It just made sense. We could save money by turning the heat down when we were gone and when we were sleeping (and we didn't have to REMEMBER to turn down the heat!) With winter coming this is one of the smartest way to reduce your heating bill. Energy Star estimates people save $180 a year with a programmable thermostat. I am pretty sure we save more than that at my home--and I am a stay-at-home mom. Below I give you some info on purchasing and installing your thermostat and then scheduling it to SAVE you money!
Currently you can buy a programmable thermostat for as cheap as $17 at Menards. If you want one that you can schedule weekends differently than weekdays it is as cheap as $24. And don't forget that you can put this purchase down as a tax deduction under the Energy Star Credit Act (you will get 30% back.)
These thermostats are surprisingly easy to install. I have personally installed 2 myself. They come with easy instructions. It is a matter of placing a battery in them, turning off the circuit breaker that leads to the thermostat and then connecting a few wires (and of course turning the circuit breaker back on.) Don't let installation scare you from making this wise purchase. It can be done in under an hour. Last time I did it, it took me 20 minutes.
Here is how we program our thermostat to save us money. At night we reduce the heat to 65 degrees. I make sure to put my daughter in 2 layers since she is not old enough to keep blankets on her. I then have the heat lower to 60 degrees around 7 AM.
We often get up at 7 and head out of the house for errands, storytime, workout, etc.... Your house will not instantly cool to 60 degrees so don't panic at this cold temp. The 60 degree mark just tells your furnace when it needs to turn on. Your house will slowly cool down. In fact, usually I am home by noon and the house (in the winter) may be around 63 degrees. I will then override the thermostat and turn it up to 68. When you come home and feel that your house is chilly--it will remind you to do this. You can ALWAYS manually override your set temperature--and it will stay overridden until it is scheduled to change. (So if you head out again, you will want to remember to turn it down again if you don't have that scheduled.)
This is why I set my temperature so low. If I am staying in the house for the morning, the house getting colder will remind me that I need to raise the temperature. It takes seconds to override the thermostat and turn the temperature up. I like to err on the side of saving money (if I leave) vs. simply overriding the temperature if I am staying in the house.
You can put more settings in your thermostat if you know that you will be in and out several times, but since my schedule tends to vary I just have the same two settings for night and day. I love coming home after being gone all day and realizing that my heat was not on--I did not pay to heat an empty house. Of course you will have the first 10 - 20 chilly moments of being in a 60 degree house, but most houses like ours have an efficient heating system that will heat the house back up pretty quickly. Honestly, when we are coming from 10 degrees outside, I really don't notice a 60 degree house being THAT cold. (After all it is much warmer than outside!)
If you are going to be gone several days, you can change your thermostat to manual vs. programmed. This means you can set it for one temperatures while you are gone. We will often set our house around 55 degrees if we are going to be gone several days. Remember you don't want your house to get too cold--because your pipes could freeze--many kitchen sinks are located on an outside wall meaning the pipes there get colder than the rest of your house.
So buy your thermostat, install it, and figure out what temperatures and schedule works for you. Start watching those heating bills FALL! You will be amazed by the savings!
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