Every time that you look at your monthly electricity bill and it’s a bit higher than you expected, if you’re anything like us, one of your first thoughts may be that it has something to do with your thermostat. After all, especially during the summer and winter seasons, when we’re trying to keep the rooms of our house at a comfortable temperature, that tends to be when we see a hike in our energy costs.
And while sometimes it could actually be our thermostat settings that are causing us to pay a lot of money, the reality is that there are a lot of myths out here about thermostats. So, in order for you to know what’s true and what’s not, we wanted to take out a moment to provide you with some common thermostat myths below:
Myth #1: You save more energy when you turn your thermostat off during the day and then back on when you return. In theory, we could definitely see why you might think that you should turn your thermostat off when you’re not using it; however, being that it requires quite a bit of energy to get it back up and running again once you do, our recommendation is not that you turn it all the way off but that you simply turn it down. This brings us to Myth #2.
Myth #2: Turning down your thermostat at night or while you’re away uses the same amount of energy as if you left it on its original setting. Some people will leave their thermostat blowing on high all hours of the day because they figure that turning it down several degrees at night or when they’re gone isn’t going to make that all that much of a difference. The reality is that any time that you turn your thermostat down, it’s going to save you energy.
Myth #3: You need to turn your thermostat way down in the summer and really high in the winter in order to be comfortable. One of the biggest thermostat myths is that in order to stay cool or warm, you’ve got to drastically adjust your settings. This actually couldn’t be further from the truth. According to many energy conservation experts, if you leave your thermostat set to around 73 degrees year round, you will have all of the coolness and warmth that you need.
Myth #4: Homes warm up faster if you turn your thermostat up very high for several minutes. Here’s the thing about thermostats: they only have two settings and those are “on” and “off”. This means that it’s going to warm up at the same rate no matter what the temperature setting is. So, it really is best to leave it in the 70s and if you’re really cold to plug in a space heater for a few moments.
Myth #5: A programmable thermostat is not going to make that much of a difference. Oh, we couldn’t disagree more! If you’re someone who is in the process of putting some energy efficient items in your home like a low-flow showerhead, a tankless water heater or even if you’re making a high efficiency or geothermal heat pump best investment, don’t forget to put a programmable thermostat on the “green” list. By programming your thermostat, studies show that you can easily save 30 percent on your energy bills, which definitely debunks the myth that you shouldn’t invest in one!
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