areyougreenenough
Programmable
Thermostats
Give your air conditioner a
summer vacation…every day!
by David Wells
©2009 Honeywell Corp.
W
hat was the last thing you did amount just before rising.
before leaving on summer If your routine is fairly regular, carefully. Many upscale EnergyStar
vacation this year? For most it’s that simple. According to the US models come with features such as:
Arizona residents, the answer is turn Government’s EnergyStar website, “the
• Digital, backlit and touchpad
up the thermostat! It’s so simple to average household spends more than
displays
do, and you know you’ll save lots of $2,200 a year on energy bills — near-
• Voice and/or remote telephone
money by not cooling off your house ly half of which goes to heating and
programming
when you’re not in it. cooling. Homeowners can save about
• Hold/vacation features
That’s the concept behind a pro- $180 a year by properly setting their
• Indicators which tell you when
grammable thermostat – not cooling programmable thermostats and main-
it’s time to change air filters
(or heating) your house when you’re taining those settings.” EnergyStar-
not in it. Think about it this way, every approved thermostats come with these
According to the 2008 Consumer
day is a microcosm of summer and settings pre-programmed, and they are
Reports Annual Buying Guide, four of
within it lies a short summer vacation. easily adjusted to accommodate your
the top-six rated models cost $50-
A programmable thermostat remem- family’s usage patterns.
$80 at any hardware store, with other
bers when that vacation starts and
equally-efficient models running as
stops, and automatically adjusts your Which features
high as $345. We at OneSolar found
air conditioner and heater accordingly.
do you need?
that some models of Lux, Hunter,
CTC, Honeywell, White Rodgers,
There are three types of programmable
Your daily AC
Trane, Robert Shaw, Lennox, Comfort-
thermostats. Think about your sched-
“summer vacation”
Star, Braeburn and American Standard
ule and how often you are away from
brands fared well in a variety of online
Let’s say you have a family of four. You home for regular periods of time —
ratings comparisons. Keep in mind
get up at 6:30am and do a light work- work, school, other activities — and
that, as with cameras and computers,
out while your spouse runs the dog then decide which of the these best
certain models of any one brand often
for half an hour. Your daughter leaves meet your needs.
outperform other models by the same
for high school at 7am, and your son
• 5+2-day models use the same
company.
heads out to middle school around
schedule Monday through Friday,
7:30am. Everyone is out the door by
and another for weekends.
8am, and they don’t start trickling back
Installation tips
until about 4pm. Your daily AC “sum-
• 5-1-1 models are best if you If you’re a novice do-it-yourselfer, you
mer vacation” starts right after you nor-
tend to keep one schedule every can easily upgrade to a programmable
mally leave the house, and ends when
weekday and separate schedules on thermostat. If you’re not, a qualified
people come home. So you program
Saturdays and Sundays. HVAC specialist can do it for you in
your thermostat to jump up seven
• 7-day models offer the most flex-
about 15 minutes.
degrees at 8am, and jump back down
ibility, allowing you to set different • Even though these units are low-
seven degrees around 3:30pm so it’s
programs for different days, like a voltage, make sure you turn off the
nice and cool by the time you step
4-day work week, or kids coming electricity during replacement!
back into the house. Some families
home earlier on some days.
• Many of these new thermostats
also choose to elevate the temperature
Legibility and simplicity are your prima- simply attach to the wiring from the
just after bedtime by about four de-
ry criteria or you won’t use it. Optional old unit (2-3 wires), but some have
grees and bring it back down the same
features vary widely, so compare them as many as 10 wires to connect.
20 Phoenix
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