Temp? Set and forget or up and down?

[shtrdave]

I am buying a P43 as soon as I can arrange my work schedule to get a day to have them install it.

I currently turn my thermostat down (Electric Air to Air Heat pump) to 58 before I go to work in the morning, when I come home I bump it back up to 64 or so and turn on the propane gas stove, looking to get a temp of around 67 or so and then before bed I turn the gas down a bit overnight temp is 64-65.

I live alone so I figure no need to heat the place when I am gone for 9 or 10 hours.

Do you guys leave the temp at a constant setting or do as I do with you pellet stoves, and should I have any reservations about leaving it burn all day while I am gone?

 

[smoke show]

Set it and forget it here.

 

[dmaclaren]

I set mine to 70 and don't touch it. It's always 70 any time I walk past it. I was thinking about turning it down a few when I go to work but then there is the blast to gain it back when I get home. I think leaving it is best for the little, if any, I gain. I just don't feel like always having to play with it every day (That's what she said)

 

[jrsdws]

Prefer the steady temp of set it and forget it.

 

[ironpony]

set it and forget it here
I heat a large 4600 sq ft area
and it takes to much to bring it back up

 

[jtakeman]

Setback here, Warmer when I'm home/awake and cooler when away/sleeping. To me it saves fuel!

 

[RidgeRunner56]

Up and down for me. Down when its bed time, up a short time for breakfast and coffee when I get up, and back down while we're at work. Small house warms back up quickly.

 

[lbcynya]

Up and down, but not the same as I would do for a central heating system. Normall I would set back 8 degrees, but with the stove I do between 2 and 4 depending on the anticipated temperatures. Lately I've kept it at 70 and I burn less than a bag a day.

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

I am buying a P43 as soon as I can arrange my work schedule to get a day to have them install it.

I currently turn my thermostat down (Electric Air to Air Heat pump) to 58 before I go to work in the morning, when I come home I bump it back up to 64 or so and turn on the propane gas stove, looking to get a temp of around 67 or so and then before bed I turn the gas down a bit overnight temp is 64-65.

I live alone so I figure no need to heat the place when I am gone for 9 or 10 hours.

Do you guys leave the temp at a constant setting or do as I do with you pellet stoves, and should I have any reservations about leaving it burn all day while I am gone?

Turn it off during the day. Might be a little wear and tear on the igniter... I'm paranoid about idling these things for some reason. Maybe the wood stove horror stories.

Probably silly.

 

[nailed_nailer]

I vary it.

5-2 day programmable thermostat on my M55.
Thermostat is located in central part of house 1 room away from stove.

Schedule right now is all 7 days due to being home during the day while looking for job.
5:00am 69 degs. Stove kicks on to warm the shack up. I get up about 6:30
11:00pm 62 degs. Stove cools off for sleeping time.

When working......(someday)
69 degs while home
62 degs when gone.

I set it about 1-1/2 hours of heat before I am there so house is comfortable.

Have been running stove in Hi-Low mode vs On-Off to minimize igniter cycling.

Works for me and the dog.
---Nailer---

 

[ironpony]

I am buying a P43 as soon as I can arrange my work schedule to get a day to have them install it.

I currently turn my thermostat down (Electric Air to Air Heat pump) to 58 before I go to work in the morning, when I come home I bump it back up to 64 or so and turn on the propane gas stove, looking to get a temp of around 67 or so and then before bed I turn the gas down a bit overnight temp is 64-65.

I live alone so I figure no need to heat the place when I am gone for 9 or 10 hours.

Do you guys leave the temp at a constant setting or do as I do with you pellet stoves, and should I have any reservations about leaving it burn all day while I am gone?

Turn it off during the day. Might be a little wear and tear on the igniter... I'm paranoid about idling these things for some reason. Maybe the wood stove horror stories.

Probably silly.

yes silly

 

[lbcynya]

I am buying a P43 as soon as I can arrange my work schedule to get a day to have them install it.

I currently turn my thermostat down (Electric Air to Air Heat pump) to 58 before I go to work in the morning, when I come home I bump it back up to 64 or so and turn on the propane gas stove, looking to get a temp of around 67 or so and then before bed I turn the gas down a bit overnight temp is 64-65.

