Families Can Adjust Smart Thermostats for School Year Savings

Families can significantly reduce energy consumption and save money by reprogramming their smart thermostats to align with children's back-to-school schedules. When homes are empty during school and work hours, maintaining a consistent comfort temperature is unnecessary and wasteful. HVAC experts recommend adjusting thermostat settings to reflect these periods of vacancy, thereby optimizing energy usage. Dale Chason, HVAC manager at Awesome Home Services in Colorado Springs, CO, emphasizes that there is no need to maintain the same comfort level in an empty house, suggesting a change in settings during school and work hours instead of running the thermostat at full comfort all day.

Smart thermostats offer programmable schedules that can be customized to accommodate family routines, making the back-to-school transition an opportune time for adjustments. For cooling, Jordan Low, general manager of Comfort Heating, Cooling, Electrical & Plumbing in Post Falls, ID, advises setting the thermostat 5 to 8 degrees higher when the house is empty. The system should then be programmed to return to the normal temperature setting one to two hours before children are expected to return home, ensuring a comfortable environment upon their arrival. A sample cooling schedule provided by Chason illustrates this strategy: cooling the house to 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit before waking at 6:00 a.m., increasing the temperature to 78-80 degrees when everyone leaves at 8:00 a.m., initiating a cooldown at 3:00 p.m. before children return, and raising the setting slightly for overnight comfort around 10:00 p.m.

During the heating season, Low suggests a similar approach, recommending a reduction of 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit, keeping the temperature in the low 60s while the family is away. The heating should be programmed to reach normal temperatures one to two hours before the family's return. Chason offers a comparable heating schedule: heating the house to 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit before waking at 6:00 a.m., and then decreasing the temperature to a lower setting when everyone departs at 8:00 a.m. These adjustments leverage the smart thermostat's capabilities to create a more energy-efficient and cost-effective home environment throughout the school year, directly addressing the increased energy expenditure that can occur when a home's occupancy changes significantly.