As homeowners we all want to be as energy efficient as possible not only to save on energy, but to reduce utility costs and save on money as well. With that said, there are many ways to make your home more energy efficient and certainly choosing the right thermostat will play an important role in this very task. Here at Hometown Comfort we provide thermostats of all types. From manual thermostats, programmable thermostats and smart thermostats we have them all.
Thermostats, often referred to in the industry as the control system, regulate the amount of heat or cold distributed in your home. Choosing the right thermostat for your home is typically dependent upon the size of the home and your own individual choice. Let’s take a moment now to go over three different types of thermostats available today.
For starters, we have the manual thermostat. A manual thermostat for a home is a simple manual unit, very basic and nonprogrammable. These are typically the old fashioned round model that is located on your wall. Basically found in older homes, with a manual thermostat you manually move the needle either up or down to set the temperature on how hot or cold you want your home’s atmosphere to be. Though manual thermostats are quite economical and have the simplest of controls, they are indeed quite limited when it comes to energy efficiency. If, however, you prefer a fixed temperature in your home, then the manual thermostat is ideal for you.
Next there is the programmable thermostat. The programmable thermostat is quite a sophisticated, concise control unit that allows homeowners to create a cooling or heating schedule with the settings for each and every day of the week. Many programmable models save a good deal on your heating and cooling costs and provide the most efficient use when adjusting your home’s temperature throughout the day. Further, programmable thermostats are favored by homeowners across the board.
Finally, we have the smart thermostat. The smart thermostats are Wi-Fi enabled to use from the technology on your smartphones, tablets or your computers. They most assuredly improve on energy efficiency and, believe it or not, are quite affordable. Smart thermostats keep your home quite comfortable and indeed help in reducing your utility bills and are becoming more popular today.
Programmable thermostats are by far the most popular. Homeowners can easily save on their utility bills with a programmable thermostat and enjoy money savings throughout the year. Installing a programmable thermostat in your home allows you to schedule a heating and cooling program that you can run all day without having to worry about manually changing your settings to achieve the temperature you want at a specific time of day, or even on a specific day.
Programmable thermostats are able to automatically adjust the temperature in your home based on the cooling and heating schedule you choose. In addition, if you find for any reason that you need to override the schedule and automatic settings you have chosen you can easily do so with a programmable thermostat without interrupting the daily or weekly programming schedule set in place. Overriding the system will only affect the current setting you are wanting to change and will not affect all your other scheduled settings.
So now that we have discussed the various types of thermostats and have given focus to the programmable thermostat, number one choice by most consumers, let us provide a few quick steps now on how to improve energy efficiency in your home by choosing a programmable thermostat.
First, make certain that the thermostat is compatible with your current HVAC system in your home. Next, choose your options for programming your thermostat. Thirdly, program your thermostat for either a 7 day schedule, a 5-1-1 day schedule, a 5-2 day schedule or a simple 1 week schedule and finally, since we are in the midst of the hot summer season, make sure your programmable thermostat is set on ‘cool.’
We all want to be more energy efficient in our homes and surely we all want to reduce our utility bills and find ourselves saving money every year. Installing the right thermostat in your home will definitely help you accomplish this. For more information about thermostats contact the professionals here at Hometown Comfort. We will come out to your home and inspect your current heating and cooling system and help you choose the ideal thermostat for your home and family.