Change Air to Heat?

[HTing]

We are new to the villages. We travel up and down 95 from MA as many times as we can. In the summer we left the Air on 80 and it seemed to work. When do most people change from Air to Heat and what temp do you put the heat on when you leave for a few weeks?

[Ooper]

We never put the heat on unless we are chilled. Even leaving for a 2 or 3 week vacation, nothing in the house will be hurt by not having the heat on, even if it falls below freezing outside. There is plenty of residual heat stored in the house mass to compensate for a few cold days.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Most of the time the sun heats the house pretty well, even on days where the temperature dips. On cold cloudy days, I need to put it on for a bit and sometimes if we're having several days in the 50s or below I might put it on in the morning for a half hour or so.

By the way, if you're gong to be spending summers up north you might want to look into a humidistat. It's a device that turns your air conditioning on depending on the humidity regardless of the temperature. If you set your air on 80 it will almost run non-stop in the summer months. With a humidistat, you can set the temperature on 100 and the air will only come on when the humidity reaches a certain level and then turn off when the humidity has been cleared out

[Uptown Girl]

We had a humidistat installed as soon as we bought our home. It's small, like a wall thermostat.
We felt good knowing we had one operating during periods when we would be gone for an indefinite period of time…. before we became frogs. :thumbup:

[Russ_Boston]

I agree with the Heat comments - no need to turn that on when gone in the winter.

Be careful with the humidistat. They work great when set for a 'decent' humidity level (maybe 60%?). Put it too low and it can work against you. I've tried many levels and 60% is about right. But it comes on about the same amount of time during the summer as setting the temp to 80. The danger with setting to 80 is that the air may not come on enough to keep the house dry. At least this has been my experience. But we're never away for more than 10-14 days or so.

[HTing]

The idea of a humidistat sounds interesting. Who did you have install it and what was the cost? Thanks for the advice on the heat.

[Rango]

I agree with the Heat comments - no need to turn that on when gone in the winter.

Be careful with the humidistat. They work great when set for a 'decent' humidity level (maybe 60%?). Put it too low and it can work against you. I've tried many levels and 60% is about right. But it comes on about the same amount of time during the summer as setting the temp to 80. The danger with setting to 80 is that the air may not come on enough to keep the house dry. At least this has been my experience. But we're never away for more than 10-14 days or so.

The instructions with my humidistat say: "set temp. to 82, Humidity to 55%"

[bonrich]

I had Munn's install our humidistat. Can't recall the price but it is worth it in my mind since we are away in the summer months and Holiday time. I set the humidistat at 60% and the A/C at 78. The house will get warm, above the 78 degrees but as long as the humidity is below the 60%, the air will not turn on. The humidity is the culprit and could do some serious damage to the interior of your home. We also hang Damp Rid in each closet that has clothes hanging. We keep the closet doors open when we head back North. You would be surprised of how much water is taken out of the air in our closets.

[CFrance]

When we were snowbirds, we debated getting a humidistat. Our builder told us to set the a/c at 82 and don't worry. He said he's had new houses sit empty for as much as a year and never had a problem. So that's what we did. There were plenty of other things to spend $400 on in a new house. The electric bills were minimal in the summer, and the house was fine. When we would come back in the early fall, it didn't even feel overly warm in the house. They're really well insulated.

Now that we're frogs, when we go away in the winter we do the same thing we used to do up north--set the heat to come on at 55. But I don't think that's necessary--that's just old habit from years of leaving in the winter.