With the cat gone I am giving some thought to a spartan (or should I say Alaskan) winter life style.
I had been reluctant to turn down the heat when I was out during the day, but now it seems I should be able to.
I am wondering if there is a trade off in how low one can turn the heat down compared to how much extra it takes to get the heat back to nominal when you return home in the evening. I am thinking that severely lowering the heat and then cranking it up will cancel the savings.
I have oil hot water heat and have four zones in my house. I am considering disconnecting one zone which heats my 24 x 12 foot den that was an addition to the main house. This portion only has a crawl space and not cellar, so the water pipes go through the crawl space and potentially can freeze.
The den has a wood stove and I am thinking that I would be more agressive about burning wood when I am home in the evening sitting in the den. I have a pile of wood sitting around so it is virtually free. The problem is if I run the wood stove, the oil zone shuts off and while the room is toasty, the water pipes are cold and might freeze.
Does it seem feasible to disconnect or shut down one zone and drain the water from the pipes? There are four zone pumps and it would seem that each zone has its own pipe run out to the zone and then back to the furnace. Does that sound right?
I just started thinking about this, but I am pondering two strategies: 1) just shut down the den zone and let the den get heat from the other downstairs zone by air circulation when I am not burning the wood stove; 2) Add in some electric heating that would be used to maintain a minimum temperature in the den. This may involve dismantling the oil water heat radiator baseboard units, but I sort of like the idea of just shutting down and leaving the system intact. I will have to look into this more.
Another question involves the possibility of reducing the size of the oil burner nozzles to try to make the furnace use less oil. Is that possible? Can it be bad for the furnace?
Any input on this will be appreciated. Thanks.
Joe
I had been reluctant to turn down the heat when I was out during the day, but now it seems I should be able to.
I am wondering if there is a trade off in how low one can turn the heat down compared to how much extra it takes to get the heat back to nominal when you return home in the evening. I am thinking that severely lowering the heat and then cranking it up will cancel the savings.
I have oil hot water heat and have four zones in my house. I am considering disconnecting one zone which heats my 24 x 12 foot den that was an addition to the main house. This portion only has a crawl space and not cellar, so the water pipes go through the crawl space and potentially can freeze.
The den has a wood stove and I am thinking that I would be more agressive about burning wood when I am home in the evening sitting in the den. I have a pile of wood sitting around so it is virtually free. The problem is if I run the wood stove, the oil zone shuts off and while the room is toasty, the water pipes are cold and might freeze.
Does it seem feasible to disconnect or shut down one zone and drain the water from the pipes? There are four zone pumps and it would seem that each zone has its own pipe run out to the zone and then back to the furnace. Does that sound right?
I just started thinking about this, but I am pondering two strategies: 1) just shut down the den zone and let the den get heat from the other downstairs zone by air circulation when I am not burning the wood stove; 2) Add in some electric heating that would be used to maintain a minimum temperature in the den. This may involve dismantling the oil water heat radiator baseboard units, but I sort of like the idea of just shutting down and leaving the system intact. I will have to look into this more.
Another question involves the possibility of reducing the size of the oil burner nozzles to try to make the furnace use less oil. Is that possible? Can it be bad for the furnace?
Any input on this will be appreciated. Thanks.
Joe