If you’d like to maximize energy savings in your Kansas City-area home, you should consider having one or more programmable thermostats installed. Numerous energy-saving benefits come with being able to program your thermostat to fit your daily and weekly schedulers. Check out the following tips to figure out how to best program your thermostat.

• Energy savings set-points – Most programmable thermostats come with four pre-programmed settings that result in maximum energy savings. Use these settings as much as possible.

• Overriding – You can override preprogrammed settings by simply raising or lowering the thermostat without erasing preset programming. The thermostat will change automatically once the next program period begins. Figure out the preprogrammed settings to your liking so that you’re not constantly overriding the program, as this defeats the energy-saving purpose of a programmable thermostat.

• Hold features – Most programmable thermostats contain two hold features that allow you to set the temperature for a longer period of time, overriding the pre-programmed settings until that period is up. 

• Hold/permanent/vacation – This hold setting should be used if you are going out of town for more than a few days. Set the hold on an energy-saving temperature: several degrees warmer in the summer and several degrees cooler in the winter.

• Temporary – This hold option is better used if you’re going out of town for a day, or maybe for a long weekend.

• Recovery – If your thermostat has adaptive recovery features, it will reach the temperature at the time you programmed it to change. However, thermostats without that technology take time warming up or cooling down to the programmed temperature. Setting it higher or lower in an attempt to speed up the process will only waste energy and make your home too hot or cold.

Program your thermostat to save energy and cut down on heating and cooling costs today. For more information about programmable thermostats, please contact us at Overland Park Heating & Cooling. We provide trusted HVAC services to the greater Kansas City area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Overland Park, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).