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How many gas therms are you burning?

Discussion in 'Homeowners Corner' started by RobertD, Mar 11, 2018.

  1. RobertD

    RobertD Member

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    I receive in mail a "Home Energy Report" from Washington Gas. Based on this report, I must be the top gas burner in this neighborhood. (You can sign up to get the report here)

    According to the report, I am consistently around 30% above my neighbors.

    For example this January (bill from Jan 3 to Feb 1), I burned 302 therms of gas. The report states: Based on 95 similar homes within approx 1 mile, that is 28% above average. The efficient neighbor used only 175 therms (20% of neighbors using the least amount of gas), and the average neighbors used 236 therms.

    My guess is, that the usage difference comes from the the combination of these 3 factors:
    1. Heating habits (I think, I know who to blame in my house :) )
    2. Differences in overall thermal insulation (My house has bad insulation?)
    3. I suspect there might be quite a difference between a townhouse (end unit or not) and single family house.
    This last one makes me curious. I live in single family house, and I remember that in town home few miles from here we burned much less gas in winter. I think the report is mixing all the house types together, and I would like to find out, if there is a correlation between the gas usage and the house type.

    I created an anonymous form that could help to identify this. If you are interested, fill out the following form and once there is If enough responses, I will share the results. This is the form.

    This would require you to check your gas bills (or online account) for the gas consumption (in Therms) for the last 4 months.

    You will see the intermediate results immediately after you submit the form, but I will later post if there is a link to the house type.
     
  2. sri_n

    sri_n Member

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    To your hypothesis on single family vs. townhomes - we live in a single family and are consistently bracketed in the "efficient" category. For reference - we do have 2 zone heating/cooling, and during winters our thermostats are usually set at or below 69 F. on both floors.
     
  3. RobertD

    RobertD Member

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    Thank you Sri for your response!

    You made me just realize, that my focus on the type of house is likely secondary to how much time you spend at home and the thermostat temperature settings.

    There will be a big difference between a household with everybody out of the house during the typical weekday work hours, comparing to household where somebody is at home most of the time.

    I have also 2 zone system. We set the temperature to 67F when we are around. I have programmed my thermostats to automatically set the temperature down to 62F downstairs and 59F upstairs, at 4 typical times when we might be not home or would be leaving (right now 1am/9am/noon/9pm). This way the heating basically automatically turns off at these times, without having to remember to turn it off when leaving. The temperature upstairs is set to 66F for overnight.

    So long story short - there are just too many variables to determine if it is because of different house type or house insulation problems. I also keep track of the time the heating is turned on by recording the filter time on the thermostat, but that will directly correlate to the amount of gas therms burned. For example between Feb 17 and March 10 the average is about 2.3 hours per day upstairs and 3.3 hours per day downstairs. Or between 12/15/2017 and 2/17/18 the average is about 4 hours a day upstairs and 6 hours a day downstairs.

    So, stay worm everyone - it might not take many therms anymore - spring is nearby – and global warming is helping too :)
     
  4. sri_n

    sri_n Member

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    Based on your usage as explained above, I would think that you should not be 30% higher than your neighbors. That just seems too high a difference. For example - in our case, as someone is home most of the time, our settings don't change much through the day, yet, as I said we were considered efficient.

    I would recommend calling Dominion and request a free home energy audit. They offer that free of cost and may be able to identify issues, if any.
     
  5. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    I wonder if setting things that cold means the system is working much harder to bring the environment back up to target vs maintaining less extreme levels.

    I mean we set it for basically 72 at warm times, and 68 at overnight/away times.. and my bills are not extreme in any fashion.
     
  6. sri_n

    sri_n Member

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    One thing I noticed - you want your upper level thermostat to be set a degree or two higher than the lower level, regardless of whether you have occupants in the house or not. Since hot air rises, setting your upper level thermostat to a setting that is below the setting on a lower level of the house is counterproductive. What happens is that it will overwork your lower level system, as all the hot air ends up in the upper floor of your house all the time and making your upper level system work less, and lower level system work overtime.
     
  7. sri_n

    sri_n Member

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    Steve has a point. Your max/min range is too wide, one of the recommendations I had read called for 5 degrees or less for forced air systems - not sure where I read it, but for some reason that stuck in my head. Additionally - you may want to consider cutting down your up/down cycles - if your system is playing catch up 4 times a day, that likely adds to it as well. For example - you state that have low settings at 9 AM and 12 PM. You do not say for how long the low setting lasts. Lets assume you have set it to be low for an hour and a half at 9 AM, you are heating your home for just another hour and a half again. That seems overkill. Just my 2c.

    I think of it like driving a car through a street that has a lot of stoplights - do you race to get to the next light, only to stop? or do you pick up pace gradually? The former would be very inefficient from a fuel consumption perspective, I would think.
     
  8. RobertD

    RobertD Member

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    In closure I would like to thank all for your feedback. It made me realize, that my thinking was just too simplistic. There are too many other variables, that is not easy to track and compare with others. For example the times how long you stay at home, your temperature comfort levels, etc.

    Lot of time past since our discussion. At this time, I would say "Stay cool my friends"!
     

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