Choosing A Programmable Thermostat

An easy way to save money on your air conditioning and heating bills is to replace your standard thermostat with a modern programmable thermostat.   Programmable thermostats automtically adjust the temperature in your home to keep you and your family comfortable and switch to an energy savings setting at night or during the daytime hours when you and your are away at work or school.  Depending on your lifestyle, there are many different features and models that can help lower energy costs while maintaining a comfortable home temperature. 

Additional Features

The additional features beyond the standard four pre-programmed settings can make one thermostat stand out from another. Some of the additional features that models may come with are:

  • Voice programming
  • Smart phone programming
  • Vacation or hold features
  • Troubleshooting indicators
  • Adaptive recovery/smart recovery 

Daily Settings

In general, there are three different kinds of models to choose from to program your day and week temperatures. The model you choose will depend on how much your schedule changes throughout the week. 

  • 7-day model. If your family’s schedule changes from day to day, a seven-day model allows you to program it for each individual day throughout the week. For example, if the kids are home early on one day, but later on others, you can set the timers differently for each day.
  • 5 + 2-day model. For those who have a set schedule Mon-Fri and a similar schedule for the weekends, this model can let you set one program each.
  • 5 +1+1-day models. If you are on a routine for 5 days and then the other two days need to be individually set, this may be a good choice for you. 

Once you choose the model that best fits your lifestyle and schedule, your service technician can professionally install it and help you learn how to program your new programmable thermostat. By using the various settings you can make sure your heating and cooling system is always on when you need it and off when you don’t.