# Cost of costant heating vs. short bursts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298 "2008-11-24T18:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/41 "2008-11-25T22:49:22Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > I am always interested in these discussions b/c of my cheapness, also, **GingerofthenotsoNorth**. > > All the cerebration is nice, but you’d think somewhere someone would to a frigging controlled study and come up with the empirical answer. > > FWIW, my observations for the true cheapskates are: > > 1. Keep the general temp low. Don’t obsess too much over the setback argument. In my personal opinion setback savings is way overrated, but that opinion is admittedly an ignorant one. Localized heat if you have to stay warm–i.e. a little radiant heater for the fat man’s chair instead of the general temp raised to 72. Bankie if he complains anyway. > > 2. Avoid convective losses. > > 3. High efficiency furnace. > > Obviously good windows and good insulation but these are harder to justify if they are refits. > > We don’t setback automatically b/c we are home all hours. We heat our 4000 sq foot home in northern Illinois on about 200 bucks worth of gas in bad months. Gas dryer too w gas fireplace for occ ambience. Our standard temp is 69; we could do a lot better but we are old and enfeebled and we are too lazy to lug around little space heaters like my mo-in-law does. I think low 60s is very doable with local heat supplements. However I personally built the house so the insulation is good, windows are the best and there is no significant convective loss. When I went from single to married, my summer electricity bill went from $200/mo to $300 - most of which is attributable to changing from setback to constant temperature (my wife couldn’t deal with a warm house during the day). ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/42 "2008-11-26T01:30:36Z")
Thank you all. I shall buy a digital thermometer tomorrow, and we have small space heaters for in our basement office; I’ve also knit my husband some wool socks and we have a lot of sweaters. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/43 "2008-11-26T14:59:39Z")
By the way, I’ll just mention how I use my programmable thermostat: Since I’m not home every evening and especially not every weekend day, I set every cycle (night, day, evening) to be the same 60 or so. Then, whenever I’m home I just turn up the heat. The beauty of it is that the thermostat will automatically turn the heat down again, so I never have to remember to turn the temperature down when I leave. All I do is turn up the heat when I’m cold, and I still get to save lots of heating money. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/44 "2008-11-26T15:51:22Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > But it will with my multi-stage heat pump. Bahh!! [anecdote] I still remember a quote from my thermodynamics instructor in college. He said, “A lot of you will be very confused during this class, but I’m confident that by the time you finish the final everything will become clear.” I must have taken his statement literally, because I didn’t know what we were doing any of the exercises for. I was dreading the final, but when I finally took it, I only missed one question. The question? Calculate the efficiency of this heat pump compared to an electrical element. I calculated the energy it took to run the heat pump, and how much heat it put into the house. I didn’t realize all I had to do was divide those numbers, since all the electricity an element uses is converted to heat.[/anecdote] P.S. People awesome enough to have heat pumps are not allowed to participate in this furnace thread. 😛😉 > [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > Thank you all. I shall buy a digital **thermometer** tomorrow, and we have small space heaters for in our basement office; I’ve also knit my husband some wool socks and we have a lot of sweaters. Do you mean thermostat? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/45 "2008-11-26T23:58:24Z")
> [@Santo\_Rugger](#): > > Do you mean thermostat? Yes, of course. I am operating on very little sleep this week. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298/46 "2008-11-27T01:20:12Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > Yes, of course. I am operating on very little sleep this week. I hear ya! 3 days to get 5 days worth of work done is not kind on the body, or the mind. Although, it is cheaper on the heating bill(because the heat is on for only 3 days instead of five _grumble, groan_)! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-costant-heating-vs-short-bursts/474298.md?page=2)