Anyone heat their other house/cabin in the winter?

[Walleyehooker]

I'm wondering what you set the thermostat at for minimal heat. Is it cheaper if you set it at say 45 VS 55-60 or so. 

[delcecchi]

Yes, of course it is cheaper.  The savings will be proportion to the difference between inside and outside.   So if it is zero outside it would cost about 20% less to do 45 instead of 55.  

Will your thermostat go that low?   The down side is you have less buffer if the heat quits for some reason, like a power failure.   There would be a shorter time before pipes start to freeze.   The larger temperature fluctuation also causes more movement of the structure and a greater likelihood of cracking sheetrock if you have it.  

 

[leech~~]

36 minutes ago, Walleyehooker said:

I'm wondering what you set the thermostat at for minimal heat. Is it cheaper if you set it at say 45 VS 55-60 or so. 

One of my buddies has a mfg home as a cabin up north, he has everything on electricity, furnace, hot water everything. He leaves it set at 50 degrees all winter mainly because that is the lowest his thermostat will go down.  He never had an issue but the problems can be when you have a long run of really cold like 15- to 20- plus below for a long stretch some of the plumbing can still freeze up.  He does have elc tape on all the water pipes under neath but if he loses power he's screwed!  A few things that I have suggested to him when he first got it.

Leave all the room doors open.

leave all the cabinet doors at the kitchen and bathroom sink open to let what ever warmth can get to them.

Shut off your well pump breaker each time you leave, in case a pipe does crack you wouldn't come back to a big frozen solid cabin! 

Edited October 30, 2017 by leech~~

[delcecchi]

I hadn't thought of pipes in the wall or in crawl space freezing with the heat on.   Good point.   And some sort of alarm would probably be a good idea.  

Edited October 30, 2017 by delcecchi

[Walleyehooker]

Don't get up there a lot but if we ever get some snow I might get up there more during the winter. I am going to shut off the water and blow out the lines anyway. My only reason for keeping the heat on is I don't want to go up when its cold and raise the temp 50-70 degrees in a short time. 

[leech~~]

25 minutes ago, Walleyehooker said:

Don't get up there a lot but if we ever get some snow I might get up there more during the winter. I am going to shut off the water and blow out the lines anyway. My only reason for keeping the heat on is I don't want to go up when its cold and raise the temp 50-70 degrees in a short time. 

I think that I heard there is some kind of new snazzy cell phone deal where you can go on line and turn on and up the heat before you get there or do what we use to do at his old place. Turn the heat up and run into town for a few burgers. Or turn the heat on and up by the time you snow blow the place out for parking, your tootsies will be warm when you get back!

Edited October 30, 2017 by leech~~

[Wanderer]

21 minutes ago, leech~~ said:

I think that I heard there is some kind of new snazzy cell phone deal where you can go on line and turn on and up the heat before you get there 

There are options out there but I think you need WiFi at the place.

I just put a new system in my house that can be controlled by phone as long as I have WiFi.  Our WiFi is S-L-O-W so I don’t plan on using it.  But hey, it’s there.

[Walleyehooker]

Ive heard of those but don't have wi fi there either. Have a friend that would turn it up when I need it and checks on the place for me to. Last couple years I just shut it down and drained everything and didn't use it. But want to go up this winter and use it and don't want big fluctuations in the heat. Will bring some water with and can shower at my friends place if needed. Only big drawback with no water is have to use porta potty but have done that before. I just put a bag in the toilet to catch things and way more comfortable than a bucket etc.

[leech~~]

42 minutes ago, Walleyehooker said:

Ive heard of those but don't have wi fi there either. Have a friend that would turn it up when I need it and checks on the place for me to. Last couple years I just shut it down and drained everything and didn't use it. But want to go up this winter and use it and don't want big fluctuations in the heat. Will bring some water with and can shower at my friends place if needed. Only big drawback with no water is have to use porta potty but have done that before. I just put a bag in the toilet to catch things and way more comfortable than a bucket etc.

Oh yes the bags in the toilet. Used that a many times at another friends cabin that is out in the middle of no where up by Dora Lake Mn. Smaller heater in the middle of the cabin, power, 3-4 channels on the TV on a good day and no water in the winter when we went up sledding. 

Where a bout's is your place and how do you plow it out for use in the winter?  He had a 4 wheeler with a V plow to break through the county plows rock hard berm at the road and plow a parking spot out.

