Reduce Heating Bills By Turning Down Heat While You’re Away

Q: I’ve heard I shouldn’t turn my heat down too low when I’m at work during the day because it uses more energy to heat up the house when I get home. Is this true?

A. No, this isn’t true. You can save energy and reduce your heating bill by turning your heat down at any time, even if it’s just for a little while. The longer you keep it turned down, the more you’ll save.

There is a simple rule of thumb that you can use to estimate your savings. For each degree of setback that you maintain for eight hours on a daily basis, you reduce your heating bill by approximately one percent. If you normally keep your house at 72 degrees, but decide instead to reduce the temperature to 65 degrees for eight hours each day while you are at work, you will save approximately 7 percent of your daily heating bill. If your monthly heating bill is $100 and you are at work 20 days a month, you will save about $5 per month. Longer or additional setback periods and lower temperatures can increase the savings. When a house is unoccupied during the day, a setback to 55 degrees or 60 degrees might be approriate.

Lower setback temperatures will require a longer time for the house to recover to normal temperatures when the setback period is over. Houses built on concrete slabs, or with uninsulated heated basements, and log cabins will also take longer to recover after a setback period. These houses require more heat than normal frame construction to reheat the slab, surrounding ground, or logs before normal temperatures can be maintained. Even so, the setback period still saves energy.

Many modern thermostats have automatic setback capabilities. If yours doesn’t and you sometimes forget to turn down the heat manually, or you don’t like coming home to a cold house and waiting for it to warm up, consider buying a clock or programmable thermostat. Prices and capabilities vary; look for one that will allow multiple setback periods during the day and allows adjustment of the setback temperature. Check out the control settings or the program features for ease of use before you buy. There are thermostats with automatic setback capabilities available for most types of heating systems, even baseboard heaters.

For additional information on setting back your heating system and setback thermostats request the fact sheet “Energy Saving Thermostats” from the Washington State Energy Office by calling (800) 962-9731 or 324-7980 in Spokane.

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The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Amy Mickelson Washington State Energy Office David Hales assisted with the writing of this column.