Programmable thermostats provide Birmingham area homeowners with expanded control over their home’s heating and cooling energy consumption. About 15 to 20 years ago, their popularity ignited as homeowners were eager to lower their utility costs. It’s far easier to save energy with programmable thermostats versus manual thermostats. Even with newer technology available today, programmable thermostats are still extremely popular in American homes.
In our most recent blog, the technicians at Douglas Cooling & Heating explain how homeowners use programmable thermostats and other thermostat technology to control household energy consumption while maintaining comfortable conditions inside the home.
Types of Thermostats
Today, there are three basic categories of thermostats available: manual thermostats, programmable thermostats, and smart thermostats.
- Manual Thermostats: With manual thermostats, users must manually adjust temperatures up or down when desired.
- Programmable Thermostats: Temperature adjustments can be programmed based on a schedule. Different models exist offering several scheduling capabilities. The thermostat follows the programmed settings and adjusts temperatures in the home on this schedule.
- Smart Thermostats: Smart thermostats are the newest generation of thermostats. They can use sensors, Internet connectivity, and more to learn the homeowner’s preferences and assess indoor conditions to choose the most energy-efficient temperature setpoints.
Types of Programmable or Smart Thermostats Douglas Cooling & Heating Offers
Douglas Cooling & Heating offers a variety of programmable and smart thermostats from Bryant to meet your home’s unique needs.
Bryant’s Evolution Connex Control
This is one of the industry’s best thermostats. This Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat allows for real-time management wherever you are and can lower your energy bills through intuitive programming.
Bryant’s Housewise Wi-Fi Thermostat
The Bryant Housewise Thermostat is Energy Star certified and can save you up to 20% on heating and cooling costs. With its Wi-Fi capability, you can access this thermostat from any tablet or web portal.
The ecobee3 lite
The ENERGY STAR-certified ecobee3 lite offers smarter control of your home’s temperature through Wi-Fi capabilities and can increase savings by up to 23%.
Contact Douglas Cooling & Heating today to learn more about our offerings of programmable and smart thermostats.
Scheduling Options for Programmable Thermostats
When purchasing a programmable thermostat, it is important to pay attention to each model’s scheduling capabilities and find one that offers scheduling appropriate for your household. Typically, up to four temperature changes are allowed for each setting period. The scheduling functionalities of programmable thermostats work as follows:
- 7-Day models allow the homeowner to program unique temperature schedules for every day of the week. These programmable thermostats offer the best scheduling variation for a busy household with a schedule that frequently changes.
- 5-1-1 Day programmable thermostats permit one set of temperature adjustments utilized Monday through Friday and unique schedules for Saturday and Sunday. They are ideal for households with consistent schedules during the week and each day of the weekend.
- 5-2 Day programmable thermostats use one set of temperature schedules Monday through Friday and a second set that covers Saturday and Sunday. They are used in households with consistent weekday and weekend schedules.
- 1-Week programmable thermostats use one set of temperature adjustments for all seven days of the week. This is the most limited programming ability offered for programmable thermostat models.
How Programmable Thermostats Help Homeowners Save
With heating or cooling systems, the greatest energy savings are achieved through temperature setbacks over a period of time. This means adjusting the temperature for heating lower than what is typical and setting the temperature for cooling higher than what is typical in the home. It’s recommended to adjust household temperatures in this manner for periods of eight or more hours. Temperature setbacks of seven to 10 degrees or more over eight or more hours each day can cut yearly heating and cooling costs as much as 10 percent, according to the US Department of Energy.
Technically, any one of the three main types of thermostats allow you to adjust temperatures in this manner. However, doing so on a manual thermostat is far more involved, requiring you to physically go to the thermostat and make the adjustment multiple times per day. As you can imagine, not many people bother to take the time to do so, nor do they always remember.
When programmable thermostats were introduced to the market, they removed the inconvenience of making temperature setbacks. Setback schedules could be programmed, allowing the thermostat to handle adjustments automatically!
By removing the need for a person to make all temperature adjustments, homeowners avoided much of the discomfort associated with temperature setbacks. Popular setback periods are during the day and overnight when occupants are gone from home for the day or asleep and unlikely to be affected by the temperature change.
However, with a manual thermostat, you must make the adjustments and wait for temperatures to return to normal, leaving the family in a state of discomfort for a period of time. With programmable thermostats, settings can be programmed to adjust temperatures just ahead of the morning alarm clock so the home is at the perfect temperature when you are awake, up and about in the home.
Upgrade Your Thermostat Today!
If your Birmingham home still has a manual thermostat, it’s time to make the switch. Programmable thermostats offer effortless energy savings you can’t afford to miss out on! Contact Douglas Cooling & Heating today to learn more and receive an estimate for new thermostat installation.
