For most folks who find themselves away from home for a good portion of the day, a programmable thermostat offers many benefits. Conventional wisdom says one of the biggest is lower energy bills resulting from more efficient heating and air conditioning use. Unfortunately, multiple studies actually show this not to be the case. The reason why: those anticipated savings are entirely dependent on the homeowner’s programming skills.
The bottom line: Before a programmable thermostat can ever begin to reduce your energy bill, you’ll first need to expend a little energy of your own and learn how to properly use it.
Photo Credit: Vikram
I don’t see why people would leave a heater or cooler on if there is no one home, thats just a waste of money and energy.
They don’t work with older 2 wire heating systems.
I thought they do make programmable thermostats now that work with 2-wire heating systems. If not, you should be able to get around that issue with the help of a single pole double throw relay.
Seems like a no brainer to me.
Kind of like doing a study on people who buy a bicycle to save money on gas and then finding out that those that don’t ride them don’t save any money.
The thermostat I bought came pre-programmed out of the box. All I did was change the the time I come home.
Works great.
Pre-programmed, eh? That’s great! A lot of folks simply have so much trouble programming them that they end up only using in “manual” mode. Of course, that doesn’t result in any savings.
User input affects the outcome? Say it ain’t so!
I know.
At my home we’ve got the wife effect (but it can easily be called the spouse effect, so it doesn’t offend!). If it isn’t warm enough for her in the winter or cool enough in the summer? Prepare for an override!
Yes, I’ve got the wife effect too — although in my house it usually occurs in the summer.
I’m calling B.S. on you Len.
Our programmable thermostat has saved us a lot of money. We have a 1974 two-story house and my gas bill used to quadruple in the Winter. Then, I bought a digital thermostat and it cut the Winter gas bill almost in half. The digital thermostat paid for itself in about two weeks and I kicked myself for waiting five years before installing one. It’s the best $25 I have ever spent.
We recently replaced the furnace, so it’s less of an issue now. The funny thing is that my wfe is home all day, so we don’t save any money there. Where we save the money is at night, when we let the house cool down some. With the old mercury slide thermostat, the heater would kick in and out all night and we would wake up dehydrated. Now, we sleep great and save money.
I’m not saying they don’t save money, Bret. They most certainly do!
My point was, for folks who don’t know how to program them — and that is a lot of folks — they aren’t saving anything. In fact, one study showed that they slightly increase electricity bills.
I’m a pretty good programmer, so maybe I’m not a typical user. But, the default settings are pretty good right out of the box.
i just manually change mine before i leave the house….and then change it back when i walk in after the work day. i’m slightly uncomfortable for about 20 minutes when i first get home, but i like saving money more than not changing it.
Hi Len, I’m really handy yet…… the programmable thermostate is quite a challenge to opperate! I just avoid using the heat and ac whenever possible.
Got one about two months ago. I programmed mine, but it suffers from the boyfriend effect. Luckily he doesn’t know how to use it and it has a lock feature. Last month’s electric bill was the lowest I’ve seen in years. Granted, it is the fall in Texas, which is generally going to be low, but still. Also, I love the fact that it kicks on automatically at night, putting me in sleep mode. Plus, when (if?) it gets cold it will be wonderful having the heat kick on in the morning. Suffice it to say, I LOVE my thermostat. Way better than sliced bread.
Using programmable thermostats isn’t that difficult. You can figure out in less than 20 minutes and you can constantly improve the way you use your programmable thermostats. It really helps save energy costs and I highly recommend buying one if you do not already have one.
I’ve been more aware of trying to cut my energy use since I became a new home owner. One of the first things I did was put in an internet thermostat to help monitor my home’s energy use. I chose to go with the Apple designed Nest. I had a frozen pipe burst in my previous house…I think this will also help me monitor my pipes when I’m away as well.
