What temperature do you leave your home at

[RobWNY]

Today, I had my furnace guy come for the annual check-up, cleaning etc. I've known the guy for many years. I was telling him that next year we would be spending winter in the South and was planning on setting my furnace thermostat at 50 Degrees. He advised me not to do that. He said 60 Degrees minimum for my high efficiency furnace. He said moisture will accumulate in the heat exchanger if the furnace doesn't cycle enough and get hot enough. The life of the furnace will be reduced. I had never heard of that before. He said to think about it like a car exhaust. If all you do is drive it to the store and back, the exhaust never gets hot enough to evaporate the moisture and it rusts prematurely. He said the same thing happens with these high efficiency furnaces. So what do you think? What type of heating system do you have and what temperature do you leave your thermostat set to when away?

[ramsaymike]

We are going to be a bit of an outlier here but this is what we have done for several years...
- 1600 sf bungalow in Peterborough Ontario area, well insulated and sealed (R2000 construction)
- House is winterized - water off, all pipes blown out and drains protected (just in case...)
- Thermostat (wifi) set at no more that 5C (41F)
- Heat is provided by 2 ton heat pump with 15kw resistance heater.
- House monitored remotely by camera - furnace performance and temperature/humidity recorded top to bottom
- Never any issues (min temp recorded was 3.5C)
- Heating Cost <$100 for 5.5 months

For what it is worth....

[zcookiemonstar]

If you want your furnace to run longer to dry everything in the system out why not use a pogramable thermostat? You can set the temp several degrees warmer for one hour aday every day or just a couple days a week. A WiFi unit would work too but then you have to pay for internet service while your gone.

[obgraham]

Mine's in a relatively dry area. Set it to 55, with a web connected Honeywell thermostat and a camera looking at the front door.

Snowed there today. Too bad!

[wilber1]

16C or 61F. Hi efficiency natural gas. Nest thermostat, can check and see what it is doing each day online. Also have two 70% efficient gas fireplaces with thermostats set to 13C or 55F just in case the furnace quits.

[babock]

DustyR wrote:
The four years I spent south I always set the thermostat at 60*, because of wanting good heat on the pluming. The most concern is in the case of severe weather, you need a friend or electronic device to be sure the heating system is functioning.

That's why you get an internet thermostat.

[DustyR]

The four years I spent south I always set the thermostat at 60*, because of wanting good heat on the pluming. The most concern is in the case of severe weather, you need a friend or electronic device to be sure the heating system is functioning.

[bucky]

Without a automatic propane whole house generator with a huge tank all of the above except the Minnesota crowd are just sharing ideas. Most will have family or friends nearby that can check but they will be helpless in an extended outage.
Ice storms can be brutal on the electric grid.

[Whiskey_River]

Jumping back in...
After 46 posts it appears you should set the thermostat at your sticks & bricks at what you want.
I do 45 as does sidecar & turn off the water & open cabinet doors.
Some have said low temps may cause structural damage. Not sure what that would be as all outside walls & root trusses including the bottom cord (ceiling) are all at outside ambient temp or very close to it, no heat there.
I heard years ago that plastered walls should not be left in the cold for any length of time. Don't know if that's true or not. With the introduction of dry wall 50 or 60 years ago, plastered walls have mostly gone with the dodo bird.
My thought is the interior heat is for the comfort of the occupants of the house. The couch just sits there & doesn't care if its 45 or 55 degree's. The carpet just lays there & does not care if its 55 or 65 degree's.
And I don't know what some folks pay for electric or gas, but in a Pittsburgh winter its a lot more than penny's between 45 degrees & 65 degrees. I'm not against using my share of the "carbon footprint" either, when I'm home in winter, its 70 degrees...…….

[BarneyS]

I always set ours at 56 degrees. I figured that at that temp the furnace would come on enough to keep the humidity where it should be but not come on enough to break the bank. Worked fine for all the 19 years that we snowbirded.
Barney

[almcc]

After reading the link above from the contractors it brings up some additional thoughts and comments about the condensation that's causing the heat exchanger damage.

I assume that the condensation occurs on the warm air side of the exchanger, if so whether your furnace gets damaged may depend on the climate conditions where you live. Here in the cold dry north the inside humidity level is so low in the house during the winter that the wood cabinets shrink due to moisture loss. I don't think that running the house temp lower than 60F will damage our furnace. Maybe a heating contractor/tekkie can comment.

[moisheh]

Deoending on where you live setting the temp at under 50 might cause structure problems. If the stat is at say 45 portions of the house will be much less. We keep ours at 60. Our outside temps can often be close minus 40

[joebedford]

You're probably right about the length of run to raise the temperature one degree. However, it won't do it as often. Otherwise, what's the point of lowering the set temp at all?

[magicbus]

I don't think you are wrong because it obviously works for you. We have a propane furnace that we leave on 62 and part of that is because I don't have to give a second thought to pipes that may be subject to an outside draft and I don't know about it. With 5 years of using a setting of 45 I would have he same confidence you do.

We had central air recently installed and I had them install a heat pump inverter a) because they are much quieter; and b) we now have backup heat. The heat pump won't even allow you to go below 60, which works out fine for us.

Dave

[Whiskey_River]

Interesting topic...
Every temperature from 45 to 65 and some even turn off the furnace.
I am with sidecar and use 45. And spend 4 months in Florida in winter.
I also know nothing about heat exchangers or evaporating moisture and virtually nothing about furnaces.
My thought is regardless of what temp the furnace is set at, ie 45, 55, or 65 once the house has reached that temperature and the outside ambient temp is say 25 degrees the furnace will run the same amount of time to raise the temperature 1 degree. So if the temp is set at 45, the thermostat drops to 44 & the furnace comes on and raises the temp to 45 & shuts off. Same with 55. Drops to 54 and furnace comes on and raises the temp to 55 and shuts off.
This may be totally wrong, just my thought. I know various air humidity, and wind may affect this somewhat, but I'm at 45 degrees and have been so for the last 5 years. And my furnace is 7/8 years old and has the flue pipe & cold air pick up out the side of the house. Old furnace ran up chimney to the roof.
Just my thought. If I'm wrong, say so.....and why...