5 Guidelines to Optimizing Your Arizona Home’s Programmable Thermostat

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If you recently invested in a programmable thermostat for your Yuma area home, substantial energy savings await, as long as you learn to use it correctly. Consider these five guidelines to optimizing a programmable thermostat for comfort and savings.

  • Use set points: The whole purpose of a programmable thermostat is to set the temperature back while you’re away or sleeping. By doing so for at least eight hours at a time each day, you save energy when the home is vacant. Then, wi5 Guidelines to Optimizing Your Arizona Home's Programmable Thermostatth automatic programming, a comfortable temperature resumes before you wake up or arrive home, thus ensuring you enjoy energy savings without discomfort.
  • Use overrides sparingly: Overrides let you temporarily change the temperature if it’s too warm or cold in your home. The override is canceled as soon as the next programmed period arrives. However, use these overrides in moderation or your energy bills will reflect it.
  • Use the correct hold feature: Make day-to-day overrides using the temporary hold feature. However, if you’re gone on vacation, you don’t want the override to be canceled until you get home. That’s what the permanent/vacation hold setting is for.
  • Change the temperature only slightly: When you override a programmed setting, don’t crank the temperature way up or down in an attempt to get comfortable faster. Programmable thermostats don’t work that way. To avoid wasting energy, change the temperature by just a few degrees. You’d be surprised what a difference that makes.
  • Utilize a zoning system: Indoor comfort in most homes today is still controlled by a single thermostat. However, if your home has multiple programmable thermostats, you can program setbacks in different rooms independently of one another. This solution, called a zoning system, boosts comfort and savings throughout the year.

For more tips on using your programmable thermostat correctly, or for more information about other cooling and heating topics, please contact Hansberger Refrigeration & Electric Co. Our experience serving Yuma area residents dates back to 1952.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about programmable thermostats and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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