Programmable thermostats are a wonderful thing. They give us the ability to customize the cooling and heating schedule for our homes, allowing us to keep our homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter without digging deep into your wallet.
It’s hard to argue with the practicality of a programmable thermostat. They provide great energy savings without a hefty price tag – most programmable thermostats fall between $50 and $200, far less than the price to replace a furnace or switching out for more energy-efficient appliances.
The whole point of a programmable thermostat is to give you the ability to cool or heat the areas of your home that you want when you want. This has amazing cost-saving potential. When you’re away at work all day, you probably don’t need your air conditioner blasting, working overtime in the summer heat to keep your home at a cool temperature. It’s just a waste if you’re not there to enjoy it.
But, at the same time, nobody wants to come home to a home that feels more like an oven. With a programmable thermostat, you can have the AC shut off shortly before or after leaving the house, and kick it back on again an hour or so before you get home. Roughly, that’s about 8 hours of cooling saved.
The flexibility just doesn’t extend to timing when your AC turns on or off, you can also program-specific sections of your home to be ignored, such as a guest room. It doesn’t really make much sense to pay to have a room cooled or heated when you’re not even using it. Cutting areas like these out of the equation helps the areas of your home you want cool to get there faster and keep more money in your wallet at the end of the month.
There is a good deal of benefits to having a programmable thermostat, the main point of which is the overall savings and more efficient use of power. But, while a programmable thermostat can help reduce monthly bills, it is no replacement for an old or worn down the system, so make sure that you keep up to date on your system maintenance and cleanings. Combined, you’ll find yourself staying cool this summer and warm this winter all while still having money in your pocket.
