While we are talking about home heat, Is it better to run your central heater up to the desired temp when you first come

[Speedy]

In other words, your forced air heating system will rapidly warm your home when you get up in the morning.

davester wrote:
If you have a regular forced air furnace system then setting back the thermostat will make a huge difference in your utility bills. The duct system has an incredibly low thermal mass and thermal inertia so don't worry about warming it up or cooling it down. It is much more important to turn the thermostat down when you don't need the warmth. The cost of running the system is a very simple heat flow equation. If the air in the house is hot relative to the outside then the heat flow to the outside is much more rapid than that of a cooler house and the furnace must work much harder to replace the lost heat. This is why an automatic setback thermostat is a no-brainer and recommended in all energy efficiency studies. The only situation where this is not the case is where you have an unconventional heating system where the system heats the objects in the house rather than the air (some radiant hydronic systems and similar), or is a heat pump system where using setback would result in turning on auxiliary electric heating elements. Even so, some of those systems also benefit from setback strategies. It is unfortunate that some folks subscribe to the old wive's tale that leaving the system turned on all the time will reduce your energy usage. If you don't have one, go buy an automatic setback thermostat. It will pay for itself within a month or two.