What is the approximate temperature in the crawl space? Is it basically the same as the outdoor temperature?

Have not measured that as yet, but I assume it would be close to outdoor temp. Crawl space walls have vents.

Update: with thermostat set at 68 and outdoor temp 54, tile floor temp 64: Furnace on at 10:20, off at 10:27, on at 10:32, off at 10:39. Seems to be running way too much.

Check the anticipation/CPH settings on the thermostat.

Not available on on the LUX thermostat.

With an outdoor temperature of 54 and the thermostat set at 68, does not sound like an excessive heat loss problem. I agree with checking the thermostat. Post the brand and model number and let's see if there any adjustments available.

Insulate the crawl space! It will lower your utilities every month during the year you are either heating or cooling.

In what city and state are you located? (I'm looking for heating / cooling info based on location)

Hattiesburg, MS. Forgot to mention: Two weeks ago I added 4 inches of insulation to the attic.

Our house here is 1,000 sq.ft. smaller than our previous house in Kansas (built 1975). Yet the lowest month's utility cost here is higher than the highest month's utility cost in Kansas where 100+ in the summer and 0 and below temps in the winter are commonplace.

To mike_home: thermostat is LUX TX9600TSa. The instructions that came with the unit have no mention of setting the interval. I will be attempting to download a more extensive manual.

Update: No Can Do: Luxproducts.com has a broken SSL certificate.

Update 2: I found a full manual on supplyhouse.com. It has many features I was not aware of including "Swing". I will be making some adjustments.

To mojavemaria: If I realized a 10% decrease in heating cost from insulating the crawl space (which might be a high estimate), that equates to a 61 month payback. ($1,200 / ($195 * .1)) Seems kind of long.

http://www.luxproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/tx9600tsa_manual_en.pdf works

Adding insulation will decrease both heating and cooling costs. I would expect cooling costs to be higher than heating costs in Hattiesburg, MS. The furnace is short cycling which is an inefficient way to operate. Short cycling can also be caused by an oversized furnace. Decreasing the cycles per hour will help.

Do you know the size of the furnace. The model number will indicate the nominal BTU input rating.

Electric costs vary from city o city, state to state, and utility company to utility company. Do you have rugs on your floors? They help insulate against the cold tile. Often, your power provider will do a free energy survey of your house and make recommendations. We also had some instances of credits for upgrading our equipment. It doesn’t hurt to ask. And, yes, often the payback time doesn’t make sense for your family. Only you can decide.

To: mike_home: You would certainly expect cooling costs to be higher. However, the Dec. heating bill is higher than the highest summer cooling bill by 6%, and so far, January is colder than Dec. Will watch to see what effect the ducting repairs, new thermostat, and increasing the swing 1/2 degree have (We have a smart meter. So, the elec. co. has daily usage stats on their website.). The heat plant is 10KW. The repair tech said the unit had the highest element available.

To: remodeling1840: Upgraded kitchen range and dryer to propane. I will check to see if there are any credits. Will also check the power co. re: audits.

Our house here is 1,000 sq.ft. smaller than our previous house in Kansas (built 1975). Yet the lowest month's utility cost here is higher than the highest month's utility cost in Kansas where 100+ in the summer and 0 and below temps in the winter are commonplace.

The heat plant is 10KW. The repair tech said the unit had the highest element available.

Your heating in Kansas was probably natural gas, where as your heat now is electric strip resistance heat, one of the most expensive forms of heat. If that comment is true as I suspect of course your heating costs will be more now. The other is difference in utility rates what you pay per KWH in Kansas vs what you pay in MS.

A 5 KW heat strip will pull roughly 20 amps. You have 10 so that's in the realm of 40 amps just for the heat strips. A run of the mill AC might be in the realm of 15-20amps (outside condenser).

So under those circumstances it's not hard to pay more for heat than you do cooling. You're pulling more than double the power when you run the heat.

"Swing number 1 is the default setting"

The default setting is 0.25 degrees. That's why it appears to be short cycling. Set it to 0.5 or 1.0 degrees.

To Austin Air Companie: Thanks for the great answer! Yes to natural gas for KS (had baseboard hotwater heat and gas water heater). That is why I added the electric and NG together to compare to the all electric here in MS. Average cost/KW here in MS is 8% lower the KS which makes the high cost here even worse.

One last question: All of the main trunk ducting in the attic (there is probably 35-40 ft.) appears to be original (1965). This morning I tapped on the trunk in numerous places. It sounded very tiney as in "no insulation inside" like the new transition that was built last week. Would it make sense to cover those with fiberglass batt insulation?

Keith, You're welcome.

Natural gas is hard to beat for heating.

