The Benefits of Installing a Programmable Thermostat

Aris Parviz is the general manager of Able Air-1, Inc. in Virginia, a family-owned company specializing in residential and commercial HVAC systems, and according to him, a smart thermostat is one of the simplest and most effective ways to lower your energy costs. Here, Parviz talks about many benefits of installing a programmable thermostat in your home or business.

Whether you're concerned about your carbon footprint or your bottom line, installing a programmable thermostat is an important part of improving your home's energy efficiency. Part of a trend toward smart eco-friendly homes, programmable thermostats can simplify your life, save you money, keep you and your family more comfortable, and bring you other benefits.

Simplifying Your Life
Thanks to pre-programmed settings, smart thermostats deliver the right temperature at the right time. Once programmed, your thermostat will regulate the temperature inside your home according to your settings. You can easily set it to raise or lower the temperature when your family is away or asleep, and then return the temperature to a comfortable range just before your family wakes up or returns from work.

You can also establish different settings for weekends -- when your family is likely to spend more time at home -- or manually override the settings for a specified period of time. Because you only need to program the thermostat once, you never need to worry about adjusting the temperature or waiting for your home to heat up or cool down.

Saving You Money
Today's homeowners are becoming more environmentally conscious; and a programmable thermostat is an important element of any high-efficiency HVAC system. By switching the system into high-efficiency mode when the home's inhabitants are away or asleep, the programmable thermostat helps reduce energy waste and costs. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the average homeowner can save about $180 each year simply by properly setting his programmable thermostats and leaving those settings intact.

Using a programmable thermostat is also a relatively painless way to conserve energy. Unlike asking your family to bundle up or shed layers indoors to help keep energy costs down, a programmable thermostat allows you maximum indoor comfort when you need it, and only cuts back on energy use when you won't notice the difference. If you and your family are home or awake at unexpected times, the system's settings can be manually overridden.

You can achieve the best possible savings by reducing the temperature in your home at least 8 degrees in winter, or by raising it by 7 degrees in summer, overnight and while your family are at work or school. Try to keep the temperature set at its energy-saving point for as long as possible (at least eight hours), and limit the number of times you use the manual override. Another way to save big when you're out of town is to establish a vacation setting, which will ensure that your system consumes as little energy as possible.

Programmable thermostats are also ideal for your commercial systems. They can be used to raise or lower the temperature when your offices are empty in the evenings and on the weekends, and to return the temperature to a comfortable range just before employees arrive for work.

Bring You Other Benefits
Today's programmable thermostats offer aesthetic benefits as well. Their sleek, modern looks can update and enhance nearly any decor. And their graphics-based interfaces make them intuitive and easy to use.

In addition, some deluxe thermostats come with a built-in time delay, which greatly reduces the risk of the compressor and/or other motors from undergoing an electrical burnout.

Aris Parviz is a writer for Yodle, a business directory and online advertising company. Find an HVAC contractor or more HVAC contractor articles at Yodle Consumer Guide.