Latest / Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast / 🌡️ What’s the Best Thermostat Setting? Expert Tips to Stay Warm and Save with Nathan Shafer

Transcript

🌡️ What’s the Best Thermostat Setting? Expert Tips to Stay Warm and Save with Nathan Shafer · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:02
  Nathan, it's great to see you.
• 0:03
  Welcome to the program. Great to see you as always, too, Jim. Thank you.
• 0:07
  As always, we have people who listen to the program and write in.
• 0:12
  And Greg in Sinking Spring has a question. Are you ready, Nathan?
• 0:15
  Sure, let's do it. Okay. He says, we've had a few frosty mornings already.
• 0:20
  What's the best thermostat setting to stay warm without wrecking my heating bill?
• 0:28
  All right. Well, I don't want to get into any debates between him and her in the home.
• 0:35
  I feel like this could be a trap. It might be getting me in trouble here.
• 0:40
  Best temperature to keep the thermostat set in the house. Really,
• 0:42
  I mean, ultimately it comes down to what feels most comfortable to you, right?
• 0:45
  It's your home. You want to be comfortable. Now, how do we address that from
• 0:48
  a utility aspect? There's so many different ways that we can take and keep it
• 0:52
  from killing, I think, the utility bill.
• 0:56
  And so, obviously, for most houses of design, they're going to be around between,
• 1:01
  you know, 70 to that 74 mark, you know, that you see most commonly on the heating side.
• 1:07
  Now, it doesn't mean you can't keep it cooler, and it doesn't mean that some
• 1:10
  like to keep it a little hotter, right, 75, 76, 78.
• 1:13
  But I think a lot of that comes down into then too, commonly,
• 1:16
  each situation is different, but it's for why do we need to keep that so warm to feel comfortable?
• 1:21
  And the reason I say that is because oftentimes it may be something tying back
• 1:25
  to humidity, right? And it's dry in the house. If we could properly control
• 1:28
  the humidity in the house, maybe we could turn the thermostat back a couple
• 1:31
  more degrees and actually be more comfortable all while saving on utilities.
• 1:36
  And or what type of system do we have as far as efficiency wise and different things?
• 1:40
  But as far as just to answer the question of simplicity, as far as what's that
• 1:44
  temperature, you know, most designs are going to be around that,
• 1:47
  you know, 70 to 72, 74 mark.
• 1:51
  You start getting much higher than that. Yes, it is going to run longer to have
• 1:54
  to keep up, etc., which, of course, in turn is going to cost more on the propane
• 1:59
  or natural gas or electric, you know, whatever heating source that you're using.
• 2:04
  How about a sweater?
• 2:07
  A hat mitts. So growing up,
• 2:11
  My mom said, just put on more layers, you know, and, and, um,
• 2:16
  I will say I'd rather be a little colder than too hot.
• 2:19
  So when it's hot, I, I'm really uncomfortable and I, you know,
• 2:24
  I'll need the air conditioning on to cool me off in the summertime.
• 2:27
  In the winter though, and maybe I'm not like most people, cause my wife,
• 2:31
  speaking of, of, you know, having those two different people in the household
• 2:34
  who, who are messing with the thermostat, she always seems to be cold.
• 2:39
  I produce a lot of heat. So for me, it doesn't take much for me to be comfortable.
• 2:45
  And I mean, I don't, I don't need to crank it up that much so I can keep my heating bill low.
• 2:51
  Yeah. Yeah. My wife and I are the same way. If the, something happens,
• 2:54
  right. And we lose cooling or let's say the power goes out.
• 2:57
  I mean, within, and it's a hot summer day and within minutes or less than an
• 3:01
  hour, I'm like, we're making sure that generator's on, AC's running,
• 3:04
  you know, like it's getting hot fast in the wintertime. I mean,
• 3:07
  something happens or power goes out. I'm like, oh, we'll wait and see what it does.
• 3:10
  Uh, but it's getting down to 65 or 60. Oh, that's, that's not bad.
• 3:13
  Like bundle up. Like I can still sleep actually in this, but an extra blanket,
• 3:16
  I could probably sleep better, you know, but everybody's different.
• 3:19
  Right. Uh, I I'm the same way. I could deal with the coolness way easier, better than I can.
• 3:24
  The heat, my wife's the complete opposite. Right. So as I said,
• 3:26
  ultimately that's set it at a temperature that you're comfortable.
• 3:29
  However, if you're fine in that you're thinking, man, I'm having to keep it.
• 3:33
  Some people are way cooler in the summer, right? Like they want to keep it down at 65.
• 3:36
  Well, that's a problem, right? And the system is not designed to cool that temperature.
• 3:40
  Maybe you're having to keep it up at, you know, 75, 6, 7, 8, 9 in the wintertime.
• 3:44
  That's also that let's look and see, hey, is there something else that's tying into that comfort?
• 3:49
  If we're finding ourselves having to keep it way outside the average rather
• 3:53
  than the norm of set points, because oftentimes.
• 3:57
  Surprisingly, there is, like I said earlier, a lot of ties back to,
• 4:01
  you know excess or not enough humidity in the air depending on the time of the
• 4:04
  year and the winter time is going to be too dry right and so that's going to
• 4:07
  make it feel a lot colder to us,
• 4:11
  And so there's ways that we can help with that. Nathan, as always,
• 4:13
  thank you so much for joining me and bringing your expertise,
• 4:16
  your years and years of experience in the HVAC world.
• 4:20
  I appreciate it. By the way, everybody, all of Nathan's information is located
• 4:24
  in the description of this podcast. There's no excuse not to reach out to him.
• 4:27
  And there's also some pretty cool things within that description.
• 4:31
  So I encourage you to read it.
• 4:32
  Thank you so much for joining me today, bud. Hey, thank you, Jim. My pleasure.