[mtrent]

These gadgets will function on your schedule, so lets say if you are at work from 9 to 5 you can program your thermostat to turn the ac off at 9:01 and then back on at 4:15. This way your house is cool when you leave and cool when you return. You can save a whole bunch of energy and money during the day.

They cost about $150 each, but in the long run they will eventually pay for themselves.

[mollyL]

Does your thermostat come with a little lockable clear plastic cover? Several clinics I worked at had those installed and set the AC to not come on until the room was eighty degrees, and nobody could change it. That made everyone uncomfortable. I can see the benefit the way you describe it.

[Roguegal]

The only problem with turning your A/C off during the day and back on in the afternoon is that it will take more electricity to cool the house off than to keep it cool. If they're programmable in a way that you can raise the temperature in the house to 85° then lower it to 75°, this would save electricity because it wouldn't have to cool down that much before you get home.

[ZammaJannan]

Well of course I never use AC. If I get really really desperate, I'll turn on a fan, but never AC.. Even when I was in Pakistan and temps were 110 degrees I didn't use AC... BUT I do use heat in the winter and I have a programable thermostat for my heating system. I LOVE! Because we are gone for sometimes 10 or 12 hours of the day AND we like it cold to sleep, I simply program it to go down to 50 at 9PM, then back up to 68 at 4am, then back down to 50 at 7AM then back up to 68 at 6PM. If you find that your schedule is different, you can just push a button to override the schedule. I know there are some people who will say that it uses more energy to heat the place back up blah blah blah.. but you can't prove it by my heating bill. Before I got the thermostat I was using 800+ gallons of oil per year. During the three years since I got the thermostat I have not gone over 500 gallons per year!

[deltic]

Doesn't everyone have programmable thermostats? In England you would expect to have one, I don't know anyone who doesn't have one.

[Timetrvlr]

Programmable thermostats are not common in North America because they initially cost a bit more than the cheapo models we have used since Word War II. Energy has always been cheap in North America so we have not been too concerned about wasting it. Now we are starting to face the reality of higher energy prices.

I was initially reluctant to have a programmable thermostat installed when we had a heat pump installed three years ago. I didn't really have a choice, it was a necessary part of the heat pump system. Then I fought with it for a year before I finally gave in to the inevitable and programmed it to suit our needs. Now I'm a 70-year-old enthusiastic convert! It holds our house temperature to precisely the degree we have it set to and cycles automatically as we have programmed it to.

[justontime]

Thankfully I don't need air-conditioning, but I do need heat. I have used a programmable thermostat all my adult life, I can't imagine not having one. It is simple to use, can have different information for different days and it prevents wasteful use of power.

[prothermostats]

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[prothermostats]

It is simple to use, can have different information for different days and it prevents wasteful use of power. ??

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