Your thermostat plays a more important role in your overall comfort and how much energy your air conditioning system uses than you may realize. If you have an old traditional thermostat, your cooling costs throughout the summer are likely higher than they need to be. You may also experience issues with your house sometimes not being sufficiently cool, such as when you get home from work.
Why Upgrade an Older Thermostat?
Older thermostats can sometimes be difficult to program, and some only allow you to manually turn the temperature up and down. Upgrading to a new smart thermostat is a great investment. Not only will the thermostat connect to your Wi-Fi network, but most units also have a range of smart features specifically designed to boost HVAC efficiency, lower energy bills and improve home comfort.
Remote Scheduling and Access
Every Wi-Fi smart thermostat has a mobile app that allows you to monitor and control your home’s temperature remotely from your phone or tablet. The app makes it easy to program the thermostat to have your HVAC system run only at certain times to conserve energy.
Programming the thermostat to automatically turn up the temperature by a few degrees when everyone leaves in the morning means it won’t run unnecessarily when no one is home. You then want to program it to switch back to the normal temperature setting around an hour or so before everyone gets home, so that the house is already mostly cool when you arrive. You can also do this with a standard programmable thermostat, but the process is much easier and more intuitive with a smart thermostat.
Adaptive Scheduling and Temperature Control
Many smart thermostats have a “learning” function that allows them to quickly start adapting the time and temperature settings based on your household’s typical daily schedule. By relying on the motion sensor and monitoring to see if any devices are connected to your Wi-Fi network, the thermostat can learn when the house is normally occupied or unoccupied and when everyone is asleep. It then uses this information to adjust the settings for optimal efficiency and comfort.
Geofencing
Some of the more advanced smart thermostats have a geofencing feature to detect the location of everyone in the household. You use a map in the app to create boundaries that designate your “home” and “away” zones. As long as someone is in their designated home zone, the thermostat will maintain the normal temperature. If everyone is outside of the home zone, it will then immediately adjust the temperature to reduce the amount your AC runs and save energy.
Geofencing is useful for ensuring that the thermostat doesn’t turn the temperature up if you’re just running a few errands nearby and won’t be gone for long. It can also eliminate the need to program the thermostat. If you set a boundary line near your workplace, the thermostat will turn the temperature up when you get to work and back down when you leave.
Energy Usage Monitoring
All ENERGY-STAR smart thermostats are required to have a feature on the app that allows you to monitor your HVAC system’s recent energy usage. This type of feature provides several benefits, such as allowing you to directly see how any adjustments you make to your temperature settings impact efficiency and energy consumption. With many systems, you can also get recommendations through the app. These recommendations may suggest small temperature changes that can help reduce your energy bills. Another benefit of being able to monitor how much energy your HVAC system is using is that it makes it easy to tell if the system is still in good condition and working efficiently. If you see that your energy usage has suddenly started to increase, it’s a good indication that the system needs to be serviced or repaired.
Experience Improved Comfort. Reach Out Now!
At Fraas Heating & Cooling, our experienced team is ready to help with your thermostat installation and repair needs. We offer reliable HVAC and home comfort solutions in Archbold, and our team has what it takes to ensure your year-round comfort.
Scheduling AC maintenance with us before summer is the best way to make sure your air conditioning cools efficiently and your energy bills remain as low as possible. For more information on the smart thermostat options we offer or to schedule a service appointment, contact us today.
