March 25th, 2005 - Programmable thermostat
We have a programmable thermostat. Got it free with our new furnace a few years back. For most people, these are supposed to save money. But we don’t program it and we’re saving money.
Why? Because if we programmed it, the heat would go up to 63 at 4:30am so the house was warmer by the time I get up at 5am. It’d probably go up to 65 around 6 or 7 am, after my husband (6) and daughter (between 6 and 7) are up. Then it would go up to 67 or 68 at 5pm (during winter, it’s dark as early as 4:30 around here). Then it would go down to 60 overnight, probably at midnight.
Instead, I don’t turn the heat up to 63 until I’m downstairs in the morning. Sometimes, that’s before 5 am, but often it’s a bit later. So the heat is off longer at night. The rest of the day, we only turn the temp up when we feed too cold. Some days, that’s early in the morning. Some days, it stays at 63 until evening! Even if it’s put up to 65 during the day, we wait until I head into the living room for the evening to turn it up to 67. Often, that’s not until after 6, sometimes not till 7. All in all, I believe we use less energy/money by not programming our thermostat than by doing so.
One Response to “Programmable thermostat”
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March 25th, 2005 at 7:43 pm EST
oh oh, check the next post for comments put there by mistake.