As with anything the user of device controls the outcome. Programming interfaces for thermostats these days have come a long way where the can walk you through it. If that’s not enough, internet connected thermostats can be changed anytime and anywhere via a mobile phone making it even simpler.
My programmable thermostat is supposedly a “smart” thermostat. It doesn’t turn on at a certain time, it will try to hit the programmed temp at that time. So it will kick on way earlier than we like so it can hit that temp. So we have to “out-think” it. Change the time to later or earlier, then temp to lower or higher. Turn it off earlier than we want. I need a “dumb” programmable thermostat!
Yikes! What a nightmare, Teresa. That is a great example of a product that tries to be TOO automatic.
I think this is silly. Obviously you aren’t going to save any money with a programmable thermostat if you don’t set it up correctly.
Each new rental house we’ve moved into has had an ancient thermostat, or a junky PT, and we’ve replaced it with a quality thermostat.
Like others said, they come programmed in the box, and I specifically bought a higher end one that lets me program each day of the week separately.
It is very simple to set the zones how you want them. Saturday, Sunday, different schedules on weekdays……. etc.
I know what time I get home every day, so I set it to kick lower( or higher) at that time, and it runs cold at night, but shuts off an hour before we get up. And stays off all day whether winter or summer as it rarely reaches the high( or low) set point to kick on.
It definitely saves us money, because I don’t have to remember to reset the temp every day when I leave or go to sleep. ‘
“Obviously you aren’t going to save any money with a programmable thermostat if you don’t set it up correctly.”
What’s obvious to you, Hannah, is not to a lot of people. It’s also obvious that spending less than you earn will keep your personal finances sound — and yet people have to be reminded of that fact everyday too. 🙂
This seems to be confirmed by the government. From energystar.gov: “The ENERGY STAR specification for programmable thermostats was suspended on December 31, 2009 and the ENERGY STAR label is no longer available for this category. Manufacturers were required to cease using the ENERGY STAR name and mark in association with all products manufactured on or after December 31, 2009. While EPA recognizes the potential for programmable thermostats to save significant amounts of energy, there continue to be questions concerning the net energy savings and environmental benefits achieved under the previous ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat specification.”
I suppose people could avoid the problem altogether by getting a thermostat like the Nest, that basically programs itself based on how you use it. Those are a bit more complicated to set up though, with WiFi and such, so not sure it would help those non-technical people too much..
I would guess that almost anything you buy and not use would be a waste of money, including a programmable thermostat. 🙂
But how difficult can it be? If someone doesn’t want to spend 20min programming the thermostat, it’s his/her problem. Nothing wrong with the product.
I don’t see why they are necessary. I leave I change it. I return I change it Takes a second. Plus, depending on the weather and how the house feels- whether we have the wood stove going- too many variables as to what to keep the temperature set at. Then there’s when we are away on vacation. Go out occasionally at night. Better to do it manually as a habit. Takes discipline, I know.
Do you have a recommendation of good PTs? Or a list/website that I can check out?
Lucas: Consumer Reports has done studies on them.
Even if no one uses the programmable thermostat, it can still make the homeowner money when they sell the house. According to consumer reports a programmable thermostat is a marketable feature that buyers want!
Why program the thermostat? How do you know ahead of time how you will feel everyday or how the temps will be on any given day? Why not just manually change the thermostat to fit how you feel inside the home that day? And you won’t know ahead of time if you are going to be away or go out at the last minute or whatever. Then you have to manually change it anyway. I don’t get the point of programming at all. Never have and never will. I adjust it manually as needed.
A new effect of the pandemic, with so many more folks at home, higher energy consumption. The number of homes using the daytime set-back will/is significantly lower. I primarily use the night setback feature, the heating cuts back after we go to sleep and on before we wake, so we don’t even notice. The best invention ever – the heating blanket, to pre-warm the bed. Sweet….
Simplest, least expensive energy saver with the high payback – make sure you have good attic insulation. That or be a snow-bird and follow the good weather. “Going where the weather suits my clothes…”