Home heating companies are becoming more energy efficient every year. There are energy efficient boilers, water heaters, and furnaces and there are digital or programmable thermostats. These products are only as good as the homeowners that are using them. If you don’t properly utilize these energy efficient products they are going to cost you as much money as the older appliances do.
There are a large number of homes that still use the old fashioned analog thermostats. These types of thermostats worked they best they were necessary. But with technology advancing every day, are the days of the analog thermostat numbered? Homeowners with huge heating bills tend to think they are. More homeowners are switching over to the digital or programmable thermostats to help defray the cost of their home heating bills. The best part of the digital thermostats is that you can use them to keep the cost of your air conditioning costs down in the summer as well. Here are some ways in which you can help save money with a digital thermostat.
What is the difference between a digital thermostat and an analog thermostat?
Basically, the only real difference in the two is that a digital thermostat can be programmed to help the homeowner save you money and an analog is considered to be more of a manual thermostat. On the average the typical homeowner can spend more than $ 2500 on their home heating bills using an analog thermostat because they can’t set it to an exact temperature that would be perfect in helping them save money.
With a digital thermostat, you can program that thermostat to 68 degrees and leave it at that. You know exactly what temperature you are heating your room at all times. Another difference and a cost effective way to tell them apart is that with analog thermostats, whatever temperature you set the thermostat for has to stay that way until someone changes it. But let’s say, no one is home during the day and there is home use in heating an empty home. With an analog thermostat you have no choice but to set it at one temperature. With the digital thermostat, you can lower the temperature for during the day when no one is home and then set it for a higher temp like an hour before you get home.
How can I get the maximum savings from my digital thermostat?
There are some digital thermostats that will have an energy saving set point. By keeping the thermostat on this setting longer than other settings you will save yourself some money. Also, you may find that digital thermostats have a permanent setting, a vacation setting and a temporary setting. All three of these have their purpose. When you are at home the permanent setting should be used. Set the thermostat at the energy saving setting and don’t touch the thermostat again. Now, the vacation setting is great for long-term vacations or simple weekend getaways.
Keep this low, why waste the energy if you aren’t going to be home. The temporary setting can be used as we mentioned before. If your home is going to be empty during the day then you can use the temporary setting to keep the house a bit colder than you would if you were home.
What would be the best temperature to set my home to?
That solely depends on the homeowner. Some people like to keep their homes set at 70 and others like to keep their homes at 67 or 68. If you are changing over your analog thermostat to a digital thermostat then using the energy saving setting may be a settling point. In most homes the people in the house are not going to be comfortable at the same temperature setting. So compromise and choose the energy efficiency setting.
How you choose to heat your home is strictly up to the homeowner. But these days when more and more people are trying to save money anyway they can, it would be best to consider switching over to a digital thermostat. They can save you money if you operate them with a sense of responsibility. This means use common sense when setting the digital temperature. Keep the thermostat low during the day and use the energy efficient setting at night. Don’t crank the digital thermostat to 90 and then back down to 68, it does not heat the home faster. Read the manuals and read the suggestions that they make. You may have to use a bit trial and error to determine what settings are going to work for you
