Are you supposed to keep the house roughly 7 degrees from where you want it to reduce strain on the furnace? My girlfriend and I have been batting this around. I say that it’s what it’s for. Set it to 50 degres overnight whe you’re sleeping, then back to 72 when you’re up, I say.
I mean…how would the people in Minnesota even stay warm?
The logic in setting it back is to reduce energy and your utility bill.
I suppose in theory you will you may increase the life of the furnace. In practical terms, however, it is not true. A well maintained furnace will last 20-25 years, and running it does not “strain it” at all.
ETA: You are correct.
Set to 50 degrees overnight? How do you stay warm?
Heck, I turn mine off at night. It’s about 40 in the house when I get up. (I have an oil-filled electric space heater in my bedroom, and an electric blanket. Cheaper than propane for the whole house.)
I’m warm. My girlfriend latches onto my back at night.
“Where’d you hear that from?” she asked.
“The messageboard.”
“Your messageboard?”
“Well yeah…the Dope.”
“Not like…trained furnace people or anything…?”
“Well, some very well could be, but many would have homes for many years and or could know for sure.”
“I wonder if the Mythbusters ever tested it…”
Propane? Don’t blame you. Before my current system (when I used natural gas), I put the setback to 65, but it made it damn hard to get out of bed in the morning. With the current system, though, it’s cheaper for me just to leave it at a fixed temperature. On the other hand, my house isn’t all that big, and it’s odd (or maybe not, really), since I had the house painted and caulked in the spring, there aren’t any drafts. If only I had an airlock for the rear doorwall (or a toilet trained dog), nothing would escape outside. The caulk job is really that noticeable.
Pssst. Raindog is “trained furnace people.”
The furnace was designed to maintain a nominal temperature. Arbitrarily running it less isn’t going to make any difference. It doesn’t get tired at the end of the day. Change the filter and oil the blower bearings.
We don’t drop the temperature below 60 in the winter. If I put the thermostat on 50 at night, it would kick into “recovery” mode and begin warming the house at about 2 AM in order to get it back to 67 by 7 AM.