As temperatures heat up this summer, homeowners are looking for ways to save on their utility bills. Electric bills are sky rocketing because the air conditioner is working overtime, but one way you can fight back is by installing a programmable thermostat. Research shows that if you turn up the thermostat when you are not home or when you are sleeping, you can save 10% off your utility bill each month.

If you work outside the home all day, it does not make sense to cool the house when no one is there. A programmable thermostat allows you to adjust the temperature in the home when you are gone and then start to cool it back down just before you come back home. The programmable units allow you to adjust for weekdays and weekends so that you are never sacrificing your comfort.

A programmable thermostat will also allow you to bump up the temperature a few degrees while you sleep. You will not notice the difference inside the home while you are getting your rest but you will notice the adjustment when your next utility bill arrives in the mail. The thermostats are able to record up to six time adjustments each day giving you a number of options to customize the heating and cooling of your home.

The units are not very expensive and will more than pay for themselves in a short period of time. In San Antonio, Texas where the average high temperature in August is almost 95 degrees, you will quickly recover the cost of installing a programmable thermostat. For every degree that you can raise your thermostat during the summer for eight hours you will save 1% off of the electric bill. You will not be sacrificing comfort if you raise the temperature by 5 to 10 degrees when you are out of the house.

All of the programmable units contain a manual override if you find yourself home during one of the times when you have set the system to shutdown. This way you can set it to the temperature that you desire and the system will return to the regular cycle at the next scheduled change. The thermostats run off of electric power but in case your power would go out, they have a battery back-up to preserve all of your settings. You can purchase them from any home improvement store and install them yourself or have your favorite HVAC technician do it for you.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about saving money with programmable thermostats and other HVAC topics, click here to download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services San Antonio and the surrounding communities including Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County. To learn more about our services, check out our website or see our current promotions.