energy saving question/problem

[Steve]

I have an energy saving question/problem that I would really appreciate
some help on.

I have an gas furnace for the main level and an electric furnace for
the upstairs. They are both controlled by an Omni controller and Omni
tstats. I am trying to keep our gas/electric bills down as low as
possible while still maintaing our unusal love for an extremely warm
house. I started out by having the heat shut off on the main level
while we slept upstairs, then have it reheat the main level before we
woke up...but it seemed to take forever to bring the temp back up to a
liveable level. I started wondering if we are using more enegry to
reheat than to keep it heated (like the turn off/keep on hot water
heater debate for awhile back). Now we are keeping the main level
heated all the time and trying to harness the rising heat to keep the
upstairs furnace from always running.

I would really appreicate any advice on how to tackle this problem. Is
there any general advice for this...or do I need to take 24 hour
measurements of gas/electric while testing different methods?

thanks in advance!

steve

[BruceR]

There are too many unknown factors to really give you a good answer
here. The amount of insulation between floors and in the walls, air flow
patterns, number of stairways and type of heating (forced air vs. hot
water/steam) all have to be considered. Short of bringing in an
engineer, trial and error is probably the only way to find out what
works best and still provides comfort (thicker blankets?).

From:Steve
cha1@nodomain.com

> I have an energy saving question/problem that I would really
> appreciate some help on.
>
> I have an gas furnace for the main level and an electric furnace for
> the upstairs. They are both controlled by an Omni controller and Omni
> tstats. I am trying to keep our gas/electric bills down as low as
> possible while still maintaing our unusal love for an extremely warm
> house. I started out by having the heat shut off on the main level
> while we slept upstairs, then have it reheat the main level before we
> woke up...but it seemed to take forever to bring the temp back up to a
> liveable level. I started wondering if we are using more enegry to
> reheat than to keep it heated (like the turn off/keep on hot water
> heater debate for awhile back). Now we are keeping the main level
> heated all the time and trying to harness the rising heat to keep the
> upstairs furnace from always running.
>
> I would really appreicate any advice on how to tackle this problem. Is
> there any general advice for this...or do I need to take 24 hour
> measurements of gas/electric while testing different methods?
>
> thanks in advance!
>
> steve

[xyz2]

You should be saving energy, but not as much as you'd save by just wearing
more clothes and turning the stats down all the time. :)

The amount of heat loss between indoors and outdoors, regardless of
insulation, etc. is in part a function of the temperature difference between
the two spaces. In other words, all other factors being equal, you will
always lose more energy between two spaces that have a 50 degree difference
thatn you will between two that have a 30 degree difference.

For heating purposes, this is almost always true - that you will save energy
by allowing the temp difference to narrow. (For A/C, though, humidity
becomes a big issue. You do not turn off the AC and open the windows to
save electricity if you are going to turn it back on in 6 hours. The
humidity that you let in will put such a latent heat load into the system
that you will not gain anything. Controlling humidity is not as much of a
factor in heating season.)

Question is, do you mean saving energy or saving money? The gas heat is
probably cheaper than the electric heat (in most areas od the country
anyway.)

But, then, I am talking about heating the air... If you really want to be
"warm" and save energy, you might consider allowing the house to bo cool,
but sitting in front of a radiant heater that makes you feel warmer without
making the whole house warmer. That would be one way to use the gas to heat
the space, and electricity to heat you.

If money is the only factor, you might do better to use the gas heat as
primary heat, and turn electric heat upstairs off during the day. That will
also be a matter of the BTUH rating of the furnace.



"Steve" <cha1@nodomain.com> wrote in message
news:2005012410511776056%cha1@nodomaincom...
> I have an energy saving question/problem that I would really appreciate
> some help on.
>
> I have an gas furnace for the main level and an electric furnace for
> the upstairs. They are both controlled by an Omni controller and Omni
> tstats. I am trying to keep our gas/electric bills down as low as
> possible while still maintaing our unusal love for an extremely warm
> house. I started out by having the heat shut off on the main level
> while we slept upstairs, then have it reheat the main level before we
> woke up...but it seemed to take forever to bring the temp back up to a
> liveable level. I started wondering if we are using more enegry to
> reheat than to keep it heated (like the turn off/keep on hot water
> heater debate for awhile back). Now we are keeping the main level
> heated all the time and trying to harness the rising heat to keep the
> upstairs furnace from always running.
>
> I would really appreicate any advice on how to tackle this problem. Is
> there any general advice for this...or do I need to take 24 hour
> measurements of gas/electric while testing different methods?
>
> thanks in advance!
>
> steve
>

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article <2005012410511776056%cha1@nodomaincom>,
Steve <cha1@nodomain.com> writes:
> I have an energy saving question/problem that I would really appreciate
> some help on.
>
> I have an gas furnace for the main level and an electric furnace for
> the upstairs. They are both controlled by an Omni controller and Omni
> tstats. I am trying to keep our gas/electric bills down as low as
> possible while still maintaing our unusal love for an extremely warm
> house. I started out by having the heat shut off on the main level
> while we slept upstairs, then have it reheat the main level before we
> woke up...but it seemed to take forever to bring the temp back up to a
> liveable level. I started wondering if we are using more enegry to
> reheat than to keep it heated (like the turn off/keep on hot water
> heater debate for awhile back). Now we are keeping the main level
> heated all the time and trying to harness the rising heat to keep the
> upstairs furnace from always running.
>
> I would really appreicate any advice on how to tackle this problem. Is
> there any general advice for this...or do I need to take 24 hour
> measurements of gas/electric while testing different methods?

You'll always use less energy allowing it to cool down, but you
have to weigh this up with comfort too, else you would just turn
the heating off permanently;-)

How about having a setback temperature at night, i.e. you don't
switch the heating off, but you allow it to drop by, say, 10F.
You could then arrange for it to switch back to normal mode in
time for it to have reheated by the time you get up.

If the temperature drops quickly when heating is switched off
and the heating system is struggling to bring the temperature up
in a reasonable length of time, then it sounds like the heating
system is underpowered for energy loss from that area. You either
need a more powerful heating system or (better) to improve the
thermal insulation so you don't lose the heat so quickly. It
would be interesting to see a graph of temperature against time
for the area from the point where the heating switches off though
to it switching on again and getting the area warmed back up.

--
Andrew Gabriel