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Cut heating and air
conditioning expense with a programmable thermostat
By Jim Youngquist
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[April 28, 2022]
After about 10 years
of stable heating and cooling costs here in Central Illinois, the
first heating bill of this 2021/2022 winter season was a big shock.
Most people's heating costs went up between $100 to $300 a month,
making the cost of energy one of our biggest expenditures.
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There are a few ways to tame the cost of heating.
Install more home insulation. Weather-strip windows and doors. Turn
the thermostat down and put on more clothes. But there is a
practicality side here too; you can stand low household temperatures
for so long and only put on so many extra clothes.
After doing the insulation and weather-stripping, a better method of
controlling the cost of heating is to get a programmable thermostat.
Yesterday's thermostat was a mechanical device that roughly detects
the temperature of the room by the expansion and contraction of a
coiled metal strip with a mercury switch attached. It is a crude
device, by modern day standards, that works in a simple way: move
the lever to make it warmer or cooler in the room.
A programmable thermostat is a precision electronic device that
monitors what the temperature is and electronically makes
adjustments. There are no moving parts inside. You don't need your
bifocals to read the tiny little marks on the thermostat to tell
what the temp is currently set to. The programmable thermostat has a
big readable screen that tells you what the status is, and intuitive
controls make it function.
There are now hundreds of brands and models of programmable
thermostats on the market. Some of them are available for FREE or
reduced cost from Ameren or your regional energy provider. In this
primer we will endeavor to explore some of the features of
programmable thermostats that make them attractive and better
control your energy costs.
There are three main functions of a quality programmable thermostat:
scheduling, automating, and communications.
With scheduling you can lower your heating and cooling costs by
setting times when you need less heating or cooling. When you are at
work, school, away from home or in bed, you don't need as much
heating or cooling. With scheduling, you can set times of the day
and night when your thermostat is set to a lower temperature (for
heating) or a higher temperature for cooling. By using scheduling,
we can make our heating and cooling system coast during those times
and often not use any energy at all. Good scheduling will wake your
system up to make it a comfortable temperature prior to your arrival
or the time you get up. Scheduling is the programmable thermostat's
best feature!
Some programmable thermostats have the advanced feature of
"learning" or automating your routine. The Nest Learning Thermostat
learns your family's routines and monitors what is going on in the
house to make decisions on its own about what heating or cooling is
required. It monitors the outside temperature to get the best
efficiency from your furnace. It monitors your coming and going to
make decisions about when to let the system coast, and learns your
routines (such as when you go to bed) to set lower temperatures in
your house.
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Finally, most programmable thermostats can be
controlled remotely with an app on your cell phone, or will even
communicate with your home automation system such as Google Home or
Alexa. You can monitor and adjust the temperature in your house from
half a world away with the communications feature of your
programmable thermostat with your smart phone. You can sit on the
couch and say, "Alexa, what is the temperature in the living room,"
and Alexa will speak the current living room temperature, or you can
say to Google Home, "Google, increase the temperature in the bedroom
one degree." Google Home will say OK and kick the temp up a notch.
(Now if we can only get Alexa and Google to clean the house and make
the beds....).
Installing a programmable thermostat is probably a job for an HVAC
professional. Most of the brands of programmable thermostats have a
compatibility guide on their website so you can get the right model
for your HVAC situation. Most of the brands have well illustrated
instruction guides for easy installation, helping you to identify
what you have (such as a forced air furnace or a boiler and air
handler etc.), and how to identify the colored wires and hook them
up correctly. Installation is complicated enough that you probably
want to have a professional install your new thermostat. Most HVAC
professionals will only charge about $75 to install a programmable
thermostat, get it communicating with your phone and Alexa, and it
is well worth avoiding wrong installation, which might keep your
heat from working, and the possible frustrations of DIY.
With the scheduling and automation features of a programmable
thermostat, you can reduce your heating and air conditioning costs
up to 30%. Getting a free programmable thermostat from Ameren can
set you on the path to better affordability with your home energy
costs.
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