If you’re looking for a way to save money and energy in your home, it might be a worthwhile investment to research getting a smart thermostat. These devices can do everything from monitor when you leave the house, so that it doesn’t waste electricity heating or cooling a vacant home, to changing energy usage based on how many people are in a room or what time of day it is.
We’ll cover what a smart thermostat is, how it works and why it’s worth it to purchase one. We’ll also discuss how it can help you spend less money on your energy bills by reducing energy consumption.
A smart thermostat is a programmable device that allows you to do it all from adjusting your heating and cooling settings for various times of day, to monitoring 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 abilities, which means they pay attention to how you change your settings and make automatic adjustments over time based on what they learn from you.
A smart thermostat connects to Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to change and keep track of your energy usage from just about anywhere.
A smart thermostat has learning algorithms and can hook up with other smart home technology, such as 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 consist of a temperature sensor that can detect when the home is empty, and then automatically adjust to an energy-efficient setting. Your smart thermostat may be able to geofence with your phone to know when you’re at home or away.
A smart thermostat does tasks like adjust more for rooms that are occupied or have more people in them, as well as track what time of day it is so it knows how much heating or air conditioning should be used.
For many 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 significant amount, especially if you forget to adjust it when you leave for work or go out of town for the weekend.
You won’t have to worry 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 a lot of effort on your part, but you’ll notice it in lower energy bills.
Many homeowners have a traditional programmable thermostat, but 40% of them aren’t set correctly. This means you might be missing chances to save on heating and cooling expenses.
Smart thermostats are convenient because they learn your schedule and automate heating and cooling to match. You can set a similar schedule on a programmable thermostat. But it’s more work to program your thermostat by hand.
A smart thermostat automatically adjusts and progressively changes the temperature inside your home for the greatest energy savings. If you manually change a programmable thermostat, you can overburden your HVAC system and make it work harder to meet your adjustments.
Yes, since your smart thermostat will learn about your temperature preferences and day-to-day activities 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 conserving money.
You can acquire identical energy savings with a programmable thermostat, but it’s going to take 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.
To sum up, you don’t have to buy a smart thermostat to save on your energy bill. All you need is a programmable thermostat, but it’s important to note 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. households about:
Your smart thermostat will give you a monthly heating and cooling report, which usually compares you to other residences in your community.
Your possible savings differ based on your house, where you live, how much insulation you have and your preferred temperature settings. You might see average savings, significant savings or somewhere in the middle.
If you’re noticing you’re only seeing small 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 moving your thermostat up/down when you’re asleep.
Smart thermostats make this easy 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.
Most utility companies give rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-saving, ENERGY STAR-certified equipment like a smart thermostat. The rebate total varies by company, but in most instances, it will cover most or all the expense. To learn more, check your utility company’s website for rebate info.
Installing a smart thermostat is an investment, but it can help you spend less money in the end. If you’ve been thinking about installing one and want to know if they run as promised, we offer free home comfort assessments. Call our Experts at 866-397-3787 to schedule yours now!
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