If you’re looking for a way to spend less money and energy in your home, it might be a worthwhile investment to explore getting a smart thermostat. These devices can do everything from track when you leave the house, so that it doesn’t throw away electricity heating or cooling a vacant home, to adjusting energy usage based on how many people are in a room or what time of day it is.
We’ll review what a smart thermostat is, how it works and why it’s worthwhile to invest in one. We’ll also discuss how it can help you spend less money on your energy bills by decreasing energy consumption.
A smart thermostat is a programmable device that allows you to do everything from adjusting your heating and cooling settings for various times of day, to tracking when people are in the house, so it isn’t needlessly consuming energy by heating or cooling a vacant home.
Most smart thermostats have learning capabilities, which means they pay attention to how you change your settings and make automatic adjustments as time passes based on what they learn from you.
A smart thermostat links to Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to adjust and monitor your energy usage from just about anyplace.
A smart thermostat has learning algorithms and can connect with other smart home technology, like Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit, for even better control over your comfort. They work with most systems, including home heating and air conditioning.
Smart thermostat features include a temperature sensor that can detect when the home is vacant, and then automatically change to an energy-efficient setting. Your smart thermostat may be able to geofence with your phone to know when you’re at home or out.
A smart thermostat does tasks like adjust more for rooms that are occupied or have more people in them, as well as monitor what time of day it is so it knows how much heating or air conditioning should be used.
For some people, the answer is yes. If you do a lot of traveling or are gone for many hours during the day, it may be worth your money to get one of these thermostats. You could save a lot, especially if you forget to adjust it when you leave for the office or go out of town for the weekend.
You won’t have to be concerned about whether your smart thermostat is on the right program, or if you remembered to adjust the temperature setting before you went out. It doesn’t require much effort from you, but you’ll see it in reduced energy bills.
Most homeowners have a standard programmable thermostat, but 40% of them aren’t set properly. This means you might be missing chances to save on heating and cooling costs.
Smart thermostats are convenient because they learn your schedule and automate heating and cooling to match. You can set a comparable schedule on a programmable thermostat. But it’s more work to program your thermostat by hand.
A smart thermostat conveniently adjusts and progressively changes the temperature inside your home for the greatest energy savings. If you manually adjust a programmable thermostat, you can overburden your HVAC system and make it work harder to meet your changes.
Yes, since your smart thermostat will learn about your temperature preferences and routine to make a schedule that reduces heating and cooling costs. You don’t have to do much as your thermostat does all the work for you while saving money.
You can acquire the same energy savings with a programmable thermostat, but it’s going to require a little bit more work than a smart thermostat. To set up a schedule on programmable models, we suggest following these guidelines from ENERGY STAR® to save energy.
As you can see, you don’t have to get a smart thermostat to save on your energy bill. All you need is a programmable thermostat, but it’s important to know that any savings may come at the expense of your comfort and convenience.
Nest, one of the most popular smart thermostat manufacturers, states its smart thermostat saves U.S. homeowners about:
Your smart thermostat will provide you with a monthly heating and cooling report, which often compares you to other residences in your community.
Your possible savings differ based on your home, where you live, how much insulation you have and your desired temperature settings. You might see average savings, significant savings or somewhere in the middle.
If you’re noticing you’re only seeing minimal savings on energy costs, you might be optimizing for energy efficiency already. This includes switching off your HVAC system when you’re not at home or turning your thermostat up/down when you’re sleeping.
Smart thermostats make the process simple through their hands-off process that slowly shifts the temperature. If you’re at home often, it might not save you money on energy costs as is the point in an automated, energy-efficient schedule.
Many utility companies offer rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-saving, ENERGY STAR-certified equipment such as a smart thermostat. The rebate total varies by company, but in most instances, it will take care of most or all the cost. To learn more, check your utility company’s website for rebate information.
Getting a smart thermostat is an investment, but it can save you money in the long run. If you’ve been thinking about getting one and want to know if they run as promised, we provide free home comfort assessments. Call our Experts at 866-397-3787 to request yours now!
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