I live alone so I figure no need to heat the place when I am gone for 9 or 10 hours.

Do you guys leave the temp at a constant setting or do as I do with you pellet stoves, and should I have any reservations about leaving it burn all day while I am gone?

Turn it off during the day. Might be a little wear and tear on the igniter... I'm paranoid about idling these things for some reason. Maybe the wood stove horror stories.

Probably silly.

yes silly

+1 for silly. My Harman idles 75% of the day since the heat from idling is enough to keep the space (1200 sq ft) warm enough with a few hot blasts. Weather has been so mild...

Take care of your stove and it will take care of you. I do a 20-30 minute brush down, vac and clean the pot once per week. Could do it once a month, but I think the small time investment is worth it to keep efficiency high.

 

[mepellet]

Setback here, Warmer when I'm home/awake and cooler when away/sleeping. To me it saves fuel!

Off while away for more than 3 or 4 hours and room temp 75 when I get home and 70 or so when heading to bed. No point in keeping the house warm while away. As much as many people hate to say it, setting the thermostat back or off saves energy. Period. Usually the people that say it doesn't save anything complain about length of time it takes to bring the temp back up. That is a different issue. Heat loss is a direct function of inside and outside temps.

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

Setback here, Warmer when I'm home/awake and cooler when away/sleeping. To me it saves fuel!

Off while away for more than 3 or 4 hours and room temp 75 when I get home and 70 or so when heading to bed. No point in keeping the house warm while away. As much as many people hate to say it, setting the thermostat back or off saves energy. Period. Usually the people that say it doesn't save anything complain about length of time it takes to bring the temp back up. That is a different issue. Heat loss is a direct function of inside and outside temps.

My brother was one of the myriad of people who "informed" me that you use less energy keeping the thermostat at a constant setting used less energy than lowering it and then raising it. I've read lots of people on the internet who say the same thing.

Of course this goes against the laws of thermodynamics as heat loss occurs on a gradiant scale, the greater the temperature difference, the faster the heat loss.

 

[mepellet]

Setback here, Warmer when I'm home/awake and cooler when away/sleeping. To me it saves fuel!

Off while away for more than 3 or 4 hours and room temp 75 when I get home and 70 or so when heading to bed. No point in keeping the house warm while away. As much as many people hate to say it, setting the thermostat back or off saves energy. Period. Usually the people that say it doesn't save anything complain about length of time it takes to bring the temp back up. That is a different issue. Heat loss is a direct function of inside and outside temps.

My brother was one of the myriad of people who "informed" me that you use less energy keeping the thermostat at a constant setting used less energy than lowering it and then raising it. I've read lots of people on the internet who say the same thing.

Of course this goes against the laws of thermodynamics as heat loss occurs on a gradiant scale, the greater the temperature difference, the faster the heat loss.

BINGO!

 

[lbcynya]

Setback here, Warmer when I'm home/awake and cooler when away/sleeping. To me it saves fuel!

Off while away for more than 3 or 4 hours and room temp 75 when I get home and 70 or so when heading to bed. No point in keeping the house warm while away. As much as many people hate to say it, setting the thermostat back or off saves energy. Period. Usually the people that say it doesn't save anything complain about length of time it takes to bring the temp back up. That is a different issue. Heat loss is a direct function of inside and outside temps.

My brother was one of the myriad of people who "informed" me that you use less energy keeping the thermostat at a constant setting used less energy than lowering it and then raising it. I've read lots of people on the internet who say the same thing.

Of course this goes against the laws of thermodynamics as heat loss occurs on a gradiant scale, the greater the temperature difference, the faster the heat loss.

BINGO!

However, Heat conduction, also called diffusion, is the direct microscopic exchange of kinetic energy of particles through the boundary between two systems. When an object is at a different temperature (stove) from another body or its surroundings, heat flows so that the body and the surroundings reach the same temperature, at which point they are in thermal equilibrium. Such spontaneous heat transfer always occurs from a region of high temperature to another region of lower temperature, as required by the second law of thermodynamics.

