Temperature Setbacks

Johnny67713

What are you thoughts on temperature setbacks with steam? Is it worth it? I know that there isn't really a straight forward answer when it comes to this because there are so many factors that come into play (wall insulation, house age, window age, etc.). Was just curious as to what people on here do. If you do use temperature setbacks, how many degrees do you set it back? I try to set my thermostat back 2-3 degrees at night. It takes about 25-30 minutes of run time to come back up those 3 degrees though, so not entirely sure if it's really worth it. My fuel source is oil so just trying to save some costs where I can. All of my walls are masonry (cinderblocks), and all of the windows were just replaced last year. Single pipe system.

nicholas bonham-carter

I think that greater economy can be had by selecting a lower constant temperature, with no setbacks.
Even greater results can result from maximizing your main venting, so that extra fuel is not used to force the air out of the system for each cycle. Keeping the pressure as low as possible will help as well, as air can escape at .5 ounce as well as 1.5 psi, if the main venting is good.—NBC

Jamie Hall

2 degrees (66/64). Anything more than that and the additional run time to recover is greater than the run time to maintain. On the main place I care for.

Dan_NJ

If my boiler were not oversized I'd probably use a 2 or 3 degree setback. With the oversized one I have there would be too much short cycling on recovery for me and some rooms would take too long to come back on a windy day.

ethicalpaul

> @Jamie Hall said:
> 2 degrees (66/64). Anything more than that and the additional run time to recover is greater than the run time to maintain. On the main place I care for.

66/64? One thing I know for sure: my wife doesn’t spend any time over there!

jlo1029

Hum. So my 55/68 is probably not smart? I like it cold at night.

KC_Jones

> @jlo1029 said:
> Hum. So my 55/68 is probably not smart? I like it cold at night.

As was said on another thread, if you are able to get down to 55 at night you have some other much more pressing problems. I’d suggest if you could get to 60 you have serious insulation/infiltration issues you need to address.

jlo1029

Oh, it doesn't get nearly that cold inside unless I leave it that way for a long weekend! Basically I don't have the heat run at all overnight or when I'm at work.

PMJ

Heat lost to the outside(that which must be replaced) is directly related to the average temp difference inside to outside. So setbacks do reduce the average temp difference and therefore the total heat lost. If you like it cold at night then go ahead and shut it down. All the boiler run time goes into maintaining the average temperature whatever that is. The fact that it runs longer raising the temperature a few degrees does not change the overall efficiency. It didn't run at all while the temperature was falling.