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Loading...10 Tips for the Thermostat: Your Key to Savings
- Annie B. Bond
- August 21, 1999
- 8:23 am
- 254 comments
Thermostats, where they are located in your home, and how you set them can be the most important factor in determining the size of your fuel bill.
1. When you’ll be out for an evening, turn down the thermostats. If you’ll be away for a weekend or more, lower the thermostats to 55 F. You’ll save on heating without risking a freeze-up of your water pipes.
2. Whenever you can lower your thermostat dramatically for a few days or more, you’ll save a little on the operation of the refrigerator and freezer, which won’t need to work so hard to maintain their cool.
3. How low can your thermostats be set? At our house, we’ve gotten accustomed to 68 F as a comfortable norm. Reduce the heat just 1 degree at a time and try it for a week. Each 1-degree drop for an eight-hour period reduces your fuel bill about one percent. Gradually, you might be able to go down 3 or even 4 degrees comfortably and save a chunk of money.
4. Try turning down the thermostat 5 to 10 degrees at night, and then turn it up again in the morning when the coffee is brewing. If you can get used to that, you’ll save 5 to 10 percent of your heating bill.
Once common myth is that when you reduce the thermostat for only a few hours it will take more heat to bring your home back up to the desired temperature. This is not so. You will save money and fuel because your heating system will not have to keep your home so warm. You will use less energy overall even when you warm up your house from a cooler temperature.
5. For greater ease and comfort, install a programmable set-back thermostat. They are available for most gas- and oil-fueled central heating systems. In this way, you can have the heat turned up before you get up in the morning and lowered just as you get into bed. You may not even notice that you are setting back your thermostat. Most of these thermostats come with two setbacks. Therefore, you can also set back the thermostat for the hours when people are in school or at work.
Read more: Home, Conservation
Adapted from 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart, by Roger Albright. Copyright (c)2000 by Storey Communications. Reprinted by permission of Storey Books.
Adapted from 547 Ways to be Fuel Smart, by Roger Albright.
Annie B. Bond
Annie is a renowned expert in non-toxic and green living. Named one of the top 20 environmental leaders by Body and Soul Magazine, Annie has authored four books, including "Home Enlightenment" (Rodale Press, 2005) and "Better Basics for the Home" (Three Rivers Press, 1999).
Go to the Source
547 Ways to Be Fuel smart
The rising costs and shortages of oil, gasoline, natural gas, and electricity are front-page news. Instead of joining the panic, take effective action that will bring your household fuel costs under control with simple projects you can do right now to save money.buy now
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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A great way to save money on heating is the use of fans in the winter, they help circulate the heated air in the house keeping a better even temperature. We use ceiling fans on low and point desk fans at radiators, even setting the fans pointing at radiators on timers to go on and off with the thermostat cycles. Pointing a fan at the radiator is similar to forced hot air, it moves the hot air away from the radiator circulating it into the room making the rooms heat up much faster.
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