5 Tips for Smart Thermostat Owners

Benefits You Need to Know About Smart Thermostats

Smartphones have added so much to our lives; each upgrade provides more apps, better graphics, and more utility. What could be better?!! Until you got your first smartwatch, which carries many of the functions of smartphones, prompts you to stay healthy and is smaller. Advances in technology give us incredible advantages with Smart Thermostat.

Smart thermostats are like “smartwatches for your house.” They have some astounding features that let your house “speak” to you in useful and beneficial ways. A smart thermostat is not just another gadget; check these applications that just put one on your must-have list.

They’re User-friendly. Some people primarily use smartphones to communicate—calls, texts, and emails. Others use productivity apps, search the internet, keep abreast of news, weather, sports, play games . . . the list seems endless.

Smart thermostats are like that. Some people program the HVAC system for comfort and perhaps make a change on the fly when a schedule change occurs. Others dive deeper and program zones differently, programmable to save energy, keep track of efficiency, schedule filter changes, schedule “wake up” and “welcome home” adjustments . . . the list is long. If you are tech-savvy and enjoy exploring possibilities, you will enjoy your smart thermostat.

Smart Thermostats are remote-controlled. A smart thermostat connects to your home wifi and comes with an online application (app). You can access the thermostat controls remotely from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, allowing you to stay as connected as you need to be to your home.

The thermostat gives you control of the heating and cooling necessary to keep your home comfortable. It also lets you program schedules that meet your family’s needs—perhaps a little cooler at night in the winter while everyone is asleep, a warm-up cycle 30 minutes before the alarm goes off, etc. That program is not necessary during the long weekend at the lake, so you program a vacation schedule that reduces the energy load. But rain moves in, cutting the weekend short, so program a comfortable temperature adjustment a half hour before you arrive. You must admit, that is pretty convenient!

Smart Thermostat: It learns Your Behavior Over Time

Every time you enter schedules and schedule changes, the smart thermostat records the information and follows your patterns. Over a period of years, the thermostat records your information and learns your habits and preferences. This allows the thermostat to help you make your house as comfortable as possible.

How does that benefit you? Once the thermostat has data about what is “normal” and preferred for your home, should something seem unusual, many smart thermostats will alert you concerning the new information.

A good example might be a change of season day that needed heat in the morning, but, according to your comfort preferences, will require AC by the time the family begins to roll in. If the alert comes to your smartphone, you are able to make adjustments as needed wherever you are.

It’s easy on the budget

Programming your HVAC will cut your energy bill and save you money. One major energy “no-no” is constantly adjusting the temperature manually. Instead, determine an agreed-upon comfortable temperature for the whole family, program the thermostat, and trust it to accomplish the program. Sometimes during the day, it is not necessary to keep the temperature at those comfort levels: two good examples are:

• • overnight, while everyone is sleeping and
  • anytime the house is vacant, while the family is at work/school.

By keeping the house a little cooler in the winter, say 5⁰, overnight while everyone is sleeping, you will notice a reduction in your energy bill. If you apply the same principle while the house is vacant during the day, it saves further money. How much you save is determined by the size of the house, your energy billing rate, and your preferred comfort temp.

Environmental advantages. If you save 10% on your energy bill, this is very beneficial to your budget. If every home in your town saved 10%, this makes room on the power grid. Your smart thermostat will also prompt you to program heating and cooling based on a local profile of peak energy usage. Built-in prompts will give you suggestions on how you can save energy. You will be able to track energy use and recognize changes that might indicate a component failure, requiring a service call for repair.

Have Questions About a Smart Thermostat?

Northwind Air Conditioning and Heat can help with Smart Thermostat selection and installation. Contact us and get the answers you need.