You might have heard your neighbor, coworker, family member, or the heating and air conditioning technician say that using a programmable thermostat is the way to go. But why is this?

The main reason is because it is an effective way to save on home energy costs. In fact, according to Energy Star, ‘The proper use of a programmable thermostat can save you up to $180 a year’ because they allow heating and cooling appliances to be automatically turned down by up to 4 degrees when no one is home or even at night when you are sleeping.

Most programmable thermostats have a feature (sometimes called smart recovery or adaptive recovery) that tells the thermostat to start running the AC unit in enough time to cool your home or business to the temperature you desire by the time programmed in.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you are constantly changing the temperature setting of your home in a short amount of time, you will end up using more energy, therefore, costing you more money. Be sure to have the temperature setting at the same temperature for at least 6-8 hour increments.

You also want to make sure that you get your programmable thermostat professional installed- an HVAC technician will be able to explain the in’s and out’s of the thermostat.