Comfort. It means that your house is warm, but not too warm. It means that in the coming winter, your furnace keeps chugging along.
But all of that comfort costs you money. On average, Americans spend around $1000 a year on natural gas. Some of this goes to hot water, but a portion of this goes to warming the air in your home as well.
So what can you do? You don’t want to compromise comfort, but you do want to get a gas bill that doesn’t cost the world, especially since so much of that bill comes in a few short months. Oh, and you don’t want to be running to the thermostat every minute either to dial it up or down. There are few enough hours in the day without playing Thermostat Wars with your children or partner.
Why not get a programmable thermostat? These run for about $60 for a basic model, and if you’re not on a complex weekly schedule and don’t mind buttons rather than a touch screen, that’s really all you need. These thermostats are palm-sized, and they can save you a whole lot of cash.
Now who wants their house to be cold? you ask. But wait. Your house will not be cold, at least not when you’re home and awake. But if you’re like most people, you sleep sometimes. You also go out, perhaps on a regular basis. You may even have a schedule for that going out. This is when the programmable thermostat comes in handy. You can set the thermostat to approximate your weekly schedule. Turn down the heat while you sleep, but wake to toasty heat coming from the furnace. Turn it down when you’re out, but come in and it’s hot, because the furnace knows you’re coming.
For every 1 degree F that you reduce your heat, just for 8 hours at night, you save 1% on your gas bill. Most of us could probably reduce our heat 1 to 4 degrees F. If you reduce it 4 degrees, you’ll save $40 on your gas bill every year. In a winter and a bit, you’ll pay off the thermostat with your savings.
So stay warm this winter – sensibly. Install a programmable thermostat.
Image credit: ephnastie