Energy costs are one of the greatest costs that are involved in owning or operating a home or business. Manually adjusting the thermostat in order to keep the temperature in a comfortable range while simultaneously minimizing the amount of energy spent on heating or cooling can be a difficult balancing act. The purpose of a smart thermostat is to make it easier to manage the heating and cooling process through a combination of features, including:
- automatic temperature sensing
- manual scheduling
- internet connectivity
These features are what makes it possible to fine-tune the temperature settings of the thermostat based on the thermal conditions present in real time. Some smart thermostats are compatible with thermal sensors that can be placed in various locations to detect the ambient temperature and report that to the thermostat so that it can make adjustments to the temperature in response to real-time thermal data.
The Benefits of Smart Thermostats
In addition to the temperature sensors that many smart thermostats are compatible with, there are also manual scheduling features that can be used to program the thermostat to adjust temperature based on a schedule that you input manually. This can be especially useful if there are known time periods where there will be few or no people present in the home or business in question, you can schedule the thermostat to have a higher temperature in summer and a lower temperature in winter during the times that have few people present. This can have a significant impact on energy costs over time, since studies have shown that a temperature change of a single degree can reduce energy costs by one percent. Scheduling a change of 5-7 degrees during these low periods can have a huge money saving influence.
The place where smart thermostats set themselves apart from all other thermostats is with being internet-enabled and having app connectivity. Smart thermostats often have either an app or other method of accessing the thermostat through the internet, so that they can be manually adjusted from anywhere that you have an internet connection. This makes them more flexible than other types of thermostats, since you don’t have to have physical access to the thermostat to make changes to the set temperature or advanced features like remote temperature sensing and scheduling.
If you’re interested in upgrading your temperature controls to a smart system, we can help you there. Call us at 408-295-2182 today and we’ll help get you get started switching over to a smart thermostat system that you can use to improve your energy efficiency and reduce power costs in the future.