Furnace Cycles per Hour

[tech9ine]

Hi everyone

I have a question about my furnace and cycling.

I recently moved into a new home, which is about 2700sqft.
Our old home was 1300sqft.

The new home has a high efficency Bryant furnace, and a new Honeywell 7 day programmable thermostat (touchscreen model)

We have noticed that the furnace cycles quite frequently, probably about every fifteen minutes. Does this seem normal, and can it be adjusted to cycle less frequently?

Thanks

Tony

[coolwhip]

Depends on heat loss and how cold it is out side.

[htrguy]

Electronic thermostats are selectable. I believe the recommended cycles per hour (CPH) for gas furnaces is 4 so you are GTG. Your old system may have been a mercury stat that had longer run times as there were no set CPH.
Coolwhip, the outdoor temps affect temperature swings, more than CPH on electronic stats, because the t-stat will overshoot more on colder days.

[wyounger]

Honeywell does have a tendency to select fairly high heating cycle rates (6 cycles per hour) as the default for many of their thermostats. That can hide equipment oversizing issues but is less efficient and as you've apparently noticed, seems very "busy".

The adjustability likely depends on whether the thermostat was bought through retail channels or from a professional supply. As is common practice, Honeywell sells thermostats that look identical through both channels, but the retail ones are massively "dumbed down" from what the pros get.

If your thermostat was professionally installed, a pro can adjust the cycle rate to your liking. If it came from Home Depot or the like, it's probably not adjustable.

[mayguy]

if you still have the install manual, you should be able to set it to 3 (90% furance/hot water heat), that will set it to 3CPH.

Both retail, and pro has this settings.