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Comment by quickthrowman | Hacker News Reader

> Heating a building when you aren't there is silly. [0]

If I don’t heat my home when I’m not there in the winter, the water supply lines will freeze and burst causing thousands or tens of thousands in damage. I think I’ll heat my home when I’m not there, thanks.

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I'm pretty sure the OC means "don't heat your home to a comfortable habitation level when you aren't there." Obviously turning the heat off entirely with a risk of pipes breaking is a bad idea. However, setting your thermostat to 50ºF is sufficient for that.

If you live in a climate where pipes are a factor in your heat decision, then you should have enough insulation that the difference in energy isn't all that much.

Also, there's this concept of thermal mass - once you heat up you walls, floors, furniture, etc, they retain it. If you keep on letting your house cool down and then heating it up again, you basically lose that stored heat and need to pay for it again. It's cheaper to just maintain the same temperature all the time.

And, as a PNW resident I really need to emphasize this: MOLD. It's a thing.

This seems to be a common misconception, but not true. Letting the apartment cool down will always use less energy than keeping temperature up.

I would think this is just very obvious. Keeping the temperature up will lead to more heat loss. I can try to find some supporting material if you wish though as I've heard this same claim before.

Not sure of the total outcome but the heat source might not be as efficient at pumping out heat for it to get warm quickly enough than it would at a constant rate. I cannot find a source now but I believe this is even the case for new refrigerators that they run in a much more continuous mode than the jagged cool/off mode.

I suppose that's possible with some special cases, I wouldn't really know. This type of energy loss would be quite different from the claim parent mentioned about "stored heat" though.

Isn't mold handled most effectively with a dehumidifier, rather than a heater?

So add a second appliance rather than using one that you already have for both comfort and mold prevention?

If it worked better and more directly attacked the problem, I'd consider it yes. I'm not even certain a heater will prevent mold, but will take your word for it.

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