So, thermal equilibrium is what negates some most or all of the savings by lowering the temperature more that a few degrees with a space heater. Space heater being the key issue. While your house is always loosing heat, getting to equilibrium allows you to store some of that heat in your structure thus reducing the load on your stove.

Since we can't really define all the variables, do what you'd like as long as you are COMFORTABLE with the changes. In th long run, it's probably a wash anyway, so why not be more comfortable by reducing your total setback temp when using a space heater aka pellet stove.

 

[smoke show]

Huh???

Sounds good to me... :lol:

 

[lbcynya]

Huh???

Sounds good to me... :lol:

Translation - Set it and forget it. I think that's what you said in post 2.

 

[smoke show]

Right on

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

Huh???

Sounds good to me... :lol:

Heh, I think he's saying that essentially when you heat up a stove, you have to heat up the room, floor, walls, and objects in the house before the temperature starts going up, negating much of the savings you get from dropping the temperature during the day. I suppose if we built houses out of "ultimate" insulators, this would be less of a problem, but would still occur.

Basically you won't get the savings you'd expect from dropping your house thermostat... I read online that they did a test and found and 5-10% drop in monthly heating costs by turning down the thermostat during the day. Of course, I turn everything off except for the oil heat which stays at 45 (to keep the pipes from freezing).

Of course it's still money and I don't like the idea of wasting anything, nor paying the oil man, so I turn it down. Usually, when I get home my body heat is highest from moving around so much so I don't mind.

Just deal with the cold for a little bit while the house heats up. Makes you appreciate heating and modern conveniences a little more.

 

[Northwoodneil]

Set and forget it. If I turned it down I think my dog would would go into a panic, she already does if I run empty she comes and lets me know the fires out.

 

[mepellet]

All forms of heat transfer (convection/conduction/radiation) are directly affected by temperature differences. Examples of these when talking about a pellet stove are:
-Convection – Heat is transferred to the air by using the distribution blower to blow air across the heat exchanger (I wonder why it is sometimes refered to as the convection blower? ) This is where pellet stoves gives off most of their heat.
-Conduction – Heat is transferred to objects that the stove is in physical contact with (hearth pad). Some stoves (ones that the base does not get hot or ones that have legs) do not have much conduction at all.
-Radiation – Heat is transferred to objects via electromagnetic waves in direct line of sight. Some stoves do not have much radiant heating from what I understand. Many people mention how their stoves are not too hot to touch. My stove does get very hot and has some amount of radiant heating.

Other benefits other than saving on pellet usage are:
1. Running your stove on low or in maintenance burn for extended periods is inefficient and can cause other problems from what I have been told by a few respected forum members.
2. I also like the peace of mind knowing that my stove isn’t causing any fires while I am away from home. I know there are many safety features but it still crosses my mind when we leave the stove on for a couple hours while we are away.
3. Less wear and tear on the stove.
4. This one kind of goes along with number 1.... Many manufacturers recommend running your stove on high once a day to "burn things off." I do this without having to think about it by turning the stove on room temp when I get home. It runs higher until the room gets back up to temp.

As lbcynya said, do whatever you think is best. I’ll keep doing what I know is best for my situation and keeps me comfortable…

 

[GrahamInVa]

set it and forget it here... My wife stays home with our kids so there is usually always someone home.

 

[UMainah]

I have a 1 story ranch with a finished basement. The pellet stove is on the main floor in the living room and it's hooked to a programmable thermostat in the middle of the house. I have the pellet thermostat set so it runs at 63deg at night, goes to up 70deg 30mins before I wake up, then goes to 62deg during the day, then 70deg 30mins before I get home. I an oil boiler for baseboard heat, which is has a zone for the main floor and a zone for the basement. I leave the main floor zone set to 58deg at all times and leave the basement zone set to 50deg since we don't use the area much, just for laundry and my workshop (we also have a guest bedroom in the basement, so I'll turn up the heat when someone is using it).

 

[kcellwood]

I set and forget. I do have a setback thermometer set up with the resistor system but decided I like the set and forget best.