How Should I Set My Thermostat for When I’m At Work?

For several hours a day you’re off at work, or maybe at school. Yet your comfort system keeps working, without anybody home. This uses a ton of energy and wastes money. You can dramatically scale back this cost by adjusting the thermostat up or down when you go to work and resetting it back to your favored temperature when you come home. But how much should the thermostat be adjusted? 

Here’s what the Department of Energy has to say about thermostat changes: 

You can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply setting your thermostat down 7°-10°F for eight hours a day rather than its typical setting. The percentage of savings from setback is better for buildings in milder climates than for those in more extreme climates. 

The lower the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the lower your total cooling bill will be. You can easily save energy in the winter by adjusting the thermostat to something like 68°F while you’re awake and adjusting it lower while you’re asleep or away from home. During the summer, you can follow the same approach with central air conditioning by leaving your house warmer than normal when you are away and adjusting the thermostat to a setting as warm as is comfortable for you when you return and want cooling and to ensure humidity control if required. 

You may have been told that making these adjustments won’t be worth the time because your HVAC has to work harder to go back to your desired temperature, using up your savings, but the energy department puts that notion to rest, particularly for a furnace: “A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. In fact, as soon as your house drops below its normal temperature, it will lose energy to the surrounding environment more slowly.” 

Programmable and Smart Thermostats 

Regardless of the benefits of changing your thermostat every time you leave for work, it’s easy to miss in the rush of getting ready and on your way. This is one perk of programmable and smart thermostats. You can adjust your thermostat to automatically shift to a higher or lower temperature through your standard work hours. And with a smart thermostat, you can adjust the temperature (or the programming schedule) from anywhere. This is especially helpful if you’ve forgotten to adjust the setting before going on vacation. 

Remember the Pets 

If you own pets, consider their comfort as well. Cats and dogs with dense fur won’t be comfy with high temperatures. And pets with short fur might not be happy with cold temperatures. The same is true of tropical birds, fish and reptiles. Since temperature tolerances deviate significantly by breed and species, so it helps to verify the ideal temperature range for your pets. 

Additional Benefits of Changing Your Thermostat for When You’re Away 

• Carbon emissions – The more often you use your HVAC system, the more carbon emissions you generate. Conserving energy reduces air pollution and greenhouse gasses. 
• HVAC Longevity – Overworking your heating and cooling can reduce its life span and cause more maintenance to be required. It also means the air filter will clog up sooner, making your indoor air supply worse. 

If you have any ideas about your air conditioner settings, or if you need HVAC repair or maintenance, get in touch with the professionals at Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning, a big company with hometown heart. We’re passionate about making the world a comfy place to live. Whether we’re keeping things warm, cooling things down or making the water run, we have a lot of pride in keeping our customers and communities comfortable and satisfied. 

Experts — it’s in the name and vital to our work. We strive to help each member of our staff become a skilled professional. We hire the best and offer education, opportunities and assistance, so everyone can learn, grow and be ready for any kind of challenge they’re faced with. 

Our total business strength and people separate us from other service companies. With over 4,000 team members collaborating on making you comfortable, we can deliver and innovate more successfully than the rest of the industry. Our can-do, family-friendly attitude fuels our cooperation and helps us get the job done promptly, and right — the first time. 

Our combination of company size and unique expertise means we can accomplish more with the next big idea … which may come from anywhere and anyone. We are reinventing the industry by harnessing each team member’s best ideas. That means our teams and customers can rest assured we’re moving, innovating, delivering, and in it for the long run, through the busiest times and beyond. 

We are Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning! Offering strength, knowledge and support over every season.