A smart thermostat is one of the best investments you can make in terms of your heating and air conditioning costs and also your comfort. Smart thermostats are extremely convenient since they enable you to control your heating and AC remotely on any mobile device using an app. The app also makes smart thermostats much more intuitive and easier to program compared to a standard programmable thermostat. Installing a smart thermostat can save you quite a bit of money on your energy bills. This article will explain some of the features found on many smart thermostats that help make these energy savings possible.
1. Learning Capabilities
Some smart thermostats are essentially no different from any normal programmable thermostat except that they can be controlled using the app. While this type of smart thermostat isn’t a bad option, we’d definitely recommend choosing a so-called smart “learning” thermostat instead. This type of thermostat uses other types of smart home technology such as indoor motion sensors/cameras and door and garage sensors to learn you and your family’s behavior patterns. This means it will determine when you normally get up on weekday and weekend mornings and when you go to bed. It will also learn the time when the last person leaves your house in the morning and the first person returns in the afternoon.
With this information, the smart thermostat can then program itself based on your desired temperature settings. You can set it so that your heating or AC gets automatically turned down when you go to bed. This causes it to run less often and use less energy. You can then set it so that it turns the heat or AC back up to the normal temperature at whatever time you normally wake up. Alternatively, you could set it to change the temperature earlier. This can ensure that your home is already as warm or cool as you want it to be when you normally get out of bed.
The thermostat will then again turn the heat or AC back down at whatever time the last person in your home normally leaves in the morning. It will then again change back to your normal temperature setting. This is so that your home is already fully warm or cool at whatever time the first person normally gets back in the afternoon or evening.
Statistics show that turning your heating up or AC down by just 1 degree for eight hours a day will normally reduce the amount of energy your HVAC system uses by somewhere from 1-3%. If you turn the temperature up or down by even just 5 degrees for the time when you’re sleeping and at work, you could easily save hundreds of dollars a year. While this is obviously something you can also do with a standard programmable thermostat, a smart thermostat is still much better since it will do all of the work yourself.
2. Remote Operation
Life tends to be unpredictable, and there may often be times when you have to stay late at work or will be gone all evening. Although a smart thermostat can program and adjust its settings by itself, you can always use the app to manually turn your heating or AC up or down. If you know your home will be unoccupied for a few hours in the evening, you can use the app to turn your heat or AC down to save energy. You can then switch back to the normal setting a while before you plan on being home so that your home is warm or cool by the time you arrive.
3. Weather Monitoring
Choosing a smart thermostat with a weather-monitoring feature can save you even more money and keep your home more comfortable. Weather monitoring enables a smart thermostat to automatically adjust its temperature settings based on the current and predicted temperatures.
On extremely hot or cold days, the thermostat will always switch back to your normal temperature setting earlier in the afternoon. This is just to be certain that your home is at the right temperature when you get back from work. On milder days your HVAC system will heat or cool your home more quickly. Then, the thermostat will wait until later to adjust the temperature so that your heating or AC runs less and uses less energy. If there is a sudden, dramatic spike or drop in the outdoor temperature, the thermostat can also adjust. This ensures your home stays more comfortable or decreases the energy usage of your HVAC system.
4. Home Monitoring
Since a smart thermostat can connect to other devices like motion and door sensors, it can also constantly determine whether your home is occupied or anyone is awake. Many people program their HVAC systems so that the thermostat switches back to the normal temperature at the time they typically get back from work. This will save a bit on energy costs. You can set your smart thermostat so that it doesn’t switch back to the normal temperature until the door or garage sensor lets it know someone is finally home.
This type of feature can also help improve your comfort on its own. If someone in your household is sick and stays home from work or school, the smart thermostat will know your house is still occupied. In this type of situation, the thermostat will keep your house at the normal temperature instead of turning it up or down.
5. Geofencing
Geofencing is a feature that can be even better than home monitoring or also work alongside it. This feature allows each person in your household to use the app and create boundary lines around your house and their work, school, etc. When the thermostat detects that the last person has left in the morning, it will still adjust the temperature. However, instead of waiting until someone gets home to switch back to the normal temperature, it will do it automatically. It does this as soon as anyone crosses their established boundary lines that signal they’re on the way home.
You could also use geofencing to set it so that the thermostat only turns the temperature up or down once you’re a certain distance away from your house. It would do also this at a certain place such as your work. If you created the boundary near your work, the thermostat wouldn’t adjust the temperature if you’re just running a quick errand. If the boundary is at your workplace, the thermostat also won’t switch to the normal temperature setting until you leave. This can help to save energy in situations where you have to work late. If everyone in your home has boundaries established, the thermostat will automatically react when anyone gets within a certain distance of your house or leaves school or work.
Your Tampa Heating and Cooling Experts
At Ahoy! Cooling & Heating, we’ve been helping residents of the Tampa area with all of their heating, cooling and home comfort needs since 2010. We specialize in HVAC installation and can help if you want to install a smart thermostat or need a new air conditioner, heat pump or furnace. We’re also the most-trusted source in the area for air conditioning and heating maintenance and repairs. Contact us today to schedule an appointment to have a smart thermostat installed or any other HVAC service.
