Let’s say that you’ve come home after a particularly chilly day, and the temperature inside your home offers no relief from the cold outside. Your natural reaction will very likely be to go to your thermostat and turned the temperature up to as warm as you can bear.
Unfortunately, this really doesn’t do much good. In fact, if the temperature of your home is—hypothetically speaking—currently set at 68, and you turn it up to 80, your heating system isn’t going to work any faster than had you set it 75.
If It Does No Good, Does It Do Your Furnace Harm?
Increasing the temperature in your home too much can actually do more harm than good. You’d be wasting energy by allowing your furnace to continually run in an ill-fated attempt to achieve your desired temperature.
When you set the temperature too high, your heater doesn’t work as efficiently as it should. In fact, most HVAC systems cannot reach temperatures outside of 20 degrees warmer or cooler than the current temperature of your home, so you’d be wasting electricity on a heater that’s trying to reach a setting that it simply cannot.
Choosing the Right Temperature for Your Home
The recommended HVAC temperature setting from the Department of Energy is between 72 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the range that the average person can feel comfortable, and yet does not use an unreasonable amount of energy.
Of course, there may be occupants in your home that have different heating and cooling preferences, so you will need to find a temperature that everyone can agree on, or invest in a zone control system, which allows for individualized control over the temperature of each room in the home.
Your comfort is our promise. Contact Dalton Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, Inc. today for your
Waverly, IA heating service needs.