It costs you money to stay comfortable in your northeastern Ohio home in the hot summer. One of the best ways to save money on energy bills is to turn up the air conditioning in the summer and turn down the heat in the winter. Adjusting the temperature automatically with a programmable thermostat can bring significant energy savings, but you can save even more money with a few operational tips.

  • Set your programmable thermostat to 78 degrees when you’re home in the summer. When you’re away, set it at 85 degrees. In winter, keep the temperature at 68 degrees when you’re home and let the home get several degrees cooler when you’re away or asleep.
  • The longer the temperature remains at the energy-efficient setpoint, the better. Set it for at least eight hours for best results. Additionally, if you have a block of time of four hours or more in which the home will be empty on a regular basis, include that period of time in your programming.
  • When you go away on vacation, don’t forget to use the “hold” or “vacation” setting to keep your home at the same temperature while you are gone.

For even more energy savings, choose a smart programmable thermostat, which will provide a touch screen with lots of options and information, remote access, system alerts, weather information and other features. With an Internet connection via a computer, mobile phone or tablet, you can use remote access to monitor your cooling and heating system, change programming and get system alerts in the case of a breakdown or power failure.

If you’re replacing a manual thermostat with a programmable model, you will likely need to have the thermostat installed by a professional HVAC contractor, who will determine the best location for the thermostat and install, set up, program and test the unit. A contractor can also help you choose a unit.

For more expert tips on programmable thermostats and energy savings, feel free to contact us at Stack Heating, Cooling, Plumbing and Electric. We’ve been serving the greater Cleveland area since 1976.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Cleveland, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about thermostat  and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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