Is Your Thermostat Costing You Money?

It’s no secret that Americans spend a lot of money on heating and cooling. In the days before gas and oil furnaces, people had to spend a lot of energy and time collecting and preparing wood to burn. As home engineering became more advanced and sophisticated, homes were fitted with ductwork for ventilation and climate control. This enabled both furnaces and air conditioning units to distribute warm or cool air throughout the home; and it enabled homeowners to control the temperature inside their home simply by twisting the knob known as a thermostat.

As time went on, people began to realize the benefits being able to program the thermostat to repeat certain patterns of heating or cooling throughout the day and night. This enabled more effective management of heating and cooling resources – which, after all, cost money. The average homeowner spends thousands of dollars a year on a climate control. In fact, heating and cooling account for as much as 50% of all energy usage in our country every year. That’s a lot of energy!

Naturally, people want to know how to cut down on energy costs, and meet their heating and cooling needs in a more efficient and intelligent way. And yet, A huge percentage of American homeowners are still relying on traditional thermostats to manage the temperature inside their homes.

The problem with this is that traditional thermostats are not sensitive to different times of day, or different healing and cooling needs. Once you set the thermostat at 70°, it will work however hard it needs to work, For however long it needs to work, in order to reach and maintain that temperature. People forget to turn heating or cooling off or on, and the result is a huge loss terms of efficiency.

Programmable thermostats provide good opportunities for saving money and using resources more judiciously. But they still run on set patterns and are not particularly responsive to the environment or the lifestyle of the home’s inhabitants.

The next quantum leap in heating and cooling – besides the air conditioners in furnaces themselves, as well as new techniques involving ductwork and home insulation – is undoubtedly the advent of the smart thermostat.

This development essentially takes one of the most expensive an important aspects of home ownership — that is, heating and cooling — and plugs it into the so-called “internet of things.” A smart thermostat can be controlled using any of your favorite devices from anywhere in the world. If you forget to turn off the air conditioning when you leave the house simply turn it off after you leave the house buy opening an app and touching a button. If you want the house to be nice and warm for your arrival, simply use the app to turn on the heat.



But it’s not only the remote control capabilities that make smart thermostats special. They actually learn your personal patterns of the heating and cooling. They provide detailed, real-time data about your energy usage. The more you use a smart thermostat, the more it learns about your usage. Depending on the options you choose and activate, smart thermostats will respond to patterns of usage and help you manage your energy usage in a way that saves resources and save money. That’s what truly makes them a revolutionary step in home ownership.