What temperature do you keep your house in the winter?

[groar]

Because of the cold temperature all over the country, the electricity consumption has been beaten in France yesterday and today, respectively : 90.200 megawatts (MW) at 7PM and 91,500 MW at 7PM. The previous record was 17 December 2007 with 89,480 MW at 6:58PM.

RTE, the society managing the very high and high voltage lines declared having anticipated the event. They asked their bigger clients with whom they have a special agreement to limit their consumption. They also bought by anticipation on different markets.

Currently in France 56 of the 58 nuclear plants and most of hydro plants are active. Tomorrow the temperature will continue to go down all over the country (night at -5 to -8°C in hotter regions/23 to 17°F) but Wednesdays' consumptions are lower than Mondays and Tuesdays. Even if they anticipated, they asked 2 specific geographical region to lower their consumption today to avoid supply problems.

My consumptions for last 2 days (kWh) with nobody at home from 9AM to 6:30PM :

day	night (off peak hours)	day (peak hours)
monday	14	29
tuesday	12	33

Note : off peak is from 10:30PM to 6:30AM.
To be compared to last week min/average/max of 9/13/16 (night) + 22/29.4/35 (day) with someone at home all day long.
Happily since Sunday we are using one ceiling fan in the living room and when nobody was at home which we didn't used last week.

Most interesting information :

• They said that a lowering of 1°C of the external temperature increases the electricity needs in France (63 millions inhabitants) by 2,100 MW, which corresponds to twice the consumption of Marseilles (826,000 inhabitants).
• They also said that lowering the internal temperature by 1°C decreases the bill by 7%.

Denis.

[groar]

Originally Posted by groar

Because of the cold temperature all over the country, the electricity consumption has been beaten in France yesterday and today, respectively : 90.200 megawatts (MW) at 7PM and 91,500 MW at 7PM. The previous record was 17 December 2007 with 89,480 MW at 6:58PM.

Record beaten despite RTE's consumption forecasting : 92,400MW at 7PM.

Our consumption at home beat a record too : 62kWh today (ie +40% to an average Wednesday) to compare to the 43 & 45 kWh during the last 2 days, but we were at home all day long today (I worked from home to avoid snowed roads and 1st day of winter bargains) while nobody was at home during daylight Monday and Tuesday.

Most interesting information :

• They said that a lowering of 1°C of the external temperature increases the electricity needs in France (63 millions inhabitants) by 2,100 MW, which corresponds to twice the consumption of Marseilles (826,000 inhabitants).
• They also said that lowering the internal temperature by 1°C decreases the bill by 7%.

Funny, today Marseilles in under 20cm (8inches) of snow which has never been seen... and people are skiing in the streets

Nowadays in France 30% of houses are using electric heating, while only 3% were 30 years ago... But this corresponds to 7% of French consumption so while France exports 12% of its production, when the temperature goes down it has to start its fuel and coal plants, then import...
Since yesterday Russia closed the gaspipes to Europe. If France doesn't depend a lot of it (15%), some Central European countries (Balkans, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungria and Bulgaria), have no gas anymore and so no heat anymore...

Denis.

[james]

We have only wood heat here. In the winter we close off most of the house and move into the large living room. Our bed is actually in between the living room and the kitchen/dining room so it is like a cabin. When the kids and wife are home I keep it 62-64 inside. When they are gone more like 56-57. I let it go out every night without stoking the fire (unless it is really cold). Then in the morning it is typically 52 and my wife hides in bed with the kids for 45 mins until it warms up. I have only heard my daughter say she was cold once. My wife finds it to be a bit of a pain though. A while back I used to live in a house with a bunch of fellow undergrads and we kept it around 53...that felt quite cold. Our house with the wood heat feels much hotter. If we are cold it is 80 deg right by the wood stove, so we just pull up a seat.

[Doofus McFancypants]

we used to have at 65F- this year we lowered to 63F and are using the celing fan more. Have not noticed it feeling colder excelt for the rew days we got near 20F in atlanta.

Wife is stay at home with kids - so there is always someone there.

[Daox]

A bit of an update here. The first year I was in the house I ran 68F while at home, 63F at night and while away. I have since changed to 68F while at home in the evening, 60F at night and in the morning before leaving for work, and 50F while away for more than a day.

