One of the most cost effective ways to save money on heating and cooling costs is to lower the temperature setting on your furnace or raise the temperature setting on your air conditioning system while you are sleeping or while your home is empty during the day. You can do it by manually adjusting your thermostat, but savvy homeowners will realize the most savings and improve comfort by automating the process with a set back (or programmable) thermostat.
These thermostats can be programmed to adjust the temperature setting on your heating and cooling system throughout the day. You can set them to make the adjustment to the energy saving setting after you have left home for the day or gone to bed at night and to return to the comfort setting shortly before you arrive back home or wake up in the morning.
However, these thermostats work best on traditional HVAC systems that use a furnace with a central air conditioner. If you use a heat pump for heating and cooling, a set back thermostat will not be very effective.
Heat pumps are very efficient in heating mode, but they are often equipped with supplemental electric heat strips that kick in when the heat pump cannot keep up or when the temperature setting is increased more than one or two degrees. These electric heat strips will activate whenever the thermostat returns to the comfort setting and any energy savings from the lower economy temperature setting will be offset by the high energy use of the electric heat strips.
With a heat pump, you are generally better off if you “set it and forget it.” There are a few set back thermostats specifically designed to operate with a heat pump. You should talk to a good HVAC technician about selecting and installing one of these specially designed thermostats for your heat pump.
