Comments on: Stop Adjusting the Thermostat: Why I Don’t Turn Down The Heat at Night

By: D

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:06:25 +0000

Obviously all those commenting aren’t ignorant- they just know it all and are 100% correct in their varying opinions. But because you have an opinion they don’t like, they’ve got to complain. Ignore the haters! Such a waste of time to be so negative anyways!

By: andy codispoti

andy codispoti — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:51:12 +0000

I just wanna know why it takes an hour for your house to warm up i turn it up 8° and it take like 5 minutes before I’m sweating

By: Paul F.

Paul F. — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:18:55 +0000

Companies have locks on thermostats because people are really stupid about temperature.

By: omgfailsauce

omgfailsauce — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 03:08:44 +0000

Absolutely agree. Freezing my ass off every morning is bullshit. My wife says “then it down at night,” but she isn’t the one freezing every morning. By the time she gets up I’ve already brought the house to a reasonable temperature. I’d rather splurge and not have to thaw the toilet bowl for my morning dump.

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:57:04 +0000

If I go to Florida for the winter should I leave my thermostats in my Canadian house set at 70 degrees rather than turning them down, because it will cost more to reheat the house, and my heaters will wear out? Sounds stupid doesn’t it? Exactly the same as turning down your heat at night. It doesn’t take more heat to bring up the temp than maintain it for hours.
Wear out your heaters? LOL! My electric baseboard heaters are all 30 years old, and it’s 15 degrees below zero right now. If a heater ever dies it costs $30 to replace.
I did a search on this topic, this is the only person on the Web who thinks you shouldn’t turn your heat down at night, and when you’re out, to save money.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:24:22 +0000

I had to chime in on this. You people leave your heat on 68? Degrees? And you can live like that? WHAT? I set my heat at 74 when I walk in the door from work. I put it on 68 when I go to bed. Back to 74 when I wake up and back to 68 when I leave for work. I came here to find out if it’s worth turning it down when I leave for work every day. Turns out I learned that.. some folks are crazy! 68? At night watching tv? OMG

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:00:05 +0000

The definitive answer to this question is a very long equation with many, many variables. It certainly cannot be answered by a single law of physics. Most of us have no way to measure all of the inputs to the equation, so we have to experiment. And the results of those experiments will apply to our own set of variables and may not be transferable to others, except in the most generalized way.

That said, there are a few things that we might all agree on. For example, in the winter, keeping the house a bit cooler is more economical and green. And if you are in AC country, keeping the house a bit warmer in the summer is also more economical and green.

By: Amber

Amber — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:05:25 +0000

I suspect this may depend entirely upon how efficient one’s home and furnace are, and how cold it gets outside (I’m in WI). We tried turning our thermostat down at night last year, but for us it wasted energy. We actually like it a bit cooler for sleeping, so we programed our thermostat for 55 at night, and 68 during the day. I don’t know if that was too much of a drop, but it literally took 3 to 4 HOURS for our furnace to shut off in the morning. Our home and furnace are a bit older (about 20 years) so maybe that’s why, but it doesn’t seem to run frequently otherwise. For us, letting it run for a few minutes a couple times overnight makes much more sense.

By: jay

jay — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:10:30 +0000

Wow! This has gotten a lot of commentary. I would add a couple of [layman's] thoughts:

I suspect the leaking of heat via walls, etc, has everything to do with how much insulation you have. The more insulation, the slower the leak, and ultimately, I suspect, the less temperature gradient even with the heat turned off. If you don’t have insulation (including your windows), you’re essentially heating the great outdoors which is truly insane, and your indoor temperature will drop precipitously once the heat is off.
If your heat source is kicking on a lot, you’ve got an insulation problem.

The other point is from personal experience and with a gas furnace. If no one is home much of the day, you can simply have the heat come on for a short period of time just before and while you’re getting ready for work. The kicking on of the furnace alone will warm you up, without having to worry about “heating up the walls” and so forth. Evenings, well, heating up the walls is accelerated by the usual evening activities such as fixing dinner. “Warm walls”, etc. will help for a few hours after the heat shuts off. You should be able to turn the thermostat down well before you even hit the sack. Again everything to do with insulation.
Just my 2¢.

Great that this was hotly debated. Too bad it got personal.

By: Should you turn off the heat when you leave the house? Answer: YES - Mind Your Decisions

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 05:00:47 +0000

[...] engines pointed to the wrong answer or articles with debate about the answer, such as this, and this, and this forum [...]