According to anything I have seen, a minimum temperature of 16C which is 60.8F (call it 61) is the most efficient energy saving setting. I have a couple of those indoor outdoor talking thermometers with the 24 hour high & low memory and my house does get down to that or a little cooler depending on the location of the thermometer. My furnace is one of those 95% efficient jobs or so they claim, the plenum temperature doesn't get all that high and it takes about two hours to stabilize back to 21C, a little over 70F.
Now we generally sleep with our bedroom window open but the door closed but nevertheless this probably cools some of the building structure more than most people would experience. This house is a bit less than a thousand square feet per story, two stories plus a basement but it is double insulated. We set it to go up to 22C at 7 in the evening (71.6) The temperature shuts down to 16 at 10:30 at night but I am often sitting here until half past 12, the temperature falls about 2 degrees C (about 3 and a half degrees F). That was last week when we were getting minus 35C (minus 31F) Today the temperature isn't going much below freezing so the drop will be somewhat less. I also have a heat recovery ventilator in the attic which is always bringing in fresh air and dumping it into the cold air return of the furnace, the efficiency of the recovery of heat falls dramatically below minus 10C, this will both accelerate the temperature drop and delay temperature rise. I don't know if that helps you any, I also don't know how the "experts" arrived at that temperature I can only assume it is a balance between the amount of fuel saved and the amount to restore the temperature. I do however believe there is an energy saving but exactly how much is difficult to say given the constantly rising cost of natural gas and the generally warmer winters in recent years. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Curtis Delzer To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 5:27 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] minimum temperature. Hi all! What do you all think of a good minimum temperature to set on your thermostat at night for the maximum amount of savings in a fuel bill? Of course, there are many variables, so I'll make some guide lines, particularly our situation here. I am in North Dakota, so the minimum temperatures range from probably in winter, 0 to 25 below on average, anything above 0 degrees is warmer than the average. This house is insulated well, and it is a fuel oil furnace. Minimum temperatures are just before sun rise in most circumstances. I have the Kelvin talking thermostat, which has 4 ranges of settings e.g. morning, day, evening, and night. We are generally here 24 hours a day so times of bedding down are probably a consideration. Let's say about 10 at night for the retiring hour, though my dad goes to bed at 8 o'clock or earlier. He gets up at 6 a.m. so that is when a day time temperature of about 72 is needed which he feels most comfortable at, I've tried lower than 72 with poor results. Thanks! Curtis Delzer [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
