What Are The Best Settings For My Programmable Thermostat?

For most people, a thermostat is a box on the wall that they visit to turn up temperatures when they’re too cold. But if you have a programmable thermostat and that’s all you’re using it for, you’re missing out on an easy way to save 10 percent or more on your home heating oil bill.

According to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, nine out of ten Americans say they’ve rarely (or never) programmed their thermostat because they don’t know how to use it – which is a shame, considering how easy today’s thermostats are to learn and operate.

If you don’t have one, installing a programmable thermostat is a smart move: if you use it correctly, it could pay for itself in energy savings alone the first year you own it – not to mention the wear and tear you’re avoiding on your furnace or boiler.

But how do you use a programmable thermostat correctly? Here are some suggestions.

Choosing The Right Thermostat Settings

Step 1: Find out what kind of thermostat you have

If you already own a thermostat, first determine if it is a programmable model or simply one you have to adjust manually. If it is a programmable thermostat, it’s helpful to know what kind of flexibility your model offers. Programmable thermostats feature different “modes”, depending on the model you own. Ranked in order here from most to least flexible, these modes include:

• 7-day, which lets you program a different schedule for each day of the week;
• 5-1-1, which allows one schedule for the week, plus one each for Saturday and Sunday;
• 5-2, which lets you program one schedule for the week and one for the weekend; and
• 1-week, which enables one schedule for the week.

If you have a smart thermostat, you can program these modes (and other thermostat features) from your smartphone.

Step 2: Program your thermostat to match your lifestyle

No matter which of these options you own, you will want to customize your thermostat so it works with the way you live. The settings you can control on most programmable thermostats include:

• Waketime
• Sleep time
• Leave time
• Return time

Each thermostat operates a little differently, so you will want to spend a little time perusing the owner’s manual to adjust these settings; considering the money savings, it’s worth the time and effort.

Step 3: Use sensible settings

The U.S Department of Energy suggests the following settings for the best balance of comfort and savings:

Heating season:

• When you’re home and awake, set the thermostat for 68°F.
• Lower temperatures by 7-10° for the hours you’re asleep or out of the house.

Cooling season:

• When you’re home and awake, program air conditioning to 78°F.
• Program the AC to shut off during the hours you’re out of the house.

In general,

• Program heat or A/C to shut off 20-30 minutes before you leave home; return them to normal comfort levels 20 to 30 minutes before you come home.
• Program reductions in heating or cooling to begin 60 minutes before you go to sleep; return them to normal comfort levels 30 minutes before you awaken.

Used correctly, a programmable thermostat can knock 10 percent on your heating bill month every month. It’s an easy way to save!

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