Opinions on forced air please!
Okay, so we’re now into properly cold weather in Pennsylvania. Traditionally, (in the UK) we’d have the central heating in all day because we’re all at home for a holiday, and very likely augmented by the Rayburn wood burner, casting a deliciously warm heat around the lower part of the house.
Now here we have forced air and a decorative gas fire. 1. We don’t know how much forced air is likely to cost us 2. Were not sure this gas fire is warm enough. How do you manage your heating during the cold weather? |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by RollingStones
(Post 12388592)
Okay, so we’re now into properly cold weather in Pennsylvania. Traditionally, (in the UK) we’d have the central heating in all day because we’re all at home for a holiday, and very likely augmented by the Rayburn wood burner, casting a deliciously warm heat around the lower part of the house.
Now here we have forced air and a decorative gas fire. 1. We don’t know how much forced air is likely to cost us 2. Were not sure this gas fire is warm enough. How do you manage your heating during the cold weather? |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
It’s all gas fired.
We have a thermostat, two in fact, one for each side of the house. Where it should be set though it subject to debate between hubby and I. Then then, that’s no different to home. |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
When it gets cold, we keep ours on 64 (66 if we are feeling fragile) when we are in the house, and 56 when we are out and at night, to keep pipes from freezing. We also have a good living room wood stove to keep toasty in the evening. We have an old draughty house and pay a lot for heating oil.
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Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by RollingStones
(Post 12388606)
It’s all gas fired.
We have a thermostat, two in fact, one for each side of the house. Where it should be set though it subject to debate between hubby and I. Then then, that’s no different to home. |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
If the gas is natural gas and not propane it is one of the cheaper fuels to use. How old is the house? If newer probably better insulation. Are windows newer double paned? If you own the house and plan to be there a while I would invest in insulation and windows if yours are not up to par. All you can do this year is keep temp setting to a comfortable level and just see how the bill runs. If the fireplace is like most it will be very inefficient and costly to operate. I just built a 1200 sq foot super insulated house on a lake here in Tennessee and using a 1 1/2 ton heat pump my monthly electric bill which includes hot water and cooking is around 60 dollars per month in both winter and summer.
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Re: Opinions on forced air please!
We have forced air in a 1610 sq ft house. As we are retired we are home all day and have the thermostat set at 72 from 7am to 11pm, and 62 during the night. We don't wear fleeces or jumpers in the house.
We use natural gas to heat, cook and run the water heater. The bill is averaged over the year and we pay $61 a month, and usually get a month or two rebate at the end of the year. |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
We have forced air and use natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking. From April through mid-November the average bill is $32. Keep the house at 70 when it drops in the 40's and at 72 when it goes into the 30's. (Shit insulation) At bedtime it is set to 62 and the program is set to kick on the heat to 70 at 6 am which is around the time we get up just to get the chill out of the air.
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Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by RollingStones
(Post 12388606)
It’s all gas fired.
We have a thermostat, two in fact, one for each side of the house. Where it should be set though it subject to debate between hubby and I. Then then, that’s no different to home. Once I worked out how to force the programable thermostats to do what we want, rather than what the thermostat thinks we want, we saved about 30% on out heating bill. In short, if we allowed the temperature to fall overnight, and then set the thermostat to say, 65°F at 6am, the thermostat would come on two or more hours ahead of 6am because the thermostat assumed they we wanted the temperature to be AT 65°F at 6am. As we left for work an hour later, it meant that while we wanted the heat on for an hour, if left to its own devices, the thermostat would turn the heat on for three hours! In the afternoon/evening we would want the heat on from 6pm to around 9pm, but the heat would come on two hours early in the afternoon too! :frown: |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by ddsrph
(Post 12388642)
If the gas is natural gas and not propane it is one of the cheaper fuels to use. How old is the house? If newer probably better insulation. Are windows newer double paned? If you own the house and plan to be there a while I would invest in insulation and windows if yours are not up to par. All you can do this year is keep temp setting to a comfortable level and just see how the bill runs. If the fireplace is like most it will be very inefficient and costly to operate. I just built a 1200 sq foot super insulated house on a lake here in Tennessee and using a 1 1/2 ton heat pump my monthly electric bill which includes hot water and cooking is around 60 dollars per month in both winter and summer.
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Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by RollingStones
(Post 12388592)
How do you manage your heating during the cold weather? |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Note on thermostats. The newer thermostats will try to get the house to temperature at the time you set.
eg. If you set the thermostat to 70 degrees for 7am the heat will come on around 6 so that the house is at 70 degrees by 7 am. You can disable this feature on most thermostats. This feature confuses a lot of people. The thermostat is supposed to be able to tell how long it takes to warm the house up. I don't think this feature works very well. |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by mrken30
(Post 12391295)
Note on thermostats. The newer thermostats will try to get the house to temperature at the time you set.
eg. If you set the thermostat to 70 degrees for 7am the heat will come on around 6 so that the house is at 70 degrees by 7 am. ..... |
Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by Pulaski
(Post 12391310)
My experience is that it would come on between 4 and 5, but that probably reflects how cold we let the house get overnight. Either way, that feature is a PITA, and once I worked out how to override it, we saved about 30% on out heating and AC bill. :)
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Re: Opinions on forced air please!
Originally Posted by petitefrancaise
(Post 12391316)
I over-rode that on my Nests too - in fact, I disabled quite a lot of the Nests' functions and saved a small fortune. I also learned to lock them which comes in handy when you leave the teens at home whilst you are away. :sneaky:
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