Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My new home is located in the south, and this is my first experience with having two separate thermostats on the first and second floors. How do you set your temps for maximum efficiency?
We are currently not using the upper floor. I know that heat rises, so I have been setting the upstairs a few degrees lower than downstairs. Should I be doing the opposite? At first I planned on turning it off completely upstairs, but I thought it would make it run too hard downstairs to make up for it.
The temps are plummeting today. What do you do?
In the north everything was on one large furnace, so I just opened or closed floor vents, upper and lower, based on the season.
Easy. First get programmable thermostats unless you already have them. Then just set the programming to reflect your actual use, general times at home, times at work etc.
Illustration: We have 3 zones: (1) Upstairs, (2) most of first floor (LR, kitchen, dining) and (3) master BR and fam rm. Upstairs is vacant (kids left) so that stays at 52 deg. The other 2 drop to 55 at night, up to 68 at 7am, down to 55 during the day and back to 68 at about 6pm. Weekends we just drop the temp at night. We let temp swing a lot, maybe more than optimum.
I live in the south and have two thermostats, but a single-story home this time around.
Up north, our old house was a split-level with dual-zoned heat pumps and of course two thermostats. We kept them both on the same setting because I found that lowering the upstairs made it feel cold downstairs and the downstairs unit ran more. Many years ago I lived in a true two-story and it had dual-zoned radiant hot-water heat. I had to keep the upstairs a few degrees warmer or it felt cold downstairs. We later had a door installed at the top of the stairs and found that by closing that door during the day we could set the upstairs thermostat lower and the downstairs would still stay warm.
Technically you just have "two systems"- 1 for the main floor, and 1 for the upper level. "Zoned" systems are an entirely different beast.
I personally use the same temp for each floor. I see no real gain/benefit of using different temp's for different levels.
I know some people use a 2-3 degree differential between floors depending on seasons- though they say it works for them, I tell them they are actually wasting energy. Then, when I try an explain "Fluid Dynamics"- they're lost.
I know some people use a 2-3 degree differential between floors depending on seasons- though they say it works for them, I tell them they are actually wasting energy. Then, when I try an explain "Fluid Dynamics"- they're lost.
Well explain it to me. I'm a chemist and I understand thermodynamics.
I set whichever area that I don't use lower than the occupied areas. Afterall, why put heat into an area when not needed. I know that the hotter air wants to equilibrate with the colder zones, but there's still savings from less BTUs being used for the colder areas.
I did have the upstairs set about 8 degrees cooler at first, then I noticed a cold draft coming down the steps.
I wish I could block off the staircase, but it has a vaulted area and large stairs that would make it a huge, expensive project to block off.
In that case it makes sense to keep the temps the same. What the two systems are doing is giving you better heating/cooling on the second floor. With just one system, especially on extreme weather days, you don't get the best effect on the 2nd level.
We have two. They are almost always set at different temps. We have a big roof and in the summer it's always hotter upstairs so the ac is set to cooler. In the winter (we face north!) the downstairs is always cooler, so it gets more heat. But the difference is usually only 2/3 degrees, nothing dramatic.
I have 5 heat zones if you count the heated floor in our kitchen which is on it's own thermostat. Then we also have two separate AC zones. So our layout for heat is bonus room, upstairs, dining/living room, family room, kitchen/laundry. AC is simply up and downstairs on a separate system. Natural gas with radiant hot water baseboard with a basement furnace and the AC is in the attic.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
