it consumes about 8kWh per night. After 8 hours the room temp is about 70ish. I only use it to help make mornings easier. I turn it off when I get up then open the door. I figure the extra heat can help keep the rest of the house until it escapes. ECAS says I use an average of 17.9kWh per day total down from an average of 21.8kWh per day when just using house heat.

Man... I need more insulation...