Wednesday, June 4, 2003

More than just hot and cold

Swap your stone-age thermostat for a programmable one

By NICK HARDER
The Orange County Register

There's nothing wrong with setting the thermostat yourself on your home heating and cooling system. Nothing wrong, that is, except that you're probably wasting money, energy and effort.

It's time to ask yourself whether you're finally ready to buy a programmable thermostat. Why get up each morning to a cold house when one of the new types of programmable thermostats can have the house nice and warm for you? And why have the added burden of remembering to turn down the thermostat when you leave for work and when you go to bed?

You'll waste a lot of energy and money by leaving your heating or cooling system on longer than you wish if you forget to turn it off. There are lots of estimates on how much you can save, but let's take one small example.

By spending $50 on a programmable thermostat, you may be able to save $900-$1,000 over 10 years assuming a home of 1,500 square feet and an average monthly energy bill of just below $100. While those figures can vary a great deal depending on climate and energy costs, people in larger homes often can save even more.

What is a programmable thermostat, anyway? Well, to begin, you need to understand the thermostats millions of people still have. For the most part, they're mechanical. That is, they use a system of gears, levers and other devices straight out of the dark ages. Whether they come in round or rectangular boxes, you must manually set the temperature you wish each time you want to raise or lower it.

Other than the extra effort you need to remember to set temperatures every day, there's also the error factor. Most of these "dinosaur" thermostats have notorious error margins of up to 5 degrees. Newer programmable thermostats can have an error margin of a half-degree.

A programmable thermostat is a temperature control that can be set for automatic turn-on and turn-off of heating and cooling systems, often with the ability to have multiple settings for each day of the week. You don't have to set the temperature each time, you can electronically and automatically control temperature changes in advance.

And the best thing is that programmable thermostats are relatively cheap. They can be purchased from heating/cooling outlets as well as hardware stores and home centers. And they're so easy to install that anyone with a screwdriver and the ability to follow simple directions can do it.

You can find programmable thermostats priced from $19 to more than $100. The chief factors affecting their cost include the degree of control or multiple settings, whether back-up batteries are used and whether they're included, and whether a manual override is available. They should be able to replace mechanical thermostats on any standard 24-volt electric, gas, oil or hot water heating and cooling system. You can even find some that will remind you when it's time to change your furnace filter.

If you shop for a programmable thermostat yourself, be sure to get one that is meant for your heating/cooling system. For instance, a thermostat built to work with a heat pump probably won't work with a forced-air system, and vice versa.

So, be sure to read the label.

Back to Home & Garden Home Page | Back to the top of the page