Programmable Thermostats

Set back a little and save a lot!

Did you know that heating and cooling your home accounts for 40% of your energy bill? That means there’s a big opportunity for you to save money by heating and cooling more wisely.

To maximize your energy savings without sacrificing comfort, you can install a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat can be the ‘brain’ of your heating and cooling energy efficiency plan. Once you set your thermostat you can forget it. It raises and lowers the temperature in your home automatically. For instance, you can lower your thermostat a few degrees at bedtime or during the day when no one is home and raise it to be warmer when you wake in the morning or come home from work. Smart? Easy? It’s both, and it will save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Programmable thermostats are a smart move for improving your home’s comfort, while saving energy and money. Lowering the temperature of your home by just a few degrees will make a very big difference in your heating bill. Remember, 1 degree lower means 1% savings! A programmable thermostat makes a big energy difference in the summer too. Just reverse the thinking – raise the thermostat a few degrees when you’re out of the house so your air conditioning isn’t working so hard.

Programmable thermostats are easy to use. Here are a few simple tips to maximize the benefit of your programmable thermostat.

• Keep the temperature set at its energy savings set-points for long periods of time (At least eight hours), for example, during the day when no one is at home and through the night after bedtime.
• Install your programmable thermostat on an interior wall, away from heating or cooling vents and other sources of heat or drafts.
• Programmable thermostats typically have 2 types of hold features: (a) hold/permanent/vacation; (b) temporary. Avoid using the hold/permanent/vacation feature to manage day to day temperature settings.
• All thermostats let you temporarily make your home warmer or cooler, without erasing the pre-set programming. This override is cancelled automatically at the next program period. You use more energy (and end up paying more on energy bills) if you consistently “hold” or over-ride the pre-programmed settings.

An ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat will lead you to even more savings. You can choose to heat your home in different ways throughout the day and night. An ENERGY STAR thermostat has 4 important features:

1. ENERGY STAR rated programmable thermostats have four temperature settings per day this allows you to set the temperature specifically for different times in the day (i.e. when you sleep)

2. It allows you to set the temperature differently for different days of the week (i.e. weekends)

3. Temperature settings can be over-ridden manually without disrupting the program you have set

4. An ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat maintains the temperature in your home within 2 degrees of the setting your choose, this eliminates uncomfortable temperature swings in your home

Once you have installed your ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat, all you have to do is relax and save money!

To download a $15 on-bill rebate coupon for the purchase of a programmable thermostat click here.