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Recommended Programmable Thermostat Settings
If you buy a programmable thermostat you are obviously interested in reducing your heating and cooling bills. Your purchase of a programmable thermostat was pointless if you keep the thermostat on the hold setting. The same is true if you wear t-shirts in the winter in your house and sweaters in the summer in your house. Dressing to suit the season is better for your health, for your bank balance and helps reduce carbon emissions. Below are the Energy Star guidelines to help you program your thermostat to find the correct balance between comfort and energy efficiency.
Depending on whether you buy a 7-day programmable thermostat such as the Honeywell RTH8500D, Honeywell RTH7500D, Honeywell VisionPro 8000, Lux TX900TS or Lux TX9100E or you buy a 5-1-1 programmble thermostat such as a Lux TX1500E will decide how many programs you set. With a 5-1-1 programmable thermostat the information below will only need to be inputed once to cover Monday to Friday. With a 7-Day programmable thermostat you will have to separately program in your settings for every day of the week. The information below is more relevant for weekdays when it is assumed you will be out the house working during the day. For the weekend you might want to alter the hours of start and end points to fit in with with your schedule.
Regardless of whether you have a 5-1-1, 5+2 or 7-Day programmable thermostat you will be have 4 periods of heating/cooling to set up. These are morning, afternoon, evening and night.
For the morning you should set the start point for the time your alarm clock goes off. The temptation is to set the start point earlier to pre-heat or pre-cool your house before getting up. If you a programmable thermostat with smart response or smart recovery thechnology this temptation should be avoided because the thermostat pre-heats or pre-cools automatically. Honeywell and Lux Products programmable thermostats normally have this function.
The recommended Energy Star setting for morning is 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) in winter and 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius) in summer. The morning period should finish when you leave the house to go to work.
For the afternoon or day setting you should reduce the temperature on your programmable thermostat by 8 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) in winter and increase the temperature by 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) in summer.
The evening period starting point should be the time when you usually return from work. The settings for this period should be the same as for morning.
At 10pm or whenever you go to bed should be the start point for the night settings. For this period you should reduce the temperature by 8 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) in winter and increase the temperature by 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) in summer.
By following these guidelines as best you can your programmable thermostat will allow you to make big savings on your monthly energy bills. If carefully followed these settings can save you up to 33% on your heating/cooling bills. For the average family in America that represents a saving of over $700 a year.
Don’t be tempted to crank up or down the thermostat because you are uncomfortable – it doesn’t make the room hotter or colder quicker. It just wastes money.
To save extra money it is also possible to reduce your settings to 69 degrees Fahrenheit or lower in winter and increase the settings beyond 78 degrees Fahrenheit in summer. It is really a matter of your own comfort versus your desire to save money.
Alternatively, if for example you find it hard to sleep with the thermostat set at 78 degrees in the summer you might consider using a fan in your bedroom or installing another programmable thermostat for your room. Selectively, heating/cooling rooms or areas is a good way to save money.
Finally you should find out when the peak and off-peak times are for electricity. Off-peak electricity is cheaper.You could schedule, for example, to work at home to fit in with these cheaper times.