Many people have heard of programmable thermostats and may have learned that the average homeowner can save money in energy costs by installing one. Many don’t realize just how much such a simple home improvement can save you.
Heating and cooling the average home takes 40 to 60% of the homes total energy use. A lot of this energy is used to maintain the homes interior temperatures when the occupants are away or asleep.
Depending on your home and schedule, homeowners could reduce energy consumption anywhere from 5 to 30%. The US Department of Energy estimates national average energy savings of around 10% per home with the installation of a simple programmable thermostat.
A common dollar figure quoted for the savings in the average household is $15 a month. Installation of a programmable thermostat will quickly pay for itself.
For the environmentally conscious homeowner, the National Geographic Green Guide estimates that for every degree a thermostat is set over 72 degrees in the summer, 121# of carbon dioxide emissions is saved annually. The programmable thermostat can be set to keep your home above 72 degrees while you are away on summer days.
The new electronic thermostats are accurate to within 1 degree. The older non-digital units can vary as much as 5 degrees making maintaining a comfortable room temperature difficult. Most programmable thermostats offer many useful features such as filter change reminders, touch screen operation, fan circulation settings and remote outdoor temperature sensor display, making it a mini weather station.
A common question asked is what kind of range to set the temperatures when programming the thermostat. Setting the temperature too far back in the heating season will cause you to start losing heat from the thermal mass of the home such as the walls and furniture, requiring the system to run longer to catch up when its time to reheat. The key is to set it back between 5 and 10 degrees. This is especially important with heat pumps as the electric back up heat comes on in most units if the thermostat is set up more than 5 degrees at once, negating any energy savings you had while the temperature was set lower.
Installation of the basic programmable thermostat is fairly simple. The units come with straightforward instructions. Your heating / cooling professional however, has access to the better thermostats with more bells and whistles, not available at the average retail outlets and can offer explanations of its use.
The ability of even the basic programmable thermostat to save money and energy make them a benefit to any home.
Easy Savings with Programmable Thermostats