My furnace keeps the house warm but it does cycle often. It will start and then shut down and then about five seconds later it starts and runs fine. I have a small house that is insulated decent so I know it shouldn't cycle as much as it does(at least five times an hour) does this affect my gas bill? How do I make it cycle less. Oh like I said it is a very small one bed house but it only has two cold air returns one that's in my bedroom on the ground and the other is just an open vent into the basement which is unfinished and usaually cooler does this affect anything?

I did plug the hole behind the stat and move the gauge up to six and still nothing

The furnace could be to big for the house.

Five cycles per hour is OK.

Hmmm. A furnace needs to put out BTUs necessary to maintain a certain temperature set on your thermostat. How it does this depends on the furnace. The newer, high efficiency furnaces have controls that adjust the temperature they put out according to how cold it is outside. The air that comes out will not feel as hot as the air in an older furnace where it basically burns full blast no matter what the demand for heat is. I'm thinking you may have an old furnace that is oversized for your house. It comes on and heats the house up very quickly and cycles off. By the sounds of it, you could shut the furnace off and light a candle.