Programmable Thermostats

Want to know the quickest and easiest way to keep your energy bills down and your home's energy efficiency up? It's not installing a new furnace or heat pump, it's not closing the blinds, it's not even turning out the lights when you leave a room. No, the simplest way to increase your home's energy efficiency is to install a programmable thermostat! If you live in Maryland or Washington, DC and want to install a programmable thermostat in your house, call Michael Bonsby Heating and Air Conditioning today!

Benefits of Programmable Thermostats

Programmable thermostats allow you to set your home's thermostat to the optimal level at any time of day. How does this benefit you? Think about this - when you leave home for the day, do you leave your heating system running at 72o all day? Or do you turn it off every morning and turn it back on when you come home, having to wait in the cold while it gets up to a comfortable level? Installing a programmable thermostat can completely eliminate both of these problems! With a programmable thermostat, you can set different temperatures for your home based on the time of day. If you are out of the house every day from 8am to 5pm, you can set the thermostat to lower your home's heat during this period, and then have it automatically raise the temperature to a comfortable level by the time you get home. You can also lower it when you go to sleep, as the warmth of the sheets and covers on your bed should let you get by with lower air temperatures. Best of all, after you've set it once it will continue to adjust automatically - you'll never have to touch it again!

Going on vacation? Your programmable thermostat can still benefit you! Most programmable thermostats have vacation settings that allow you to set the temperature to the most efficient level based on the season (cold in the winter, warm in the summer) so that it doesn't rely on its standard daily cycle while you aren't around.

Best Ways to Use a Programmable Thermostat

To get the best results from your programmable thermostat, you should take special care to make sure it is installed properly. Make sure your programmable thermostat is installed on an interior wall away from anything that could cause it to register an incorrect temperature (including heating and cooling vents, doorways, windows, your fireplace, kitchen, direct sunlight or even bright lamps).

Once your thermostat has been set to a temperature that is comfortable for you and your family, try to avoid changing it too often. Once or twice a day is fine, but changing it too often will cause your furnace to cycle on and off too frequently, which is very inefficient. Also, don't try to crank the thermostat up really high or really low if you want the house to heat up faster or slower - changing the thermostat level won't affect the rate of heating or cooling (this applies to all thermostats, not just programmable thermostats).

If you want a way to keep your Maryland or Washington, DC home's temperature under control while lowering your heating bills and increasing your efficiency by installing a programmable thermostat, call Michael Bonsby Heating and Air Conditioning today!