Smart thermostats are Wi-Fi-enabled devices that automate the control of your Wake Forest, NC home’s temperature, ventilation rate and humidity. One of the top reasons to choose a smart thermostat is to lower your home’s energy use. Read on to learn how to save as much energy as possible with a new smart thermostat installed by our HVAC company.
Algorithms Learn Your Temperature Preferences
Smart thermostats regularly download new algorithms that improve their ability to make automatic adjustments to your home’s temperature. These algorithms learn your temperature preferences. If you’ve installed motion detection units in your home, this information is integrated into the software. For example, when you’re asleep, the thermostat makes automatic adjustments to reduce your home’s energy use.
Program Temperatures on the Easy-to-use Interface
Many people leave for work and return home at the same time for several days per week. Instead of having to adjust your thermostat before you leave and again when you get home, smart thermostats allow you to enter a schedule. Most of them have four or more periods of the day for which you can enter a temperature. These are typically morning, day, evening and night. You can also set up a vacation schedule. The vacation schedule minimizes heating and cooling cycles when nobody’s home for several days. When you’re not actively programming the thermostat, it enters a low-energy, standby mode.
Control Your Home’s Temperature Remotely
If you’re delayed at work or the airport, you can control your home’s temperature remotely through an app on your phone. Each make and model of smart thermostat has an app, explains Energy Star. If you’re coming home early, you can adjust your home’s temperature in advance of your arrival. Perhaps you’ve taken a flight to a vacation destination, and you’re not sure if you remembered to switch your thermostat to vacation mode. With a smart thermostat, it’s not a problem. You can update the settings through the app on your phone.
Monitor Your Home’s Energy Use
With the smart thermostat’s app, you can monitor your home’s energy use. If you notice that using certain appliances at certain times of the day increases your energy use, this information allows you to take action and change your household routines. For example, running the dishwasher in the afternoon during the summertime generates a lot of heat, which makes your air conditioner work harder to cool and dehumidify your home. If you notice a spike in energy use at the time your dishwasher is running and for a while after, this information allows you to change the appliance’s cycling time to the overnight hours.
Deploy Geofencing for Temperature Adjustments
Smart thermostats make use of geofencing. With the app on your phone, the thermostat monitors your location and direction of movement. If you’re coming home later than usual, it reduces heating or cooling cycles until you get closer to home. This reduces energy use. By the time you get home, the thermostat will have communicated to the heating or cooling system to reach your preferred temperature. Energy Star-rated smart thermostats are also compatible with many local utility company incentives for energy savings.
How Much Money a Smart Thermostat Can Save
In the wintertime, for each 1 degree Fahrenheit you lower the temperature for eight hours, you lower your heating bill by 2%. Similarly, for each 1 degree Fahrenheit you raise the temperature for eight hours in the summertime, you’ll lower your cooling bill by 2%. If you’re gone at work for eight hours per day and you program the thermostat to adjust the temperature by 8 degrees Fahrenheit, you could lower your energy bills by 10% each month. Our HVAC company installs smart thermostats that are compatible with many makes and models of air conditioners, heat pumps, mini-splits, furnaces and other types of heating and cooling equipment.
For more tips on saving energy with a smart thermostat, take a look at Cape Fear Air Conditioning, Heating, & Electrical Company, Inc.’s HVAC services, or reach out to us today.
