How Should I Set My Thermostat for When I’m At Work?

For plenty of hours a day you’re gone at work, or perhaps at school. Yet your comfort system continues to run, with nobody home. This uses a good deal of energy and feels like wasting money. You can significantly reduce this cost by changing the thermostat up or down as you head to work and adjusting it back to your favored temperature when you come home. But how much should you adjust it? 

Here’s what the Department of Energy suggests about thermostat adjustments: 

You can save around 10% a year on heating and cooling bills by just adjusting your thermostat down 7°-10°F for eight hours a day rather than its normal setting. The percentage of savings from setback is larger for buildings in milder climates than for those in more extreme climates. 

The tinier the contrast between the outdoor and indoor temperatures, the more affordable your total cooling bill can be. You can easily save energy in the winter by lowering the thermostat to around 68°F while you’re awake and setting it lower while you’re asleep or away from home. For summer, you can follow the same plan with central air conditioning by leaving your house warmer than normal when you are away and tweaking the thermostat to a setting as high as you’re comfortable with when you’re home and want cooling and to ensure humidity control if needed. 

You might have been told that making these adjustments aren’t worth it because your HVAC has to work even harder to get back to your preferred temperature, undoing your savings, but the energy department dismisses that claim, namely for heaters: “A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. In fact, as soon as your house drops below its normal temperature, it will lose energy to the surrounding environment more slowly.” 

Programmable and Smart Thermostats 

Despite the benefits of adjusting your thermostat every time you leave for work, it’s very easy to overlook in the rush of getting ready and on your way. This is one advantage of programmable and smart thermostats. You can set your thermostat to automatically move to a higher or lower temperature across your average work hours. And with a smart thermostat, you can adjust the temperature (or the programming schedule) from your smartphone or similar device. This is especially helpful if you’ve neglected to adjust the setting before going on vacation. 

Always Remember the Pets 

If you have a pet, give consideration to their comfort as well. Cats and dogs with dense fur won’t be comfortable with high temperatures. And pets with less dense fur won’t always be comfortable with cold temperatures. The same is true of tropical birds, fish and reptiles. Because temperature preferences deviate widely by breed and species, so review them for your pets. 

More Benefits of Setting Your Thermostat for When You’re Away 

• Carbon emissions – The harder you use your heating and air conditioning, the more carbon emissions you generate. Conserving energy decreases air pollution and greenhouse gasses. 
• HVAC Longevity – Overworking your HVAC unit can cut its life span and cause more maintenance to be required. It also means the air filter can clog up sooner, making your indoor air quality worse. 

If you have any ideas about your air conditioner options, or if you need HVAC repair or maintenance, get in touch with the professionals at Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning, a big company with hometown heart. We’re serious about making the world a comfortable place to live. Whether we’re warming, cooling or making the water run, we take great pride in keeping our customers and communities cozy and content. 

Experts — it’s in our name and core to our service. We work tirelessly to help each technician or installer develop into a skilled craftsman. We work with the best and offer education, opportunities and reinforcement, so our staff can learn, develop and be ready for any challenge they’re faced with. 

Our combined business strength and people distinguish us from the competition. With over 4,000 team members collaborating on making you comfortable, we can deliver and innovate more successfully than other companies. Our can-do, family attitude powers our cooperation and helps us get the job done on time, and right — the first time. 

Our fusion of company size and personal expertise means we can do more with the next big idea … which could come from anywhere and anyone. We are reinvigorating the industry by harnessing each team member’s greatest ideas. That means our teams and customers can relax knowing we’re moving, innovating, delivering, and in it for the long term, through the busier times and beyond. 

We are Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning! Offering strength, knowledge and support over every season.