Setting Your Thermostat For When You're Away
Whether it’s a tropical vacation or a long trip for work, traveling means making preparations for your home comfort system. You can’t use it as long as you’re not home, so you can adjust the temperature as necessary to minimize your energy use. At the same time, you don’t want to just leave it off for the entire duration of your trip.
Instead, it’s better to leave your HVAC system running and just make adjustments depending on the time of year. That way you can lower energy costs without stressing about coming back to an uncomfortable home. We’ll walk you through why you should avoid turning your HVAC system off as well as the best thermostat settings for different times of year.
This Is Why You Avoid Leaving Your Thermostat On Hold
While you could be tempted to shut your HVAC system down before a trip, this can end up stirring up big problems by the time you return. This is notably true if the weather will be severely hot or cold while you’re away from home.
For instance, shutting the HVAC system off in the summer can lead to very high humidity. Not only will your home feel muggy and uncomfortable when you have returned, but it may have also stimulated mold/mildew growth or pest infestations.
And during the winter, leaving the furnace off can lead to pipes freezing or even bursting. It’s exhausting to get home from a nice trip only to come across considerable water damage close to a broken pipe.
Ideal Thermostat Settings While At Work
You can make temperature adjustments even when you’re just going to work. Because you’re away for 8 hours or more, it doesn’t make sense to keep an empty home at the same temperature you’d usually have. Generally, it’s recommended to raise the thermostat by 5 degrees or more. Meaning that if you prefer a comfortable 72 degrees, consider raising it to 76-77 while you’re out.
But you may save even more if you try further adjustments to the temperature. As reported by the Department of Energy, you may save about 10% on your HVAC spending by making an adjustment of 7-10 degrees.
Best Thermostat Settings While On A Trip In Summer
If you’re on a lengthier trip in the middle of summer, you can make more significant adjustments. This prevents wasting energy while still protecting your home from the issues that come with leaving it uncooled. Something like 5 degrees is recommended for shorter trips while a larger adjustment of 10 degrees is ideal if you’ll be away from home for 2 weeks or longer. If you enjoy keeping the house at 72 in the summer, 78-82 can offer the best results.
Ideal Thermostat Settings While On Vacation In Winter
To try and find the most energy-efficient thermostat setting for a winter vacation, just lower the temperature by the same amount you would increase it in summer. 68 is a frequent winter thermostat setting, so turning it down to 63-58 will keep your plumbing safe while limiting how often your furnace runs.
A Smart Thermostat Can Help: Advantages Of Smart Thermostat Installation
One of the best ways to optimize your home’s HVAC system while away from home is by investing in a smart thermostat. This innovative type of programmable thermostat uses intelligent software to understand your preferred comfort habits. It applies these preferences and makes automatic corrections to the schedule for better energy efficiency. And with Wi-Fi integration, you can remotely adjust your heating and cooling using a smart device like a phone or tablet.
Smart thermostats are stuffed with features to help you save energy and lower costs. To provide an example, specific models can monitor electricity prices to increase heating or cooling when prices are lower. They are compatible with high-efficiency, variable-speed equipment to fine-tune how long your HVAC system has to run. It’s the perfect tool to streamline how you control your comfort system. If you’re planning on investing in a smart thermostat, there are a variety of ways you can lower your costs, essentially getting a smart thermostat for free. The next time you are away from home, you can appreciate true peace of mind that your HVAC system won’t cause any trouble while you’re away.
