Does anybody know which is more efficient… turning the heat right down at night and having to heat the house up in the morning … or just turning it down a few degrees and having to warm it up just a few degrees. Which way uses less gas??
I think that turning it down a bit would save more rather than shutting it offbut dont take my word for it.
Leaving the heat off overnight will save you money.
Are we talking electric heat? Or natural gas?
Keep in mind, whenever you start anything up, it takes up more energy than to just keep it on.
Example, cars use more fuel during startup, lighbulbs use more electricity to turn them on.
If you’re talking things that use an element, it’s cheaper to keep it on. Turning it on sucks up all of the energy.
[quote=“bubbasteve735”]
Are we talking electric heat? Or natural gas?[/quote]
[quote=“marvies”]
Which way uses less gas??[/quote]
what bubba pointed out is true. it’s cheaper to keep things on as turning heat on and off will skyrocket your charge
Or you can do like us - almost fainted at the insane rates that PNG charges when we moved here last year. At that time PNG was charging more than twice what Terasen was charging just for the delivery charge.
Sooo - we don’t run the furnace - got a couple space heaters and so far so good. Obviously if it gets colder out or anything we will use the furnace - but no way in hell was I paying that kind of money for heat.
Actually it’s a wives tale.
Save money by turning your heater off overnight and using a big blanket.
To those of you who still believe that it’s more efficient to leave your car running while stopped at a drive through window and that turning your lights off costs more than leaving them on do me a favor and state your reasons so I can dispute them.
Science is a bitch. And she’s more than proven that turning stuff off saves energy. This includes your furnace and your car.
My thermostat turns off my heat at 11pm. It turns it back on at 7am. In that time, the temperature in my living room goes from 22 to perhaps 17 or 18. It takes less than a minute to get it back to 22. Whereas having the furnace kick in every once in a while to keep it at 22 all night long would add up to a lot more than a minute of gas use, and it would involve turning the furnace off and on.
Same with your car. If you’re going to idle more than a few seconds, turn off your engine and save gas. A lot of energy efficient vehicles do this automatically.
Yeah, I always turn down the thermostat at night. That saves lots of money. Natural gas is expensive.
google for “energy saving myths”:
google.ca/search?q=energy+saving+myths
Home Energy Myths
[quote]3. Myth: Turning down your thermostat uses more energy because it has to work harder to make it cool/hot again once turn it back up.
This energy myth costs utility customers loads of money during the cold months. Turning your thermostat back (or purchasing a programmable thermostat that will do it for you) while you are away or asleep can only save you money, it will never cost you more. The explanation for this is a bit complicated, but the key points are that your home is much more resistant to heat loss than you may think, furniture and carpeting retain enough heat so that your furnace will not have to work that hard to raise back up to a comfortable temperature. The longer that the furnace is off, the more savings you will achieve because the energy used to reheat a space is always less than or equal to the amount of energy used to keep it at a consistent higher temperature.
- Myth: “Flipping the light switch on and off makes your electricity bill high!â€[/quote]
Mig’s got it.
Also a little note I’d like to mention is the larger the difference between the temperature of your house and the temperature outside the greater the rate of heat transfer between the two. In other words keeping your house heated a few degrees hotter can increase your heating bill more than you might expect.
You don’t have to turn it all the way up and then open all the windows because it’s stuffy. That wastes a LOT! There’s a little lever on the thermostat you can turn up and down a little bit if you want.
and I’m not saying it just cuz I’m a fucking MAN… it’s actually TRUE… 
LMAO…classic stuff. Yep, that little lever saves me piles of cash. 