What's in a thermostat?

Yes, it does matter what type of thermostat you have when it comes to saving energy. And when you are saving energy, you are saving money.

Most of us grew up with those round or square thermostat that you just moved the level or the dial to change the setting. A lot of  houses still have those types.

While they are very simple to operate, they are not saving you the most energy.

The best ones you can get are programmable thermostats. Especially, if you have central air installed in your house.

You can buy programmable thermosts at any hardware or home improvement store. Or if you'd rather, call a heating and cooling company and they will do it for you.

There are different types of programmable thermstats but, they are all designed to save you money. Some of them even have an away feature to set when you will be gone for a few days. It will not run as much but will be at the right temperature for the day that you set it for your return. Not all are this way so you will have to look.

Here is a link telling you about programmable thermostats. It is from the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

I really like that you can program it for different times during that day. Let's say you want it 67 degrees to sleep, you set it for sleep mode at 10:30 for that and when you wake up, you want it 70 degrees. You get up at 6:30 so you set it to be 70 degrees at that time. And it makes sure that it is.

When you first get the thermostat installed, it will take it a couple weeks to adjust to how long it will take to bring the temperature up or down to where you want it at a cetain time.

One thing to remember is that major swings intemperature can reduce the energy efficiency.

Thermostats come in many styles and with different features. Make sure you choose the one that fits your lifestyle the best.