Programmable thermostats are meant to make your life easier. Even so, many homes don’t take advantage of their thermostats and the power saving potential they offer. This is not the type of thing for your OKC electrician to do, as you can easily set it yourself.

Before we go into setting the thermostat for maximum energy efficiency, you should know what options are there when it comes to programmable thermostats. Having the right thermostat installed in your home could mean you make savings of up to 15% on your power bill. It is also important that homeowners looking to buy a new thermostat check their heating and cooling system so that they can confirm compatibility before making the purchase.  

Types of programmable thermostats

Thermostats come in four different modes, depending on the scheduling;

• 1-week programming: The thermostat can handle a week-long cooling or heating plan that will be replicated daily for the whole week.
• 7-day programming: This gives you a lot of choice when it comes to the heating and cooling plan for your home. You can have a unique schedule for every day of the week.
• 5-2 programming: this allows for a single heating plan for the week, which can be changed for the weekends such that Saturday and Sunday have the same heating schedule.
• 5-1-1 programming: It is like the 5-2 programmed thermostat, only this time you have the choice to create different plans for Saturday and Sunday.

It is important to remember that you will have to program for cooler and warmer months of the year.

How to set your programmable thermostat

All programmable thermostats work with the same time settings which are; wake time, sleep time, leave time and return time. The way to benefit the most from these settings is keying in realistic times that actually reflect your family’s routine.

Setting the programmable thermostat

The first thing is to make sure you go through the instruction manual for some insight on your product. Now you can choose your preferred mode; whether heating or cooling. Select the weekday program to set heating and cooling pattern for the week. Select Monday and set the appropriate time and temperature according to what you want. One instance of such settings is having the thermostat cool the house to 17 degrees at 7 a.m. so that you wake up to a cool house if your morning alarm is set for 7:30 a.m. Another example is setting the thermostat to 76 degrees at 11:30 p.m. if you are going to sleep at 11:00 p.m. so that your thermostat saves energy during this time.

Setting it for the weekend works in the same way but since most people are home during the weekends, the most common settings are the wakeup and bedtime settings. The best way to maximize use is apply as many settings as your thermostat allows so that you save power whenever you can.

When it comes to thermostat problems that need an electrician, Tulsa residents can always rely on us to help them out. Do not hesitate to reach out to us  any day of the week.