Edited October 30, 2017 by leech~~

[Walleyehooker]

About 5 miles west of Hibbing. I have one of the neighbors plow the driveway.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Do you have a wood burner?  Would love to heat ours but the crawl space is wide open.  Its on the smaller end but we can have it up to 80 within the hour in the dead of winter.

[leech~~]

10 hours ago, Walleyehooker said:

About 5 miles west of Hibbing. I have one of the neighbors plow the driveway.

Well, may be some weekend we will have to bring up the sleds and check out your heater situation!

[Walleyehooker]

Don't have a wood burner. Trail runs right past my back yard up there. If we ever get snow I want to run up to Ely and back. 

[Macgyver55]

We used to make a run to Ely and back every year from my place in McGregor!

 

[leech~~]

47 minutes ago, Macgyver55 said:

We used to make a run to Ely and back every year from my place in McGregor!

 

Yeah, well that was when you had a sled!!   Get a new one yet?

Sure miss getting a bunch of guys together for a ride like a few years ago.

[Hoey]

I heat my double-wide modular cabin at LOTW through the winter so I can have water toilet, shower, and dish-washing.  I have a 2,000 gallon tank with a pump and pressure tank, so I have to keep that from freezing.  The HVAC guy had me use 52F as my un-occupied setting.  I have since bumped that up to 58F so that the warm up time is somewhat reduced.  I also have a monitoring system connected to the phone line provided by the propane dealer.  They monitor tank volume for refills, flow rate for major leaks, and indoor temp for furnace failures.  

I do not consider the water potable and treat the tank twice a year, empty in the spring and just prior to filling in the fall with bleach.  

[Walleyehooker]

The house is a story and a half with a small upstairs level. I block off the stairwell to the upstairs with a heavy shipping blanket and close the vents as I don't need that space in the winter so feel no need to heat it.

[Walleye Guy]

We have a lake home in western Wisconsin.  I set the thermostat at 47 when we leave the cabin.  I have a Honeywell WIFI thermostat that I monitor and remotely set the temps with. It works awesome. If we are going up on Friday evening I use my phone to change the temperature to 68 on Friday morning.  I do the same for the AC in the summer.  

We have a  DSL internet connection now but did have slow satellite internet up until this past spring and the WIFI thermostat worked great even with the slow connection.

[Cooperman]

I have a lake place in Nevis, and keep the thermostat at 50 when I leave. I have a monitor system that calls me when the temperature fall below my low limit, and if the power goes out. It an older unit that works over the phone line. It’s saved my a$$ twice now. I plan on updating to a WiFi thermostat since I now has WiFi there.

[delcecchi]

Keep the alarm, since wifi doesn't work if the power goes out.

[titelines]

We have in-floor heat at our place (and a wood stove for when we are there).  We keep ours set at 60 to allow for that buffer - just a little extra time for the in-floor heat to freeze up if something were to happen.  We also turn on a sink and then shut our well pump down every time we leave. That releases some pressure and allows the pipes to drain a bit.  Have never had a problem, but it only takes one.

[roony]

On 10/29/2017 at 7:09 PM, delcecchi said:

Yes, of course it is cheaper.  The savings will be proportion to the difference between inside and outside.   So if it is zero outside it would cost about 20% less to do 45 instead of 55.  

 

What is the formula you are using to determine cost per degree thermostat is lowered if it is zero out?

[delcecchi]

The heat loss is proportional to the difference in temperature, so if the interior temp is 70 and the outside is 0, that is a delta t of 70.   Lowering the inside temp to 69 will reduce the heat loss by 1/70 or about 1.4%.   

Lowering the temp to 60 would reduce the loss by 10/70 or 14%.   

And if it is 55 and you lower to 45, it is 10/55 less.   or 45/55 as much.   

[roony]

In other words you are using the Wag approach

[delcecchi]

Science.   Why are you skeptical of the calculation?   That is exactly the same type calculation used for R values.   

What other factors other than the temperature differential should have been taken into account?   Energy loss due to infiltration is also proportional to temperature differential.   Nothing WAG about it.   

So, let's see your knowledge of HVAC and Physics.   You tell us what the real answer is and how you arrived at it.  Show your work.  

 

[Wanderer]

5 hours ago, roony said:

In other words you are using the Wag approach

No, he’s not.  There can be variables but that’s the baseline.