At Maki Electric, Heating and Air Conditioning, it’s our job to make sure you’re feeling comfortable in your home, whether you’re cozied up with a cup of cocoa in the winter, enjoying a breezy spring day with your windows open, or staying cool during the sweltering summer months. Enjoy these tips on how programming your smart thermostat can help you to save energy and feel comfortable all year round.
Setting the Thermostat for the Temperate Seasons
During spring and fall, the temperature can fluctuate greatly with some days calling for a warm blanket and other days calling you outdoors in shorts and a tank top. If you have the ability to invest in a smart thermostat, we highly recommend it since you can program it to respond to temperature swings and keep your home at a consistent temperature no matter the weather outdoors.
A smart thermostat can also learn from your patterns, keeping track of when you’re home and when you’re away. In this way, you can program it to maintain your home’s temperature a little above or below comfort level when no one is home and instruct it to kick up the heat or turn on the air conditioner before people arrive home from school and work.
Geo-Tracking Smart Thermostats
Certain new smart thermostat models on the market are equipped with a special technology called geo-tracking that can utilize your phone (if you choose to enable the feature) to track your location. When the geo-tracking detects you are on your way home, it can tell the thermostat to turn on the heater or air conditioner to make sure the temperature is just right when you arrive. It can also do the opposite and detect when you leave, saving energy by not using the heater or air conditioner when you are not at home.
Smart thermostats are well worth the investment because the upfront cost will quickly pay for itself with savings on your energy bill. Besides saving money, you’ll be helping the planet as well by reducing your energy usage throughout the year.
Wintertime Thermostat Use
When it’s cold outside, it’s important to have your thermostat set at a temperature that keeps the house comfortable while simultaneously not wasting too much energy. If you want to keep your power bill in check while at the same time remaining comfortable, we generally recommend setting your thermostat around 68° in the winter.
Again, a smart thermostat can help you reduce your energy savings by keeping your house cooler when no one is home and instructing the heater to kick on less frequently when you will be away for significant stretches of time. If you travel out of town for winter holidays, you can also use the smart thermostat app on your phone to control the temperature in the house if a housesitter is staying with pets or to turn off the unit completely if no one is home. This will increase energy efficiency and help you save money by not heating the home when no one is occupying it.
Heat loss due to poor insulation can also be an issue, and at Maki Heating and Air, we can recommend services such as duct cleaning, air filter replacement, and general maintenance to help your heater run more efficiently.
Summertime Thermostat Use
When summer approaches, it’s tempting to keep your air conditioner on constantly at a low temperature, but that can become very expensive very quickly, not to mention a waste of energy if no one is home. If you plan to be away, consider setting the thermostat to a temperature that is a bit warmer than you would like if you were home; we typically recommend around 78°.
With a smart thermostat, you can use your phone’s app or the automated system in the thermostat itself to schedule your air conditioner to kick on and begin cooling down the house a couple of hours before you arrive home. That way, you will not be wasting precious energy and money to cool the house when you’re not there, but it will still be a very comfortable environment to walk into when you return home.
An additional benefit is that by giving your air-conditioning unit a couple of hours to slowly cool down the house, it will use less energy and be much more efficient than asking the air conditioner to kick on at a high speed when you walk through the door to cool the house down quicker.
When your air conditioning unit is controlled this way, it also has less likelihood of running into mechanical problems and system failures, since it doesn’t have to work as hard to cool down the home quickly.
Schedule Routine HVAC Unit Maintenance with Maki Heating and Air!
Getting regular maintenance performed on your HVAC unit is imperative to keep things running smoothly, save you energy, and save money in the long run. Make sure you keep up with regularly scheduled maintenance of both your heater and air conditioning unit so that you have reliable, working appliances and a comfortable home environment all year round, no matter what the season.
Call Us Today to Schedule Your Appointment
At Maki, Electric, Heating and Air we have many years of experience providing thorough inspection of HVAC units, and we go beyond just the basics to save you money and energy.
Give us a call at (530) 885-3449 or (916) 782-9242 to schedule an appointment and have one of our friendly and reliable technicians come to your home to evaluate your HVAC unit. We can offer you a general inspection, a deep cleaning of your HVAC unit including duct cleaning and air filter replacement, and an evaluation of any problems your system is experiencing before they get worse.
If you think it’s time for a full HVAC unit replacement, we can help evaluate that as well. We serve the entire Greater Sacramento Area and surrounding foothills and are dedicated to providing you friendly service at affordable prices.
