Should You Turn Down The Furnace When Leaving Your Home…Or Not?

 In many GTA homes, this could be dinner conversation or the source of some heated disagreements. Should you turn down the heat when you leave the home or keep the furnace running as usual when you’re home?

There could be several reasons for turning down the furnace or heat in your home during the day, especially if no one is going to be home. There could be energy savings reasons and environmentally friendly intent, budgetary constraints and the need or desire to save money, as well as well meaning indoor air quality reasons and the belief that a cooler home is better for mould growth prevention.

However, with these good intentions you may actually be harming your indoor environment and causing poor indoor air quality with fluctuating temperatures. Here is a list of problems associated with turning down the furnace for a few hours or even a few days when no one is home.

Top 5 Reasons not to turn down the Heat when you leave the house:

  1. If it gets too cold, plumbing pipes could freeze inside walls (especially those in or near outside walls) leading to plumbing leaks or even burst pipes.  
  2. Outer walls could get colder and then lead to condensation and eventual mould growth.
  3. All walls, surfaces and contents could get colder actually making your furnace work harder when you get back home to properly heat the home again.
  4. If the furnace doesn’t run then the furnace filter also doesn’t clean and filter the air. You could have more airborne dust when you come home.
  5. Not having constant air flow through your vents (ducts) could lead to an increase in dust settling in your vents and ducts. Constant airflow and the blower fan in the permanent ON position is the best way to have good indoor air quality.

There are lots of opinions online about actual energy savings and benefits of turning down the furnace or hear before you go to sleep or before you leave the home. They are very contradictory.

Here is a link that promotes turning down the furnace and possible energy savings:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/221788/straight-dope-does-setting-the-heat-lower-at-night-really/

And here is another link that says don’t turn down the heat:

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/wrong-to-turn-thermostat-down-at-night

The best advice that we can give is leave the temperature at a comfortable setting of 21 degrees celsius and leave it there. Even better is to have an indoor air quality test to determine what your temperature and relative humidity levels are throughout the home not just at the thermostat. We can then also tell you if you have adequate ventilation, proper air filtration and if you have any other indoor air quality issues such as chemical off gassing or VOC’s, formaldehyde, or even a hidden mould growth problem. Think of indoor air quality testing as a physical for your home.

We all should see a doctor at least once or twice in a few years for a preventative health check up or physical. When was the last time your did that for your home. A detailed air quality test of your home can show you best practices for improving your indoor air quality and can give you peace of mind that you have a healthy home.

In cases where your indoor air quality is poor, we can make specific recommendation on what steps you need to take to get the best indoor air quality and what are some of the best air filtration systems available in the Toronto area.

Call us today for an indoor air quality test and peace of mind

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