At 02:15 PM 9/16/2010, Randall wrote:
>> At our new office I found out that the "emergency" heat came on when
>> there was a more than 5 degree difference between setting and
>>temperature.
>Seems like it would be trivial to make a more intelligent decision (like
>looking at the temperature rise over time and only cutting in the backup
>heat if the heat pump can't raise the temperature inside the house), but I
>didn't find any thermostats that worked that way.
That would take more intellegence than is in most thermostats, consiquently
more cost.
But in effect that is what is happening with the current thermostats. If you
crank up the stat by more than about 2 deg. the stat thinks it can't keep up
with the temp differential. It thinks it's real cold outside and the
heat loss
is not letting the heat applied raise the temperature. So it cuts on the aux.
heat to help recover.
I had oil then gas fired forced hot air in my 1st house. I could
live confortably
in the winter with the start set to about 68. But with the heat pump I have to
set the stat to about 74 to 76 to start to feel confortable.
I have had a heat pump in my house for the last 25 yrs. (Well actually I'm on
my third one.) While they have gotten a lot better over the last 25
yrs, one bad
thing about them is they blow relatively cool air (typically 88-92
deg). So even
when they are on, and able to keep up, it feels cool. The registers
in my house
are in the ceiling. So during the winter the temp at the ceiling is
say 74 but the
floor will be 60. So you feet well be freezing when you are sitting
around. A ceiling fan helps, but then its moving cool air around and
you still feel cold.
I put in gas log in the family room about 2 yrs ago. So now when we get cold,
or the heat pump can't keep up, we just turn the logs on. This really heats up
the family room and spreds out through the house being recycled by the heat
pump. I'm not sure If this is really cost effective or not. Yes,
the electric bill
is lower, but now I'm paying an additional $30ish dollars per month for the 3
winter months. The raise in the electric bill would be about $40ish, so there
is a monitary advantage, and a big PLUS for the added confort!!!
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair1948@cox.net
Va. Beach, Va
Phone: (757) 495-8229
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