Energy Tip for Week of April 8, 2019
Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. If you are cold at night, add a blanket or close the door and use a heater in your bedroom. Either is more efficient than heating the whole house or apartment while you sleep. Lowering your thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. In the hot weather, set the temperature higher than you might think is comfortable. Cooling systems remove humidity, so the higher temperature feels cooler than that same air temperature with outside summer humidity.
Provided by Upper Charles Climate Action – UCCA.350ma@gmail.com?
Paul: Although you are correct that a lower thermostat setting at night does mean the furniture and other household items will lose heat overnight, by contrast keeping them up to temperature means heating items (and spaces) you are not using. The trick (which is made easier by smart thermostats) is to begin reheating the house enough before you rise to bring things back to temperature at a reasonable time. Even a few hours of lower temperature means energy savings, according to the research. So reheating the furniture is not as big a energy waster as keeping the whole house up to a comfortable overnight temperature.
Fred Cunningham | 2019-04-18 12:10:05
Paul - you make an excellent point, we apologize and should have mentioned that heating type, access to a programmable thermostat and or 'smart' thermostat can also factor in the proper settings. For those interested, I offer this page as a guide to determining what is best for specific circumstances: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/thermostats - Utah
Utah Nickel | 2019-04-11 14:30:43
Too high a setback can have an adverse effect as the heat is drawn out of the the fixtures (furniture, rugs, etc) in the room over night. When the Tstat calls for heat in the morning, everything in the room feels cold.
Paul Saulnier | 2019-04-08 12:02:05