The thermostat is how you control the heating in your house during winter, but people often don’t realize how a few bad habits with thermostat settings can harm comfort and cause a rise in heating costs. Haphazard use of the thermostat can end up making your home too cold or too warm, and it will put more strain on the heating system.
We’re going to look at four tips that will help you get the best use of your thermostat and your heating system.
#1 – Keep the temperature settings steady
Moving the temperature setting of the thermostat up and down during the day will result in both poor comfort and plenty of energy waste. You’ll swing between too hot and too cold, and the heating system having to constantly turn on and off will drain power. (A heater uses the most energy at start-up.) Aim to keep the temperature at a single setting during the day when people are home, changing it at night or when the house will be empty.
#2 – Set the thermostat as low as comfortable
You might wonder how this will help you keep warm. It doesn’t seem to make much sense. However, there’s a good reason we recommend lowering the thermostat rather than pushing it up: the smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the slower heat escapes from the house. You’ll retain heat for longer and the furnace won’t need to work as often.
We recommend a daytime temperature of 68°F, which most people will find comfortable if they have warm clothes on. If this is too cold, raise the temperature and then lower it by one degree each day until people become acclimatized to 68°F.
#3 – Use set-back temperatures
A set-back temperature is when you lower the thermostat setting at night when people are asleep or during periods when the house will be empty. We recommend lowering the temperature by 6–10°F for these times. Using a programmable thermostat makes it much easier to have these settings locked in each day.
#4 – Invest in a Wi-Fi smart thermostat
If you still have an old manual thermostat or a basic digital programmable thermostat, then one way you can improve your home comfort and energy savings at the same time is to schedule service to replace your current thermostat with a Wi-Fi smart model. Wi-Fi capabilities allow you to control the comfort settings via a smartphone or tablet from anywhere where you have wireless access. The smart technology takes over most of the responsibility of programming the thermostat: it learns from your history of settings and conditions in the house to create the optimal program that maximizes both comfort and energy efficiency.
If you’re interested in Wi-Fi thermostat service in Acworth, GA, Dayco Systems is the team to call on. We work with the best models of smart and Wi-Fi thermostat technology. You’ll need our expertise to find the ideal new thermostat model that will work with your current HVAC system.
