Living in Jacksonville, Florida, means enjoying the warmth of the sun almost all year long. It also means running your A/C almost all year long in order to keep your home at a comfortable temperature, even when no one is home. Instead of keeping your A/C continuously running, and wasting your money on expensive utility bills, why not invest in a programmable thermostat?
Programmable thermostats allow you to set up an automated schedule for when and at what temperature your A/C should be running throughout the day and week. For instance, if after a long day of being outside, you like to come home to an icy cold house, but don’t want to keep your house cold when you’re not there, you can program your thermostat to adjust the temperature to the perfect setting right before you come home.
You’ll not only save money, but you’ll also create a more energy-efficient home environment. In fact, it has been estimated that programmable thermostats help homeowners save up to $100 a year. In addition to being energy-efficient, using programmable thermostats in Jacksonville, FL makes temperature control more convenient, which helps create a more comfortable living environment.
Added Benefits
In addition to allowing you to program temperature settings, programmable thermostats also have ventilation settings, which give you the ability to provide fresh air to your home when you need it. This helps ensure you home’s air quality is always at optimal levels.
Another great benefit of programmable thermostats is that they offer many features to help you get the most of your system. This ranges from touch-pad screens, vacation settings, alerts to remind you to change your filters, and much more.
To get the most out of a programmable thermostat it is important to keep the following in mind, before installing a new one:
- First, determine the type of heating and cooling system you have (one- or two-stage cooling or heating, direct line or zoned)
-
- One-stage systems – contain separate heating and cooling units
- Two-stage or multi-stage systems – contain low and high speed settings
- Direct line systems – usually found in older homes
- Zoned systems – contain individual temperature control for designated zones within the home
- Next, decide what type of programmable features you want or need (7-day programming, one week, 5-2 or 5-1-1)
-
- 7-day – provides you with the ability to program individual settings for every day of the week
- One week – gives you the ability to program one setting for the entire week
- 5-2 – allows you to program one setting for the work week and another for the two days of the weekend
- 5-1-1 – allows you to program flexibility of setting one setting for the work week and then separate settings for each day of the weekend
- Next, decide what type of advanced features you could benefit the most from, such as touch-screen (note: features vary by manufacturer and model)
- Vacation override for those times when you want to make setting changes for a certain amount of time without losing your current settings
- Keyboard lock, which only lets authorized users make setting changes
- Tracking system to monitor how long your system is running over a certain period of time
Now that you have a better idea of what to look for when purchasing a programmable thermostat, you’ll be truly able to enjoy all the benefits they have to offer. In other words, you’ll keep your home at the right temperature all year long, while still experiencing the benefits of energy efficiency and utility savings.
