Many people don’t give a second thought to how they set the thermostat. After owning a central air conditioner and heater for several years, how you set the thermostat becomes second nature. When it’s hot, you walk over to the thermostat and adjust the settings, and if you’re worried about your bills, you may raise the temperature.
It turns out that some of the most seemingly harmless thermostat habits can raise our bills quite a bit. In fact, even when we think we set the thermostat to help save money, we may actually do the opposite. Find out what habits you should consider changing below. Call our expert technicians to learn from the best!
Turning Down the Thermostat as Far as It Goes
First, let’s talk about something that most of us have done at some point or another. When it’s extremely chilly outside and you head indoors, you may go straight for the thermostat to make the home as warm as you can. The same is true for when it’s hot outside and you turn the temperature down to 65° or as low as it goes.
Setting the thermostat higher or lower won’t make the system heat or cool your home any faster. You simply make the home colder or hotter than you really need it! The system will keep running beyond the point of comfort, and your bills just keep going up and up.
Constantly Changing the Temperature
Constantly readjusting the temperature setting on the thermostat can quickly wear down the AC system or heater. It’s much better to find a temperature at which everyone in the family is comfortable, and to keep it here most of the time (when you are home). That way, the system is not always stopping and starting up outside of its regular cycles.
Turning the AC or Heater Off When You Leave the House
You may think that when you leave the home for work, the most efficient thing to do is to shut off the air conditioning system or heater entirely. By the time you arrive home at the end of the day and turn the system back on, however, it has to attempt to drastically change temperatures, sometimes by about 20° or more.
That means the system will need to run non-stop, which requires more energy and forces more wear and tear than keeping the thermostat at an efficient temperature while you’re away.
Forgetting to Turn the Temperature Up or Down When You Leave
Still, we recommend changing the temperature if you’re going to be gone for long—just not necessarily shutting it off completely. When you leave the home, adjust the temperature by about 5-10°F in order to save on energy costs.
We understand that this is easy to forget. That’s why you should install a smart thermostat or an advanced programmable thermostat if you don’t have one already. You ca program in your scheduling preferences, set it, and forget it!
Boehmer Heating & Cooling installs thermostats in Upper St. Clair. Call us for all your air conditioning and heating needs!