Thermostat Setting

by **Sunnyside** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:00 am

We live in southwest Michigan and have a 4 ton geo unit. We are heading into our first winter with it and are wondering from an efficiency perspective 1)is it best to leave the thermostat set all the time at a given setting (say 70), or 2) set it back to say 66 during the night? We would like to keep the strip heaters off as much as possible to keep our electric bill down. Any thoughts/comments would be greatly appreciated.

by **Bergy** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:45 pm

Sunnyside,

Most digital heat pump stats will start bringing on aux strip heat with a two or three degree differential between the set point and the home temp. In the 10 years we have been installing Geothermal systems we have never been advised by any manufacturer to do a night set back. Others have differing opinions but remember, your heat pump's COP will be around 4 while the electric strip's COP is 1. Let the heat pump do the work...

Bergy

by **AMI Contracting** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:48 am

I've found many of my MI customers are so used to dialing down at night that they are uncomfortable if it is too warm when they try to sleep. If this is you, you might ask installer what the options are to disable aux. heat until desired.
Joe