Just curious and since most of us are in the same geographical location, I can get a good input. Looking at my thermostat, I’m showing about 12-13hrs each day for the past couple days. Is that a lot? I need a couple windows replaced and the insulation in the walls probably sucks (at least in the bathroom it did).
My boiler runs all winter, non stop, but it’s designed to. Better not be tearing out that ceiling fan.
No clue how much it’s on or off. But mid day when I’m home it’s on about 3 times an hour for a couple.
hahahah. nah. Finished it in the summer, took out just about everything besides the ceiling.
at 72 degrees/ i run 6-8 hrs every 24
MY boiler run time data says 23.1 hours consistent over the past 3 days. A little less the warmer days prior. It is heating 4 zones that request at different points so it makes sense. I wish it told me how often it was actually firing, I could probably work out a simple sensor for that.
Mine ran 11-12 hours the past two days…However when its not 15 outside it doesn’t run that long obviously.
Last week 6-7 hours
^Ok, so not too far off mine. I’m heating 1 zone, ~1200 sqft.
Anyone got recommendations on furnace tune ups? If not I’ll check angie’s list.
Not sure how much it runs but when I complained about how much propane it uses to my HVAC guy he asked me if it ever shuts off. He didn’t think it could use that much in one month. 
I’m heating 2 zones @ 1,2o0 Sq ft total, temp set at 72 for both zones. I’m willing to be that it’s running 75% of most days when it’s this cold. My house isn’t insulated and I prefer to have my house warmer.
I also just replaced the vent damper, gas valve, thermocouple and gas pilot line, so it’s running the best it can be right now.
I also have an electric fireplace in the living room and a space heater in the kitchen that kick in from time to time.
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My house is 1700sq ft keeping it upper 60s usually turn it down a little at night.
Granted I am not located in buffalo anymore but here is my numbers for yesterday.
Heat Pump- 2100 sq ft house, house is kept at 68 when I am home, when I am away my nest lets it get down to 62 before it starts to heat again. Yesterday it ran for 5 1/2 hours.
I tried to keep mine at 68 when I’m home but it’s just too damn cold. 71 when I’m home and 68 when I’m at work. Furnace is 1 year old with all brand new windows on the first floor and it runs for about 4-5 hours a day.
So, with the heat pumps we were told not to put it down that low when we leave the house. Reason being that when you turn the thermostat up any more than 2 degrees that it will kick on the emergency heat strips and start to run up a large electric bill. We were told that it would be more comfortable to “set it and forget it”, and that putting it up and down will only save a negligible amount at the end of the year.
What are your thoughts? How do you manage the issue of the emergency heat?
You can use heat pump balance on the nest which gives you the options of: This minimizes the use of Auxiliary heat (or emergency heat).
Max savings
Balanced
Max Comfort
I have mine set to balanced and it rarely ever kicks onto emergency heat. It kicked on the other day but it was 15 degrees out which was the coldest its been this year so far. My highest electric bill so far this winter has only been 75$. I don’t live in buffalo anymore so I don’t have as cold of weather as yall do anymore.
I do hvac.
When it comes to the people with boilers, if they show you run time, you might want to check in your owners manual to see if the runtime log is for a call for heat or for when the burners are actually on.
The burners will shut off when the water in the system gets to its set point temperature, and the circulator/pump will continue to circulate the hot water through your radiators.
So if you have a tstat that is giving you the runtime log, it doesn’t mean the entire time it’s running that you’re using natural gas, because once the water in the system is up to temp the boiler will kill the burners and still circulate warm water throughout the house.
Interesting. I’m in Raleigh NC so completely get where you’re coming from on climate. We’ve also had a few cold snaps (down to like 9 one night which is unheard of). We’re still trying to get used to how to manage the heat in our new house. We have a heat pump for upstairs (which I’ve never had before) and propane heat downstairs.
Yea im about an hour outside of DC in Virginia. Ive been gone since 6 this morning when I left my house was at 68, right not its at 65 according to Nest. In the last week the most my heat pump has run was 6.5 hours.
Also not sure how much you got into your Nest, but I bought the Skylark app and I love it,
Oh, I should be clear, we don’t have any smart thermostats. We have zero smart home devices at the moment. But as we’ve built a brand new house which is certified green (or something) efficient and all of that jazz, I’m really interested in connecting some things in it to maximize the efficiency. Having propane as a gas source (and a heat pump upstairs) isn’t cheap, so there’s some motivation to get things as efficient as possible.
The hangup I have with smart home things is 1. Securtiy (which I can work around) and 2. Limited bandwidth. We’re stuck with shitty 6 down, 1 up DSL. So I don’t want to load the house up with crap that talks to the cloud and crush my connection. Looks like the Nest Thermostat is relatively low bandwitdh usage, but I need to be careful still.
July 2016 - 240 hrs
August 2016 - 260 hrs
September 2016 - 110 hrs
October 2016 - 56 hrs
November 2016 - 83 hrs
December 2016 - 194 hrs
My Ecobee3 is telling me I’m at 87% communitiy comparison for efficiency in the area. So, those monthly numbers are pretty decent. In the country, I’m only at 64% efficient.
The reason my efficiency is low, is that the NY average is 68Home/64Away. I keep mine at 71Home/68Away. Costs me about $125 extra a year for my extra comfort, according to the website. Instead of 5% savings, I’d be at 16% savings with lower temps. (NO thanks)