How Programmable Thermostats Save Money

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, cooling and heating costs are the primary cost on your energy bill. If you don’t already know, using programmable thermostats saves money. Sure, you can set your thermostat and turn it all the way or all the way down when you leave the home to avoid the air or the heat from kicking on, but installing and using a programmable thermostat puts your heating and cooling needs on autopilot, which piles up the cost savings for you.

How Programmable Thermostats Work to Save Money

When you install the programmable thermostat, take the time to read the manual. The manual takes you systematically through setting the thermostat in order to maximize your savings. Programmable thermostats save money by providing you with four pre-programmed setting options: home in the summer, away in the summer, home in the winter and away in the winter.

Start by sitting down and creating a working schedule of the hours that your family is home and the hours when nobody is in the home. Once you determine your schedule, you can then set to work on coordinating your family’s schedule with thermostat settings for the air conditioner or heater. For example, if your family gets up at 6 a.m. and leaves by 8 a.m. you may have the thermostat set at 70 degrees at 6 a.m. and adjust to 78 degrees at 8 a.m. when everyone is out of the home. If nobody comes home until 6 p.m. then you can set the programmable thermostat to adjust back down to 70 degrees at this time.

Programmable thermostats save you money because it automatically adjusts the temperature setting according to your family’s needs. Rather than have the air or heat constantly running when it is unnecessary or requiring constant manual adjustments to the home temperature, you end up saving on your energy costs.

Once you set the programmable thermostat, leave it alone and allow it to do its work. Only when it is on autopilot, without human intervention, will it work at its best and allow you to maximize your utility savings.

How to Set Programmable Thermostats and Let it Work

Energy Star suggests a two-step process to setting and leaving alone a programmable thermostat. First, make sure that the thermostat is installed properly. Since most consumers are not specialist, Energy Star says the best way to ensure proper installation is to have a HVAC contractor install the unit for you. Second, follow the setting guide that comes along with your unit to ensure you properly set and use the thermostat.

As long as you follow these rules, installing and using programmable thermostats can be a big money saver in your home or business. a programmable thermostat can be set to coordinate with your life and the times when you are in and out of the home or office. The key is to set the thermostat properly and then leave it alone to do what it does best—put your energy savings on autopilot.

Do Dimmers and Motion Lights Really Save You Money?

The mantra “save energy” may seem like a simple concept to conceive and achieve. You can find numerous tips, advice and useful information on ways to save energy by cutting down on your light usage. Two ways the experts says help you to cut down on the energy use in your home is to use light dimmers and motion sensor lights, but do dimmers save money? In addition, do motion sensor lights save money?

Dimmers Do Save Money

The answer to the question, do dimmers save money is yes. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 15 percent of the average American light bill is from light usage in the home. While you cannot walk around in the dark all of the time, there may be ways to cut down this percentage. According to Good Housekeeping, one of the primary ways to decrease your light usage, which subsequently saves you money is to install dimmer switches on certain lights in your home.
It is common sense that the lower or dimmer the lights are, the less electricity the light uses. If you set your dimmer switch at 75 percent of usage, it can shave off about 20 percent usage. This not only helps to lengthen the life of the light bulb, but also cuts down on your energy bill each month.

Motion Sensor Lights Do Save Money

The answer to the question, do motion sensor lights save money is yes too. A similar concept relates to installing and using motion sensor lights. While a light outside of your garage and front door are great safety features, when you live them on all night, night after night because you forget they are on, then this runs up your energy usage and your electric bill. When you install motion sensor lights, however and it too can shave money off of your energy bill. Lighting and energy experts also suggest installing motion senor lighting in other areas of the home, such as stairways and hallways (those places in the home where unforgotten lights are often left on). Since the lights turn on when you enter the hall or stairs and turn off after a set period of time, it ensures that lights are not left burning for hours at a time, which also burns up the energy bill.

Using energy savers such as dimmers and motion sensor lights can make your light usage more energy efficient. More efficient energy usage in your home definitely leads to savings on your energy bill. So, do dimmers save money? Yes. And, do motion sensor lights save money? Yes. While you may only be able to install these types of lights in certain areas of your home, every little bit helps. Over time, each little bit you can cut back on your energy use is greener for the environment and keeps your green in your pocket rather than as a form of payment to the energy company.

Fight the Power

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average household spends more than $250 per year on standby power. So now it's time to do your part--your part to save energy and a little green (money) this year!

Ways to save standby power

1. When you're not using your computer, turn it off!
2. When you step away from your computer for more than a few minutes, put your computer into sleep mode.
3. When your cell phones and other devices are not charging, unplug the chargers.
4. Unplug anything and everything when you're not using it. Plugged in items do draw electricity even when not in use.
5. To turn items off and unplug in one fell swoop, plug items into a power bar. For example, every time you leave your office, turn the power strip off that has your computer, printer and fax machine plugged into it and then unplug the power bar.

Take these five steps and you can save around $250 on your electric bill each year. You'll be saving energy too!