Mordenizer — Home Energy Upgrades | mordenizer.com
Winter and summer setback schedules built on the 7 to 10 degree Fahrenheit, 8-hour rule — with recovery timing so the saving is not burned back.
The standard US Department of Energy guidance is a thermostat setback of 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 hours a day, cutting heating and cooling costs by around 10 percent a year. Eight hours is long enough for the house to drift and short enough to recover before occupancy.
In winter, set the night setback 7–10 °F below the daytime comfort temperature and hold it for eight hours — typically 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Program recovery to start 30 to 60 minutes before the house is occupied, so the system does not run one long recovery burn right when you walk in.
In summer the same rule reverses: allow the setpoint to drift 7–10 °F warmer during the eight hours the house is empty, then recover before evening. The saving comes from the hours spent away from the setpoint, not from the setpoint itself.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Setbacks only pay when the envelope holds the recovered temperature. On a leaky house the recovery burn eats the saving, which is why the air-sealing weekend comes first in the overall sequence.
A 7 to 10 degree Fahrenheit setback for 8 hours a day is the standard US Department of Energy guidance for cutting heating and cooling costs by around 10 percent a year — the one figure on this site that is a direct instruction rather than a programme average.
If the house has zoned dampers or a heat pump with auxiliary heat, keep the setback at the lower end of the range: the larger the swing, the more likely auxiliary strips engage during recovery.
Further reading