How well do you control your energy usage

[Mark44]

Like is your house insulated to updated code, double glazed widows, cavity wall insulation, Do you control you energy usage

The house my wife and I live in is fairly new (built in '98), so it adheres to all the building codes in place then. All the windows and sliders are double pane, and the walls, ceiling, and floors are well insulated. I replaced the outside lights with LED bulbs a few months ago, and I replaced the switch for them with a timer.

The thermostat is digital, and is set to accommodate my wife's preferences for heating. The thermostat comes on when she gets up (she's still working -- I'm retired), and go off at 9AM. She gets home about 3PM, so the thermostat kicks in again at that time, and goes off at 10:30PM, with a setting of 60 deg (F). When it's on, it's set for 69 deg (F). If it were just me, I would set it a bit cooler, but she isn't as well adapted to cooler temps as I am. The house is well enough insulated that it almost never cools down to 60 during the night, which would cause the theirmostat to start the furnace.

Our house is in W. Washington, where the temps are pretty moderate. During the winter, it might get down into the low teens (F) for a few days, but this is pretty rare. In summer, the high temps can get to the mid-90s (F), but the usual temps are mid-70s to mid-80s (F) (say 20 to 25 deg. C). As a consequence, very few houses are air conditioned. In the almost 50 years I've lived in this state, I've only ever seen it get above 100 deg. (F) twice.

 

[wolram]

Hehe - where I live, 20-30F is a common daytime high in the middle of winter.

Another issue that can get complicated is how to heat your home when you have multiple methods available. I generally recommend using a space heater for a bit of spot heating in the room you are in, but if you overdo that, it may end up costing you, especially if you have natural gas fired central heat. If the electric space heater is really blasting, it might cost more to heat that room than it would to heat your whole house with gas.

We have a coal fire which heats the house and the water, people think a coal fire is inefficient but we only stoke it up three times a day.