spiegel@mhuxl.UUCP (SPIEGEL) (02/25/84)
I frequently turn OFF my furnace during the day, and heat the house when I come in. (I actually have a device that listens to telephone rings and I can call the house ahead of arriving home to come home to a heated house.) I do the same thing at night while I sleep. My bills are (as you might expect) very low. Most people have claimed that the cost of heating a house is related to the area under the function relating T_inside-T_outside to time. Others have claimed that it costs more to heat up the house from a low temperature that to have kept the house percolating at a moderate temperature all along. The last argument seem falacious, but are there any conditions where it is true? Please send answers to ...ihnp4!mhuxl!spiegel DIRECTLY, not to net, unless you all think this is an interesting topic to discuss. ...ihnp4!mhuxl!spiegel
cwb@cbneb.UUCP (Bill Brown) (02/25/84)
A situation where it MIGHT cost more to heat up a cool house rather than keeping it warm all day is with an electric heat pump/backup resistance furnace system. Those that work like mine automatically kick in the resistance unit when the house is some amount cooler than the set point. When you turn the set point up to warm up the house the dumb system thinks resistance heat is needed. Because the resistance furnace is much less efficient than the heat pump (at reasonable temperatures) there are probably conditions where more total electricity would be used. This reason would not apply, of course, if you have any other type of system or a more intelligent control system. But there might be other effects (Ideas anyone?). By the way, in very cold conditions, do you have to worry about the house getting too cold for your house plants or, at the extreme, for your water pipes? What is the effect of temperature cycling on the house itself (wall cracking, for example) or on its contents (furniture, elctronic gear)? Bill Brown cbneb!cwb