I am thinking of changing it yet again to 68F while at home in the evening, 55F at night, bumping it up to ~63F in the morning, back to 55F while we're gone till the evening, and 50F while away for more than a day. This would make it more comfortable while we are awake and at home, yet potentially save some more energy. Anyone think there is any savings to be had there? I'm not sure how often the furnace kicks in overnight...

[strider3700]

I've noticed that if I let the heat drop too low at night, 20 day, 16 night type range, I appear to be using more energy then if I maintain at 18 overnight.

The reason being the 4 degree jump I ask for in the morning kicks the back up heater for the heat pump on and that is a large electric furnace. It will run for 30-40 minutes to get things back up to temp then coast along at 20. If I leave it near 18 just the heat pump runs for a few minutes every hour or so.

[RobertSmalls]

I've got mine set for 64°F during the morning and the evening, up from 62 last year. It's at 45 while I'm at work, and 62 while I sleep.

Anybody want to join me for a "furnace-free day" on some sunny day in December? I tried this on Thursday, and the temperature only dropped to 55°F in the first 14 hours, but I called it off when I came home with the traditional Thanksgiving stomachache. You'd be surprised how easy it is to stay active and comfortable in temperatures that most folks would frown upon.

Strider: my sister reports the same thing about her heat pump. I told her she needed a more advanced controller. However, if your heat pump would have to run for the better part of the day to hit its target when you come home, I guess there's not much to be gained anyway.

[Piwoslaw]

One of the first things I did after moving into my Wife's house was to buy a temperature controller. I got the second cheapest model, so there are three programmable scenarios, for each you program either "night" or "day" temperature for each hour. "Night" and "day" temps can be set up to 0.25°C (0.5°F), with either 0.5°C or 1°C tolerance. I have the latter with 16.5°C (62°F) at night and 18.5°C (65°F) during the day. Night temperature is only from 9pm to 9am (now that Dad-in-law has retired there is almost always someone at home, so slim chances for night temp during the day), but now that winter is here for good I'll have to start day temp at 8am. These temperatures and times are a compromise between the gas bill and the number of complaints I get (I'm the only one who has taken the effort to read how to program and set the controller). Whenever I know that there will be noone at home I set to night temp earlier for a few hours. Now Dad-in-Law has gone for a two week vacation and I have the house at night temp for 22 hours per day

Last year, during temperatures below -25°C (-13°F), I had to drop the day temperature by 0.5° or the furnace would not turn off.

Our t-stat is located in the living/dining room, so when there are guests, or the 170W room heater (37" LCD TV) is on, the living room is too warm to trip the furnace, so the rest of the house cools down to 15°C (59°F).

I've thought about upgrading to a controller with an outdoor temperature sensor, but someone told me I won't see much difference until the furnace gets replaced with something more efficient. So we're planning for a condensing furnace within a few years. I'd also love to split the house into two heating zones, but it's just not possible without a very expensive renovation

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

Anybody want to join me for a "furnace-free day" on some sunny day in December? I tried this on Thursday, and the temperature only dropped to 55°F in the first 14 hours, but I called it off when I came home with the traditional Thanksgiving stomachache. You'd be surprised how easy it is to stay active and comfortable in temperatures that most folks would frown upon.

Sounds like cooldown testing. I haven't done that this year, but since we woke up to -10°C (14°F) this morning I doubt I'd get too far on one coast.

[Xringer]

Because of the over-load problems with the Sanyo ASHP, when we try to turn it up in the mornings,
I left it set for 21 (69.8F) last night when I went to bed at midnight.
It was coasting along at 480 watts..

The power monitor alarm went off at 03:15 AM and was displaying 2.5 KW..
(The Sanyo is max is 2.6KW). I turned it down to 20, but the power went up to 2.7KW.
Down to 19.. 2.8KW!! I turned it off for the night..

This morning, the power line voltage is between 126 and 129 vac..
129 x 2 = 258 vac on the Sanyo.. That's not good..

The manual says "187 to 253 Available Voltage Range"

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Xringer

This morning, the power line voltage is between 126 and 129 vac.. 129 x 2 = 258 vac on the Sanyo.. That's not good..

The manual says "187 to 253 Available Voltage Range"

I think you need a big-BUTT power conditioner (not a surge protector, not a UPS). These are popular with Uber High-Fidelety geeks, also can be found in stores that might carry power conditioners for commercial computer installations.

I got mine at a Tech Surplus store for about $15 (an amazing deal, they thought it was a broken UPS). It uses no battery and weighs about 45 pounds.

Trust the iron.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker