If you’re looking for a way to spend less money and energy in your home, it may be a worthwhile investment to research getting a smart thermostat. These gadgets can do everything from monitor when you leave the house, so that it doesn’t throw away electricity heating or cooling a vacant home, to adjusting energy usage according to how many people are in a room or what time of day it is.
We’ll review what a smart thermostat is, how it runs and why it’s worthwhile to invest in one. We’ll also talk about how it can help you spend less money on your energy bills by lowering 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 tracking when people are in the house, so it isn’t needlessly consuming energy by heating or cooling a vacant home.
Many smart thermostats have learning abilities, which means they pay attention to how you adjust your settings and make automatic adjustments over time based on what they learn from you.
A smart thermostat links to Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to change and monitor your energy usage from just about anywhere.
A smart thermostat has learning algorithms and can hook up with other smart home technology, like Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit, for improved control over your comfort. They work with most systems, such as home heating and air conditioning.
Smart thermostat features consist of a temperature sensor that can detect when the home is vacant, 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 out.
A smart thermostat does things like adapt 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 going.
For many people, the answer is yes. If you do a lot of travel or are out for long hours during the day, it may be worth your money to invest in one of these thermostats. You could save a significant amount, 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 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 much effort from you, but you’ll see it in lower energy bills.
Many homeowners have a traditional programmable thermostat, but 40% of them aren’t set properly. This means you might be missing opportunities to save on heating and cooling expenses.
Smart thermostats are handy 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 automatically adjusts and progressively changes the temperature inside your home for the greatest energy savings. If you manually change a programmable thermostat, you can overload your HVAC system and make it work harder to meet your adjustments.
Yes, because your smart thermostat will learn from 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 take a little bit more work than a smart thermostat. To put together a schedule on programmable models, we suggest following these recommendations from ENERGY STAR® to save energy.
As you can see, you don’t have to get a smart thermostat to spend less on your energy bill. All you need is a programmable thermostat, but it’s essential to note that any savings may come at the cost of your comfort and convenience.
Nest, one of the most prominent smart thermostat manufacturers, states its smart thermostat saves U.S. households about:
Your smart thermostat will provide you with a monthly heating and cooling report, which usually 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 finding you’re only seeing minimal savings on energy costs, you might be optimizing for energy efficiency already. This includes turning off your HVAC system when you’re not at home or turning your thermostat up/down when you’re asleep.
Smart thermostats make the process simple through their hands-off process that gradually shifts the temperature. If you’re at home a lot, it might not save you money on energy costs as is the point in an automated, energy-efficient schedule.
Most utility companies offer rebates to homeowners who purchase energy-saving, ENERGY STAR-certified equipment such as a smart thermostat. The rebate amount varies by company, but in many instances, it will cover most or all the cost. To learn more, check your utility company’s website for rebate info.
Installing a smart thermostat is an investment, but it can save you money in the long run. If you’ve been thinking about installing one and want to know if they work as promised, we offer free home comfort assessments. Call our Experts at 866-397-3787 to request yours now!
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