With winter inching closer in Southwest Ohio, it’s time to start thinking about resetting the programmable thermostat in your home. During the warm weather of late spring through early fall, the thermostat is set to control your cooling system. At a certain point in the mid to late fall, as your home transitions to heating, the thermostat needs to be programmed for that change.
Proper programming is essential if you want to get optimum benefits from your thermostat. Without programming that saves energy when you’re away from home or sleeping, you may as well just have an old-fashioned manual thermostat that’s stuck at the same temperature 24/7.
Following is a typical schedule of temperature changes for your programmable thermostat during the heating season:
- Morning: The thermostat should be programmed to warm up to the home’s daytime comfort zone shortly before you expect to awaken from a night’s sleep. That way you’ll awaken to a comfortably warm house. (You might skip this step if you plan to wake up and leave fairly quickly.)
- Daytime: If the house will be empty all day, for example while you’re at work or school, the temperature should be set as much as 6-8 degrees lower than your comfort level. There’s no reason to fully heat an empty house. Set the thermostat to return to a comfortable temperature a half hour or so before you expect to arrive home.
- Evening: Maintain the normal daytime/evening comfort zone till bedtime. This can differ from household to household, person to person.
- Overnight. In the winter most people prefer a cooler temperature while they’re sleeping, perhaps 5-6 degrees cooler than the regular comfort level.
If you’re lucky enough to have a Wi-Fi programmable thermostat, you’ll be able to adjust the temperature remotely, from your smartphone or laptop. That way, if you find out you’re coming home early, for example, you can alert the thermostat to raise the temperature in time for your early arrival.
For more advice on resetting the programmable thermostat in your Dayton-Springfield area home for the winter, please contact us at Ace Hardware Home Services.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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