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August 9, 2005
Cool Down the Bills with a Programmable Thermostat
It's summer here on the top side of the world, and it's been especially hot lately. I can tell because my electric bill for July was twice as high as June's. Central air conditioning is truly a mixed blessing.
One thing homeowners can consider to help lower their heat and electric bills is installing a programmable thermostat. It can be set so that the heat or air conditioner only turns on during the times when you're at home, saving you from forgetting to turn it off manually. The thermostat can also automatically be set to turn the temperature up or down while you're sleeping.
Since I'm not yet a homeowner, I don't have the opportunity to install a programmable thermostat. If any readers have already installed one, I'd love it if you'd post a comment. How did it work out? Have it helped lower your bill enough to be worth buying and installing the new thermostat? It does seem that you'd get the same benefits if you're very disciplined in manually setting the temperature. Are there any other advantages I've missed?
Posted by Frank at August 9, 2005 8:03 AM
Comments
Posted by: rob
at August 9, 2005 10:17 AM
We have programmable thermostats, and it all depends on how conservative you are with them. My wife is a stay at home mom. So it's not like the typical rule of "set it for when you leave for work..." holds for us. All we really have is "at night". But who wants to let the house get warm at night, when arguably you want to be your most comfortable?
They do work, it just takes awhile to figure out the right pattern for you.
Posted by: Duane
at August 9, 2005 11:02 AM
I've always had one in the house, so I don't know how much I've saved - but it's handy in that I can set it to start 15 minutes before I get home from work and I come home to a cool house (or a warm house in the winter).
If you're fine with manually setting it whenever you leave/return from your house or before/after you sleep then you'd probably get the same benefits
Posted by: kyle
at August 9, 2005 1:25 PM
My condo is on the top floor of a 5 story building. What I've found is that during the winter -- it was a godsend. During the summer, if I turn off the a/c when I leave for work, the place gets too hot to quickly cool back down when I come home. I have to reset things to cool down much earlier, so it's not all that beneficial (though a little beneficial is better than nothing, I guess)
Posted by: alex
at August 10, 2005 9:48 AM
Problem with doing it that way is, depending on how hot you let it get in your house, when you set your AC to turn on to cool the house off, it has to work much harder and longer to get the house back down to the temp you want it.
So rather than running for 3-4 minutes every 30-45 minutes, it runs for 20-30 minutes straight right before you get home.
Maybe you guys can find some official stats, but I'd like to see a comparison of the cost savings when maintaining a decent temperature throughout the day vs. making a huge temperature shift a couple times a day.
Posted by: brian
at August 11, 2005 12:34 PM
Thanks for all the tips, everyone. I appreciate you lending your experience!
Brian has a good point, though. I'll see if I can dig anything up on the topic.
Posted by: Frank
at August 12, 2005 8:28 AM
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I installed one last year, and it's been a godsend. I set up a weekly schedule based upon when we're home/not home and so far i believe it's saved us at a minimum $25 per month.