BUT: You have some options to contemplate though. I put in a Bosch Inverter Heat Pump at my house my electric bill was $59 this past month a little chilly here, $42 the month before that. (I'm in an all electric home too.)

MS climate would be good for heat pump. The down side is that the Bosch are hard to get right now, hard to say if they would be available in your area but something you could look into.

It will easily pay for itself if you like a warm house in the winter. Can produce heat down to 5F. Regular run of the mill heat pumps do not come close to that performance.

I disabled the electric strip heat on mine a year ago. This thing cranks out the heat. I mostly put it in for better AC / better dehumidification as my winters here are short most years, few days to a week or two here and there. I was mostly running AC last month for dehumidification purposes mostly.

The ductwork might be better to replace. R8 flex when done right works very well. Of course this will depend on a variety of factors. Without looking at the ductwork in person there's really no good way to fully answer that.

Thanks again for a great answer! I considered replacing the ducting. H&A company said $6,000-$7,000. After I picked myself up off the floor, I said I would have think about that.

No natural gas available here. Closest service is over 5 miles away. After many, many phone calls, I finally found a propane supplier that had tanks (45 miles away). A small 250 gal. tank cost me $800. Still better than electric. So far, I have replaced kitchen range and dryer with LP appliances. Love the dryer. It dries in half the time the electric did.

I will do some research on the Bosch heat pump. Would likely be pretty costly as the air handler would also have to be replaced and the AC looks pretty new. Been pretty hard hit with expenses related to the move, (the moving company alone cost $14K.) Will have to look at the estimated payback and make a determination.

Thanks again.

Update: 3 Ton Bosch 20 SEER Heat Pump Inverter is $7,552. Closest dealer is in central Florida.

Have you made the adjustment to the thermostat for the temperature swing? If so have you noticed a difference in the length of the cycle times?

Sorry, was outside all afternoon clearing brush. Yes, I changed the Swing from 1 to 3. With thermostat set at 68 degrees, the cycle times have changed from 10-12 cycles/hr. (6-7 min. per cycle) to 6-7 cycles/hr. (9 to 10 min. per cycle) with outdoor temp. around 40 to 50 degrees. I still think that is too much run time. May contact the H&A co. next week.

Gets a little chilly before coming on, so I don't think I want to increase the swing.

The indoor temperature in the house drops quickly. This would suggest your house has a significant heat loss even with an outdoor temperature in the 40s. Adding insulation and tightening widows and doors will help this problem.

This house was built in 1965. Those homes are drafty.

Sealing things up is only going to go so far. It's not a bad place to start but it's not going to do much under the circumstances. The good news is you just recently bought this house and you can make it what you want it to be. The time to recoup the investment will vary based on what / how / why / when / where you decide.

If your living plan isn't to stay at this house long term, you've got some hard decisions to make. To recoup the investment, whatever you decide is going to take time. You won't recoup it over night.

The Bosch Inverter is known to cut your AC electric bill in half. Just the AC side of the equation. Throw in the heat pump side and just that alone can boost that pay back time significantly. It really depends on a wide variety of factors. Like how warm you like it in the winter. Winter time in MS is likely less than KS. So thinking about what this does for the AC side of the equation, is a bonus and shouldn't be discounted because your summers in MS will be longer than KS.

Cost. Yeah it's gonna cost. But if you compared the Bosch option to other competitors the major name brands they all make inverters, but the requirements to those to work? Costs to those could easily be double.

Remember, when making comparisons you need to make apple to apple comparisons.

You can put in a run of the mill heat pump for less cost and reduce that electric bill, the number of hours you spend below about 35F will factor into how much those options might force defrost mode. When in defrost mode, you're running that expensive resistance heat again.

heat is transfered from hot to cold. The thermal blanket of your house, or the lack thereof. You have a crawl space, probably an attic - reinsulating those areas can help but what about the 4 walls of the structure? How big are those walls?

As an example I am in a house built in 1978. Built on a slab, reinsulated attic to best guess R-30 fiber fill insulation, R8 flex duct. Insulation in walls is best guess R-11. I know that ripping out wall insulation is a money losing proposition. Especially with light bills of $42 and $59 last two months with a heat pump inverter installed.

In warmer climates it's not uncommon for heating systems to have shorter cycles. You've already discovered the con in toying with T-stat settings. ;-)

Thanks again for the detailed reply. Already did the insulation in the attic. Scattered 30 bales of cellulose insulation. House is a story and a half, so the accessible attic is not all that big. One of the previous owners replaced windows with double pane windows (no idea when).

Our house in Kansas was built in 1975 (1,000 sq.ft. larger). I also added insulation to the attic there. There should not be that much difference in wall insulation which I can't (or won't) do anything about.

Will check with the electric utility to see if they do energy audits. In any event, I am considering insulating the crawl space.