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re: lowered thermostat - was: cheap ways to save heat this winter???
1 oct 1998
kevin wrote:
>...it will drop down to 20 degrees above zero tonight... my house is
>72 degrees. i set my thermostat to 58 degrees before going to bed.
>when i wake up in the morning, my thermostat tells me it's still 62
>degrees in the house. the furnace apparently didn't run all night long.
>i turn the thermostat back up to 72... did i save any money by turning
>down the thermostat "last night"?
yes, as i understand this (if you aren't using a heat pump with electric
resistance heaters), because with no setback, the house would have been
72 f, but with the setback, the average temp was (72+62)/2 = 67. since
the house was cooler, less heat was lost to the outdoors.
>if so, let's say i spend $3.00 per day to heat my house during january.
>how much did i save "last night"?
if the average temperature was 20 f in january (you can recalculate this
if it wasn't), you spent $3 on an average night, with the house at 72 f,
ie 8h(72f-20f)g = $3, so g = $0.007 per degree-hour, and "last night"
you spent 8h(67f-20f)0.007 = $2.71, so you saved 29 cents.
nick
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