With convenient locations in both Tyler and Longview, East Texas Refrigeration wants you to get the most from your HVAC systems. We have many years of experience in residential and commercial air conditioning and heating diagnostic service, installation, and HVAC repair. We want the best for our clients for all their heating and cooling needs.
An important part of that is saving money by properly using your thermostat.
There are many common misconceptions regarding thermostats, but one of the biggest is that proper management means to set it and forget it. Not so fast!
Want to save money on your heating and A/C bills? Read on!
Using your thermostat correctly means you can save up to 10% or more on your utility bills for heating and air conditioning. Also, by properly managing your thermostat, you save on extra wear and tear on your heating and air units, saving you money on maintenance and repair.
We’ve all been there:
You return home after a long day out. Maybe it’s a colder than expected day, and you hurry inside and crank up the furnace thermostat to warm the house quickly.
Or maybe it’s a hot Texas summer day, and you want nothing more than to be inside in the air conditioning, cooling off. When you return home, you lower the AC and blast the cold air to make the house cooler.
But let’s face it, this usually doesn’t happen once or twice in a season—it’s a pretty regular occurrence.
What does that do to your utility bill? It makes it higher.
A common misconception is that setting your air conditioner thermostat to a colder temperature will make your home colder, faster. However, keeping the indoor temperature regulated and consistent will help ensure a cooler home and less expensive electricity bills.
This is where thermostat regulation comes in. You can do this manually, but who needs one more thing to remember? You’re much more likely to benefit from these energy savings if you invest in a programmable thermostat. It’s nice to change the thermostat in the evening when you go to sleep and again in the morning when you head off to work, but why not let the thermostat do the remembering for you?
When it comes to taking advantage of money-saving techniques for your thermostat, a good rule to follow is always to reset your thermostat at night, or when you’re not at home. This way, you’re not even noticing a temperature difference, but you’re cutting down on energy costs.
It’s all about finding the “medium temperature.” By regulating the indoor to outdoor temperature and keeping them as close as comfortably possible, you’ll ensure a lower utility bill because your HVAC unit won’t have to work so hard to compensate for the difference continually.
This is where a programmable thermostat can be particularly helpful. On those days when you forget, your thermostat does it for you. Besides, there are different settings for different times of the day. Maybe it gets cooler at your house starting in the early evenings, but not so cool as you like to have the thermostat set at night. You can adjust the programmable thermostat easily so that the evening temperature is exactly what you want and need, and when you go to sleep, you’ll be comfortable too.
All while saving you money!
A few other simple ideas to keep in mind:
- This information will be especially relevant for people who manually micromanage their thermostats. That’s the last thing you want to do. All that switching up and down causes the HVAC unit to work overtime, which is hard on the machine, as well as costing you more money. If you’re someone who micromanages their thermostat, a programmable thermostat might be the best option for you.
- A good rule to go by is that whenever you leave home for more than eight hours, change your thermostat five to eight degrees higher in the summer for your AC. And ten to fifteen degrees lower in the winter for your heating unit.
- The location of your thermostat makes a big difference in many factors, but especially saving money.Please don’t put it in direct sunlight or where cold air from an opening door will continually impact it. Keep the area free of clutter and make sure there’s no furniture obstructing it.
- One thing to keep in mind is that your savings will fluctuate based on what type of climate you live in. Hotter or colder extremes versus more moderate temperature climates will undoubtedly play a role in how hard your unit works to keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
If you are interested in learning more about switching out your thermostat or other energy and money-saving tips when it comes to your HVAC system, give the professionals at ETR a call.