Keeping thermostat at 55

pipe4zen

Looking for thoughts or opinions about keeping thermostats set at 55 during the week for second home vs. a little more comfortable 62 degrees, or even constant 68-70 . And the realities of the amount of fuel savings, if any.



I'm trying to convince a homeowner , who by the way has the means to afford a little more fuel, to keep his 6500 sq. ft. second home a little higher in temperature during the week. Every weekend he raises the house to room temperature, from 55. But says it takes too long. It is 8 zones , HWBB, mod/con boilers, and Tekmar Tn4 controls. I installed afterwards a remote phone switch, but somehow he can seem to use it, each time I call up it works everytime, go figure. So I am suggesting to keep temp up a little, I figured an average extra 1/2 gal of LP gas per day for the 120 days of the heating season, which would amount less than $400 . Also explaining his real savings is coming from the indoor feedback of the Tekmar stats and the outdoor reset. And the amount of energy required to heat back up all the mass of walls, floors , furniture, etc .. it would be better to leave at steady state.

I think the 55* when away is very old school way of thinking, which probably had more to do with grossly oversized equipment and basic on/off controls no outdoor feedback. And its one thing to go on extended vacation, but completely different for every 5 days or so to crank everything back up at the expense of comfort and time.

But maybe I'm looking at this differently .

Robert_25

You are on the right track

"Also explaining his real savings is coming from the indoor feedback of the Tekmar stats and the outdoor reset. And the amount of energy required to heat back up all the mass of walls, floors , furniture, etc .. it would be better to leave at steady state."



Setback recovery is much longer with outdoor reset, and even if it was fast...the objects in the room are still cold. I would leave it at 62 or 65 during the week, and if that is still too cold for them to walk into...leave the zone that they spend the most time in at a comfortable temperature.