So long as he reads the meter after his house i swarmed up, it doesn't matter. But it should be well after it has warmed up as lingering cold spots away from the thermostat will have the effect you suggest. It would be better to read the meter at the same time every night, right before the setback.
Hi Doug,
I don't know with certainty, but I do know it to be less than an hour.
All the best,
Please be careful on high wind load, very cold days - I would suggest that if you know that the next day is going to be that way you not do the setback.
I have had Geothermal for more than 20 years, in the early winter and in the spring, set back saves a lot of money, but from about the middle of December to the End of February here in Michigan, we do not do a setback, since the secondary electric elements cost way more than the savings.
I am looking at adding solar thermal heating the south wall of the house next summer to further reduce the winter heating bill. I have 60 feet of southern facing wall that is in direct sunlight almost all of the day. That should give me a good thermal boost on even partly cloudy days.
Doug
That's an effect if compares only one to the other. The point is, however, that the time integral demand over the days w/ setback is lower than without. Over a period of time when the average daily temp and wind differences average out, the net will still be less with less demand as a simple heat balance will show.
The better overall test would indeed, be to run for a longer period of time at each operating mode and then compensate for the correlating variables. Of course, the ideal test would be to hold the environment fixed... :)
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OP has stated a zillion times already he has no aux heating and the unit is sized to handle it w/o. So the aux heat is not an issue for him...
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Hi Doug,
Your offer good thoughts for the general geo situation, but we do not have resistance auxiliary heat in either of our two buildings. Our systems were designed for 20 year cold days.
All the best,
Now a zillion and one...
All the best,
Here in New Hampshire, we often try...
All the best,
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