Once upon a time, options for controlling your home’s comfort were one-size-fits-all. Each home’s heating and cooling system was equipped with a basic, no-frills manual thermostat. If you wanted rooms cooler, you turned down the dial; if you wanted them warmer, you turned it up—simple as that.
Just as one-size-fits-all isn’t the best choice for comfortable clothing, one-temp-all-the-time isn’t a good approach to heating and cooling your home. Today’s programmable, Wi-Fi compatible thermostats allow you to tailor comfort to specific needs, current conditions, and changing schedules. More than just convenient, this technology is energy-smart and can help you reduce your utility bills by 15 to 20 percent every month by only using energy as needed.
As one consumer so aptly puts it: today’s thermostats are either Stone Age devices without features, programmable but hard to install and use, or so technologically advanced that they make their own decisions. That’s a slight exaggeration, but there are so many choices available today—digital, nondigital, programmable, and nonprogrammable—that it’s easy to become confused over which type will work best for you.