Thermostat setting ?

I have a two story colonial that was built in ~1920 or so. Has a gas fired boiler with cast iron radiators. I have been turning the thermostat down about 4-5° each night and leaving it at that setting until I return home from work the next afternoon. On the weekends we turn it up when we rise, and back down 4-5° at night. It takes about 1-2 hours to bring the temp. back up those 4-5°

I'm wondering if I might be better off just leaving it at one setting? I couldn't find much info on this...maybe not looking in the right place.

Reply to
MyDixieWrecked
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You could buy a set back thermostat that will do all this automatically. Honeywell has the easiest ones to use, others are cheaper. Make sure it's meant for hot water rads. It can even start up prior to 'wake-up' time to make sure the home is warm.

Dave

Reply to
Dave L.

Greetings,

You would be better off with a programmable thermostat.

Hope this helps, William

Reply to
William Deans

The recovery time for five degrees seems like a lot. Has the house been insulated and the heater upgraded? My heater can recover that in about 30 minutes or less.

Consider a programmable thermostat. You can have it raise the temperature before you arrive home or get up in the morning. In any case, you are still saving. I don't recall where I saw it, but there are available figures on what you can save.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Get a programmable thermostat. It will pay for itself.

Reply to
Phisherman

Energy wise you are doing the right thing. A programmable thermostat will allow the system to be up to temperature by the time you get home. That 1-2 hours seems like it is a lot. I don't know water based heat systems, buy you may want to check into that issue.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Hot water cast iron radiator systems are very slow, both to heat up and to cool down. Depending on how high a temperature the boiler aquastat is set for, 1 - 2 hours may not be unusual in a non-tight house. Although our house is older than the 1920s, I assume our heating distribution system with large cast iron radiators dates back to about then. We have our thermostat set to end the offset about 75 minutes before we get up. And we have it set back at night at least two hours before going to bed.

Reply to
Marilyn and Bob

MyDixieWrecked:

M > I have a two story colonial that was built in ~1920 or so. Has a gas fired M > boiler with cast iron radiators. I have been turning the thermostat down M > about 4-5° each night and leaving it at that setting until I return home M > from work the next afternoon. On the weekends we turn it up when we rise, M > and back down 4-5° at night. It takes about 1-2 hours to bring the temp. M > back up those 4-5° M > M > I'm wondering if I might be better off just leaving it at one setting? I M > couldn't find much info on this...maybe not looking in the right place.

I would think part of the answer is are you comfortable during the re-heating period. If it is occurring during your "wake up period" then might no be too bad. (IOW you have a setback thermometer, it starts to heat the house back up at 5 a.m. and your alarm is set for 6 a.m.)

We have a digital thermostat and find turning down the thermostat one degree at night is sufficient and confortable (from 68ø to 67ø). ..FWIW the non-digital thermostats (the ones with the mercury bubble attached to a coiled spring) have around a 6ø 'knee' and can be extremely inaccurate.

- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

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Reply to
barry martin

And you might save more with a larger capacity furnace (or AC) that lets the house cool longer to a lower setback temp before it must begin to warm it up again.

A more programmable "comfortstat" with a forced-air system might save even more energy by only starting the warmup when you get home, with a higher initial room air temp to precompensate for initially colder walls, according to the new ASHRAE 55-2004 comfort standard, as in the warmup schedule below.

