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Control Your Home Energy Consumption

By Solar energy | September 10, 2008

Reduce Energy Consumption with a Digital Thermostat

A quick, low cost adjustment to help reduce your home energy bill is the installation of a digital thermostat that can be pre-programmed. Depending on the model you purchase, thermostats can be programmed to different temperatures for different times of the day or week.

If everyone is away from home during the day, program your thermostat for a higher daytime temperature in summer. No need to use precious energy cooling an empty house. Program the thermostat to automatically return to a cooler setting when the family returns home for the evening.

Do you have a dial-type thermostat similar to this:

If so, consider changing to a digital thermostat similar to this:

If you have an older, dial-type, thermostat that must be manually adjusted, it may be time for a change. Manually adjusted thermostats lack the accuracy of digital models. While you can manually adjust the temperature settings, how often do you remember to make the adjustment?

We installed a Honeywell RTH230B, which we purchased from our local Home Depot. The Honeywell came pre-programmed, but was easily programmed to the settings of our choosing. Since we are trying to reduce our energy consumption by 25%, we set our thermostat on 85 degrees during the day and 80 degrees at night. These settings may seem extreme to some. But when it’s a blistering 100 degrees outside, 85 feels pretty cool!

Stay tuned! We hope this helps reduce our home energy consumption.

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Topics: Home Energy Use, Reducing energy use | No Comments »

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