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Thermostat Setting Question

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4v3ng3r1987
4v3ng3r1987 Member Posts: 1
in Gas Heating
We have a new propane furnace (installed this year) and a programmable thermostat. We are up in the northeast US so, to say the least, it's been a cold winter so far. Anyway, I have our thermostat set to be at 55 degrees when we are at work during the day. At 4:00pm, I have it set to go up to 65. It seems to take a couple to three hours to get there. I guess my first question is does this sound normal? The house is 2,900 square feet and the furnace is a Peerless MI85 (I believe). Second, I know that setting the thermostat like this is more efficient than a constant setting but is there a more efficient way to set things. It seems like the boiler is constantly cycling on and off. Thank you in advance for the help.

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  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,286
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    As a matter of fact, assuming this is hot water, setting the thermostat with that much setback is not more efficient. Further, the time it takes to bring the temperature up those 10 degrees is pretty normal. The boiler is cycling because your installed radiation can't absorb all the heat which it is putting out -- which is a different problem.

    Try using a less aggressive setback -- like no more than 3 degrees. I dare say both you and the boiler will be much happier.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,478
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    That does not sound out of line. It takes a huge amount of energy to swing a house from 55 to 65 degrees and I question if your saving enough to make it worth the discomfort. If you were doing that over a long weekend it might be worth it but I really question doing it on a daily basis.

    Your not just trying to warm up the air in the house you are trying to warm up EVERYTHING in that house - walls, furniture, books, etc.

    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
    edited January 2018
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    Whether it’s forced air, or steam, or hot water. That’s an aggressive setback for being at work. Does the house lose 10degrees in 10-12 hours. That’s quite a bit for a newer structure.

    Is it a learning thermostat? If so it should be able to start calculating how long it takes to get the home to the desired setting coming out of setback so the home is up to temp at the desired time.


    Is comfort a desire?. One thing to remember is that all the mass in the home needs to get up to temp also. When mass is below setpoint the setpoint seems colder because the objects are cooler than the air temp. This draws heat off of the human body making us feel colder.

    Any time you bring the delta between inside and outside temps closer it lowers heating loss, or cooling gains. However it takes the same energy to replace it.

    In other words staying at a constant 65 verses a constant 72 will save some money. Swinging temps in violent setbacks does little for the wallet..

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