A smart thermostat is one of the best investments you can make in your home’s HVAC system. Smart thermostats are much better than traditional programmable thermostats as they are much easier to use. Upgrading to a smart thermostat is the easiest way to save on heating and cooling your home and allow you to enjoy all these other major benefits.
Control Your AC and Heating Remotely
Having a programmable thermostat can save you a lot of money by making it easy to adjust your AC or heating at night and when you’re at work. Although most homes these days have a programmable thermostat, many people don’t know how to program the settings or can’t be bothered to do so. Instead, many simply adjust the temperature manually before going to bed, when they wake up, and when they leave for work or get home.
As with any other type of smart home technology, a smart thermostat connects to the Wi-Fi network in your home. This allows you to use a smartphone app to remotely adjust your home’s temperature and turn your HVAC system on and off. This means you’ll never again have to worry about whether you remembered to turn your AC or heating down when you left for work in the morning. If your home starts to feel overly warm or too chilly while you’re cooking or watching a movie, you can also open up the app on your phone and adjust the temperature without stopping whatever you’re doing.
Eliminate the Hassle of Programming Your Thermostat
Many newer smart thermostats have learning capabilities. This means they can be programmed to work with other smart home technology like motion and door sensors to learn about your daily routines and behavior. The thermostat will quickly learn when you wake up on weekdays and weekends, leave for work in the morning, get home in the afternoon or evening, and go to bed. It will then use this information to program its settings based on what temperature you normally set at these various times.
By working with these various sensors, the thermostat can also make automatic adjustments on the fly. For instance, if you wake up much earlier for some reason, the sensors will tell the thermostat that you’re out of bed. The thermostat will then turn the temperature up so that your heating system turns on earlier than it would normally. Similarly, if you don’t have to go to work until later than usual, the sensors will tell the thermostat that your home is still occupied. In this case, it won’t turn the temperature down until you leave.
Make Your Home More Comfortable
A smart thermostat is also an easy way to increase your home comfort. With a programmable thermostat, any deviation from your normal routine can make your home much hotter or colder than you want. It could take 30 minutes to an hour or more before your HVAC system heats or cools your home to the desired setting. A smart thermostat will eliminate these issues as it will always turn the temperature up or down early enough that your home is fully warm when you get back from work or get out of bed.
Some more advanced smart thermostats also have geo-fencing technology that can work with your phone’s GPS. This allows you to use the app to program specific borders or boundaries, and the thermostat will then automatically adjust its settings when you cross the boundary lines. If you get off work earlier than usual, you won’t have to worry about changing the temperature before you leave work. When you set the boundary near your workplace, the thermostat will adjust the temperature as you’re leaving so your home is more comfortable when you get there.
If you’re normally the first person home, but you have to work late, the thermostat won’t turn the temperature up or down until you or another person in your home crosses the programmed boundary line. This means you won’t have to worry about your HVAC system running unnecessarily and using more energy.
Keep Your Heating and Cooling Costs Lower
Any type of programmable thermostat can save you money if used correctly. Statistics show that setting your thermostat 7 to 10 degrees lower in the winter or higher in the summer for eight hours a day will save you approximately 10% on your heating or cooling costs. This means you could potentially save up to 20% or several hundred dollars a year by programming the temperature to turn up or down when you go to bed and leave for work.
Because smart thermostats can program themselves and allow you to control your HVAC system remotely, they help save you even more than a traditional programmable unit. Smart thermostats can also adjust the settings based on how much heating or cooling is needed. This can help make your HVAC system work more energy efficiently and ensure your home is always comfortable.
Some units even have weather-monitoring capabilities that enable them to make changes based on how hot or cold it is. This feature can help keep your energy costs lower and improve your comfort. On extremely hot days or colder nights, the thermostat will turn the temperature up or down earlier than normal. This ensures your home is fully warm when you wake up or sufficiently cool when you get home. The thermostat won’t adjust the temperature until later on milder days, so your HVAC system doesn’t use as much energy.
Some smart thermostats also have a feature that monitors your HVAC system’s energy usage. If your heating or cooling costs are higher than you want, this feature makes it simple to adjust the settings and find ways to reduce your energy usage. It also lets you easily strike the perfect balance between energy savings and comfort.
Monitor Your HVAC System for Any Issues
Monitoring the energy usage of your HVAC system can also help you to identify any issues that may arise. If your system suddenly uses more energy than normal, it indicates that your AC or furnace isn’t cooling or heating effectively for some reason. With this information, you can contact an HVAC company for an inspection to get your HVAC system repaired or serviced. If your system has any issues that cause it to unexpectedly shut down for any reason, you can also set up the smart thermostat to immediately send an alert to your phone when this happens.
Smart thermostats should always be installed by a licensed electrician. If you want to install a smart thermostat in your home, you can trust the electricians at 3 Mountains Plumbing to do the job right. We’re also always here to help with your other electrical needs or any plumbing service in the Milwaukie, OR, area. For more information or to schedule a service call to install a smart thermostat in your home, call us today.
