Who needs one more thing to think about as we’re rushing out the door for school, work or the grocery store? Car keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Thermostat? I don’t have to check.

You can shorten your morning mental checklist by installing a programmable thermostat in your home. With preprogrammed settings — adjusted to your lifestyle and your comings and goings — you will hardly ever have to give your thermostat the time of day.
Programmable thermostats help your monthly household budget, too, by conserving energy. The amount varies by household, but the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the average family spends about $2,200 a year on energy bills, and nearly half of that pays for heating and cooling. Even cutting that by a small percentage will add up.

A little planning will go a long way toward figuring out the best programmable thermostat practices for your family. Here’s an example of how the settings could work for a family on the go during a cold Ohio winter: Set at 68 degrees at 6 a.m., the heat could rise to 72 degrees and stay there until everybody leaves the house at 8:30 a.m. Then the heat would fall to 68 degrees and stay there until the first person arrives home at 6:30 p.m. Then it would rise a few degrees and stay there for a few hours before falling again to 68 degrees at bedtime.

The settings are not set in stone, however. You can override them, if necessary, for added comfort or for special occasions.

To get the most energy savings from your programmable thermostat:

• Keep the temperature set for at least eight hours at a time to realize energy savings.
• When you return home at the end of the day, resist the impulse to blast the heat or air conditioning to “rush” a change in temperature.
• Use the hold/permanent/vacation feature only when you’re going to be away for a weekend or longer vacation (and not to manage day-to-day settings).

To learn more about programmable thermostat practices that can reduce your utility bills, contact Arco Comfort Air Heating and Cooling, serving the Greater Cleveland area.

Our goal at Arco Comfort Air is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about programmable thermostats and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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