Nick

10 DEF FNPS(T)=EXP(16.6536-4030.183/(TA+235))'sat vapor pressure, kPa 20 VEL=100/196.9'air velocity (m/s) 30 RH=40'relative humidity (%) 40 ICL=.155*1.1'clothing resistance (m^2K/W) 50 M=1.4*58.15'metabolic rate (W/m^2) 60 CROOM=2000'room thermal capacitance (Btu/F) 70 UROOM=1.5*1200'room cap airfilm conductance (Btu/h-F) 80 TRF=55'inital mean radiant temp (F) 85 TAF=80'initial air temp est (F) 90 FOR MWARM=0 TO 90'warmup time (minutes) 95 TRF=TRF+(TAF-TRF)*UROOM/60/CROOM'new radiant temp (F) 96 TR=(TRF-32)/1.8'mean radiant temp (C) 110 TA=(TAF-32)/1.8'air temp (C) 120 PA=RH*10*FNPS(TA)'water vapor pressure, Pa 150 FCL=1.05+.645*ICL'clothing factor 160 HCF=12.1*SQR(VEL)'forced convection conductance 170 TAA=TA+273'air temp (K) 180 TRA=TR+273'mean radiant temp (K) 190 TCLA=TAA+(35.5-TA)/(3.5*(6.45*ICL+.1))'est clothing temp 200 P1=ICL*FCL:P2=P1*3.96:P3=P1*100:P4=P1*TAA'intermediate values 210 P5=308.7-.028*M+P2*(TRA/100)^4 220 XN=TCLA/100 230 XF=XN 240 XF=(XF+XN)/2'natural convection conductance 250 HCN=2.38*ABS(100*XF-TAA)^.25 260 IF HCF>HCN THEN HC=HCF ELSE HC=HCN 270 XN=(P5+P4*HC-P2*XF^4)/(100+P3*HC) 280 IF ABS(XN-XF)>.00015 GOTO 240 290 TCL=100*XN-273'clothing surface temp (C) 300 HL1=.00305*(5733-6.99*M-PA)'heat loss diff through skin 310 HL2=.42*(M-58.15)'heat loss by sweating 320 HL3=.000017*M*(5867-PA)'latent respiration heat loss 330 HL4=.0014*M*(34-TA)'dry respiration heat loss 340 HL5=3.96*FCL*(XN^4-(TRA/100)^4)'heat loss by radiation 350 HL6=FCL*HC*(TCL-TA)'heat loss by convection 360 TS=.303*EXP(-.036*M)+.028'thermal sensation transfer coefficient 370 PMV=TS*(M-HL1-HL2-HL3-HL4-HL5-HL6)'predicted mean vote 380 IF ABS(PMV)>.1 THEN TAF=TAF-PMV: GOTO 110 390 IF MWARM MOD 10 = 0 THEN PRINT 500+MWARM;"'";TAF,TRF,PMV 400 NEXT MWARM

Warmup Room air Mean radiant Predicted mean vote time temp temp 0 "comfortable" (min) (F) (F) on a -3->+3 scale

0 77.38742 55.375 9.372071E-02 10 76.3209 58.39394 9.864321E-02 20 75.37932 60.83982 9.903763E-02 30 74.54995 62.8239 9.377487E-02 40 73.9352 64.43015 9.468317E-02 50 73.41834 65.73348 9.436616E-02 60 73.01363 66.7851 9.688769E-02 70 72.71077 67.63396 9.948866E-02 80 72.40714 68.32138 9.704017E-02 90 72.2062 68.87712 9.865938E-02
Reply to
nicksanspam

Since we can't see it, there is no telling what the origonal system looked like. I'm almost ready to bet it's a converted gravity system. That could cause the recovery time to take so long....

Reply to
HeatMan

We have two zones....both have the round Honeywell mercury type t-stats. And they both have around a 4° 'knee' as you call it. If I set the stats at 60°, the house is actually around 64°. We bump it up to 64, and it keeps it right around 68°. So I guess the programmable stats would allow us to have the house warmer when we get up in the morning and when we arrive home in the evening, but they would essentially do the same thing we do manually now.

Reply to
MyDixieWrecked

As others have replied, a programmable thermostat would be a good, fairly inexpensive, simple to install solution. I would also suggest you look at the temperature setting on your circulating hot water heating system-- on the furnace. With cast iron radiators you should have the water at about

180 degrees or so.

Reply to
Pelorus

This is Turtle.

Here is the old take on turning off heating or cooling systems for any length of time.

1 Minute to 4 Hours off tinds to cost you a little money on cost to operate. 4 Hours to 8 Hours off tends to save a little or even break even on cost but most of the time it will save a little. 8 Hour or + Off will save some good money on fuel cost. Any off time 8 Hours or more will save some good money.

Now if you just turn it off all the time it will save a bunch of money.

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

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