Gas Furnace Thermostat Regulation

[svk]

I am renting a small office building that has a gas furnace this winter. I will be in there probably 4 days a week.

The furnace is only a couple years old and my friend who is a gas repairman said it is a good one. I know it is quite efficient.

What is the most efficient way to regulate the heat? Keep it at 50 when gone and turn it up when I arrive? Or turn it up Monday morning to 65 ish and keep it there till I am done on Thursday or Friday and then down for the weekend.

 

[LondonNeil]

turn it down when not there.

 

[kevin j]

Steve:
Keep as low as possible when not needed.

There is a misconception that it takes more energy to warm everything up than to maintain higher, but not true. UNLESS it has a more expensive form of fast heating up, say a heat pump efficient to maintain, with backup electric heater that uses more expensive energy that would kick in on warmup. With normal gas furnace, any energy you put into the building during warmup comes back upon cooldown, so you aren’t wasting it.

I have a programmable tstat with 7 individual days, 4 periods per day. Since my schedule varied so much, I set all the intervals properly, but set all to about 60F. Then, whenever I get home, I manually bump it up to 67. Small house, quick warmup. Or I start the woodstove.
Then, if schedule varied, or gone, it stayed low. If I bumped up and forgot to set it back down when I left, it reverted to the lower temp automatically when that block of time ran out.

Maybe your landlord will share part of tstat cost, but one I just bought yesterday for a church only cost about $75.

Unless you need it warm quickly, I’d run it low as possible all the time.

 

[svk]

Thanks guys.

It has a digital thermostat. Didn’t check to see if it’s programmable.

I just checked, the building is 720 SF so should heat up pretty quickly.

 

[LondonNeil]

you'd enjoy the convenience of a programmable timer thermostat and gas boiler. I LOVE my wood stove...but I love the gas boiler for just warming the place when i want all on its own. I don;t like gas bills though....and do like saws and axes, luckily

 

[kevin j]

Yes, natural gas is nice.

Bunny trail, but I burn wood about half heat because it is my only link still to the machinery and woods. But I am FULLY aware that I could pay natural gas the rest of my life for the money invested in saws, splitters, and gear, etc. It reminds me that I cut with gas saws, haul with gas truck, split with gas engine, burn in efficient modern stove, in house with insulation and good windows. And when the stove dies down at 2am, the furnace kicks on, I don’t have to get up and stoke to survive.
Our ancestors sawed and chopped by hand, hauled with an oxen if they were lucky, split by hand, shoveled it into ineffiient stove or fireplace, and tried to heat uninuslated walls with air coming in around every door and window crack. And it was mighty cold in the morning to wake up.

We are SO blessed.