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When do you turn your heat on?


Square Wheels

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We have a room heated by a wall mounted direct vent heater.  The pilot wouldn't stay lit, so I shut off the gas and took the pilot assembly apart.  The pilot tube was full of miniature dust bunnies, and I cleaned those out.  I cleaned all the deposits off the thermopile, then put it all back together and turned the gas back on.

I must have done it wrong, because I had no parts leftover. :dontknow:  Even so, the pilot now has a strong flame and the heater works great.

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21 hours ago, MoseySusan said:

We turned it on last week for a day. I like the house to be 73 during summer and 70 during winter. 
The person who installed our hvac said to not set the thermostat lower at night and during the day. We had been setting it to 60 from 9am to 3pm and from 10pm to 5am to save energy. He said the furnace works harder to bring the temperature back than if we’d just leave it the same all day. 
What do you think? Do you vary your thermostat or leave it continually the same? 

If you have a heat pump or electric heater, this is true. Not really true for gas heaters.

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20 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

If you have a heat pump or electric heater, this is true. Not really true for gas heaters.

Yeah, we have the thermostat programmed for different temps at different times of the day, but now that it is approaching winter, I have to reconsider those settings, as my summer (warm) settings are way different than my winter (cool) settings.  In the summer time, we keep the house low-mid 70s.  But in the winter, we keep it in the mid-high 60s.  In the summer, I'm in shorts and shortsleeves, so I don't want it super cool.  In the winter, I'm in pants and likely a heavier shirt, so cooler temps inside are fine.  My thermostat isn't smart enough to have month setting subsets, just the 7 day programmable option.  Maybe a Nest or other would be more flexible?

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I moved the thermostat to "heat" last night, and it kicked on this morning.  I always feel a sense of relief when it works after six idle months... that's a holdover from when we still had the old boiler that was original to the house - I think that boiler was some 50 years old when we replaced it.  I think three times that unit failed to kick on, that first cold fall night.

We have a programmable thermostat, but there are separate "heat" and "AC" settings.  We keep the house at 67-68 in the winter (down to 63 overnights) but we hold the AC at 76-77.

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I turned it to heat last week when temps got into the 30s outside. It was 62 in the hallway so the family room was around 58 or 59. WoW working at home has actually kept the temperature lower than we used to during the day. Her office is the warmest room in the house when the heat is on. She has been keeping the house at 67 or 68 during the day. Once her workday is done, I turn it up to 72 for the evening before it goes to 65 for the sleep hours. 

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On 10/18/2021 at 9:08 PM, BuffJim said:

Today, first time. We have a convoluted electric non central heat system. Cheaper than gas. And keeps us warm enough. 

I can’t believe any kind of electric heat is cheaper than gas. Well I guess it could be if your electric comes from Niagara Falls. What do you pay for electric per KWH?

 

I just lit a fire in the furnace and stoked it with anthracite coal. It feels so good in here. I have been ok for about a month but not really comfortable. I hate wearing long pants and sweatshirts all the time. I’m getting the house nice and warm for when I get back from my bike ride.

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4 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Usually wait until January, but sometimes have to in December. 

My "office" at home faces south.  Only in the past week or so has the sun moved far enough to the south that it literally is pounding me for hours.  Probably 5 or 6 hours. I may have to relocate where I sit, which is a shame because this is a nice area of the house.

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3 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Usually wait until January, but sometimes have to in December. 

Similar. Though that's something we're having to plan around with the potential for a move overseas. We'll have to become comfortable with the cold again. For the daughter it will be a first. She got chilly on Saturday when in the stroller heading to the park. It was 74

 

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I haven't needed the heat for several days after several days with short, take-the-chill-off, periods of furnace heat.

Sunshine through the window and storm door glass has had a nice greenhouse effect and new exterior walls, roof, windows, and doors have high, modern insulation.

This morning, my thermostat read 74° and the outside temperature never got higher than 70°.  Right now,  8 pm, the thermostat reads 77° and, despite temps in the 50's overnight, should be around 74° tomorrow morning when I get up.  If slightly cooler, normal temperatures occur for the rest of October, my gas and electric bill for October's usage should be in the $50 - $75 range.  For the 4 years before the fire, the bill for October (paid in November) was between $99.87 and $118.12.  I hope the savings hold up as we move from most of the bill being electricity to mostly natural gas.

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