Temp differences and heating costs


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Old 10-10-05, 01:24 AM
Bunkybunk
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Temp differences and heating costs

This might be a stupid question but I was wondering if it costs more to keep a house at 70 degrees in the winter than it does to keep it at 60. My thought is that the house loses heat at the same rate whatever temp it is set for, as long as the outside conditions stay the same. I imagine wind would make you lose heat faster but I think you know what I mean. Thanks.
Bunky
 
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Old 10-10-05, 06:57 AM
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No, The heat lost will not be at the same rate if you have the t-stat at 60 or 70 degrees..


Look at i in the summer with the a/c... The house warms up more when it's hotter outside, right?

here is a link, that can give you a guide on how much you can save on set back..

http://warmair.com/html/thermostats.htm

I run mine at 66-68 when we are home/wake. and down to 55 at night/gone.
 
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Old 10-10-05, 07:26 AM
S
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The rate of heat loss is going to be affected by the difference in temperature. The higher you have it inside, the greater the difference to outside and thus the greater the rate of loss. The other reason it's going to cost more is that the temperature of the air provided by your furnace is the same regardless of your temperature setting and as you get closer to that temperature the furnace has to run longer to achieve the desired heat gain.
 
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Old 10-10-05, 12:28 PM
Bunkybunk
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Temp diff

Thanks for the info and the link guys. I think I understand a little better. With the price of oil being what it is and still going up, I need to know all i can about ways to conserve. Thanks again!
Bunky
 
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Old 10-10-05, 12:33 PM
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if you have oil, when was the last time you had someone come in and give you a good tune up??

If you think your system is runnign too hot, they can downsize the oil nozzel to lower gallon per hour rate.

A good tune up wil checl to make sure the burner is burning the oil clean.. They do a smoke/draft test and stack temp.

Make sure you get someone who KNOWS oil.
 
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Old 10-10-05, 12:54 PM
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Wink

With that oil burner make sure the guy knows what he is doing on how to set it up. lot of burners now you can cut the nozzle down and kick up the pump psi. That they check and set the over fire draft right. See what the stack temp is and do a C02 on it. You can get near a 80% AFUE if you set it right most of the time.

ED
 
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Old 10-10-05, 10:17 PM
sps07733
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I thought I add my two cents for what it is worth.

Heat loss (and so is heat gain during summer) is directly proportional
to difference in temperatures between the outside air temperature and inside
air temperature.
Let us say outside temperature is 30 degrees.
If we want to keep temperature inside the house at 60 degrees then cost
of heating will be in proportion to 60 - 30 = 30.
If we want to keep temperature inside the house at 70 degrees then cost
of heating will be in proportion to 70 - 30 = 40.
So if it costs $100.00 to maintain 60 degrees, then it will cost
100 multiplied by 40 divided by 30 = $133.33 to maintain 70 degrees.
In other words, it will cost 33.33% more to maintain 70 degrees inside the
house than 60 degrees (assuming outside temp. is 30 degrees). For other
combinations of temps. cost of heating will vary accordingly.
Therefore to save money on heating bills, try to keep the temperature inside
the house as low as possible.
I hope I said it right.
 
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Old 10-11-05, 07:51 AM
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sps07733 is on the right track, but there is the factor of the cost to heat as well. I belive furnace air is about 130 degrees, so you have the difference between 60 and 130 and 70 and 130 making it more expensive to heat your house to 70 than 60.

Bottom line: it costs more to keep the building at a higher temperature because you are both losing heat to the outside more quickly and taking more energy to heat to the higher temperature inside.
 
 

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