Summer Thermostat Tips

The thermostat is the brains of your home's heating and air conditioning system. In order for the thermostat to provide the best balance of comfort and efficiency, it must be programmed for each climate and adjusted to a home's comfort needs.

Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your thermostat during the cooling season.

1. Program Your Thermostat. It's not uncommon to find homeowner's using their programmable thermostat as a simple on-off switch for their heating and cooling system, never realizing the potential for energy savings and increased comfort that the device is capable of providing.

Programmable thermostats work by shutting off systems when your home is empty, so you are not wasting money heating and cooling an empty home.  They do this by running according to a schedule that you program based on the hours that you are home.

By scheduling the thermostat to heat and cool around your schedule you will see immediate savings on your energy bill

2. Optimize Seasonal Temperature Settings. To program a thermostat for the best mix of comfort and energy efficiency, we recommend setting your thermostat as follows:

In the summer 

Set the thermostat at 78 degrees when you’re home

Set it at 85 degrees when you’re away

Set it at 82 degrees when you’re asleep

In the winter -

Set the thermostat at 68 degrees when you are home

Set it at 60 degrees when you are away

Set it at 60 degrees when you are sleeping

In the spring and fall these temperatures can be adjusted based on the greater degree of temperature changes from day to night.

3. Consider Humidity Levels

Humidity plays a large role in home comfort. While it may be only 80 degrees outside, it can feel like 95 when the humidity levels are high.

Some thermostats offer humidity control, enabling more energy-efficient cooling and heating.  Systems that operate at variable speeds can also help control humidity levels by drawing air across the coil slowly to remove more moisture when starting up.