Why Your Home Needs a Smart Thermostat

Why Your Home Would Benefit From Having a Smart Thermostat

There are now dozens of different smart devices that people use around their homes to control automatically and remotely every electronic appliance possible. One of the most popular smart home devices is the smart thermostat. In fact, out of all the smart devices that are available, a smart thermostat is considered one of the best to install in any home. Here are several reasons why you would benefit greatly from installing a smart thermostat in your home.

Versatility

The sheer number of options you have with a smart thermostat is far beyond what you get with a manual thermostat. Most smart thermostats come with options such as:

• Setting schedules for temperature changes
• Setting timers for heat or air conditioning
• Changing behaviors based on whether people are in the house or not
• Detecting weather patterns to adjust the temperature accordingly
• Syncing with an app to control and monitor thermostat behavior from anywhere
• Learning your typical patterns to automatically change to preferred temperatures
• Monitoring your energy usage

On the other hand, manual thermostats only tend to give you the ability to turn the target temperature up or down or set very simple usage schedules.

Saves Money

Many homeowners with manual thermostats wind up wasting a lot of money on heating and cooling bills without even knowing it. Have you ever been at work and suddenly remembered you left the air conditioning or heat on too high? Have you ever thought you had no choice but to leave the heat or air conditioning running constantly while you’re gone because you didn’t want to come home to a sweltering hot house in summer or a freezing cold house in winter?

Smart thermostats help lower your heating bills in several ways. First, smart thermostats monitor your energy usage, which allows you to figure out exactly how much your energy bill will be every month. You can alter schedules and other behaviors in your smart thermostat to help reduce energy usage and save you money.

Second, smart thermostats implement several tools to ensure energy waste is at a minimum. For example, with a manual thermostat, you may want to leave the heat on during winter when you’re not home to ensure the house is warm when you return. It’s reasonable to want your home to be at a comfortable temperature when you return, but it’s also incredibly wasteful since the home will be heated for hours without anyone in it. Smart thermostats use either motion sensors or geofencing to determine when you’re home or in certain rooms to know when to activate the heating and cooling systems.

Geofencing uses GPS technology to follow the location of your phone. If it detects the phone is away from the house, it will turn the heat and air conditioner off. If it detects you’re getting closer to home, it will turn the heating or cooling system on to ensure the house is at an appropriate temperature when you arrive without wasting energy.

Motion sensors also allow you to isolate heating and cooling to only specific rooms in which there is activity to avoid needlessly heating the entire house. Many smart thermostats also detect pet activity to set temperatures to comfortable levels in rooms where your pet is awaiting your return.

Finally, smart thermostats have a vacation mode in which they will only use heating or cooling sparingly for specific purposes, such as ensuring the pipes don’t freeze and maintaining healthy humidity levels.

Convenient

The remote capabilities of smart thermostats are incredibly convenient for any homeowner. You can alter absolutely any setting from anywhere that you have an internet connection all from your phone or tablet. Even if you’re at home, it’s much more convenient to simply grab your mobile device and change the settings to your liking immediately instead of walking to wherever the thermostat is and changing it manually. Some systems even have the option of utilizing voice controls, allowing you to control your thermostat even without your mobile device at your side.

If you do want to change settings directly on the unit, everything is extremely easy to navigate and user-friendly. The text is large and easy to read, and every bit of information that is available on the app is also available from the display on the wall-mounted unit.

Maximize Your Comfort

Smart thermostats have so much automation and customization that there’s hardly a moment where your home is ever at an uncomfortable temperature. If there ever are moments when the temperature is uncomfortable, you can instantly adjust both the temperature and the automated behaviors or schedules to help ensure that those moments become rarer in the future.

Track the Weather

Smart thermostats monitor the weather to adjust settings based on the temperatures outside. For example, you may keep your house at a certain temperature during mild days, but if the temperature outside suddenly plummeted or skyrockets, the thermostat would make either an automatic change or a suggestion to change the temperature to ensure your home is at a comfortable level.

This information isn’t only stored internally. Constantly updated and detailed weather information is shared directly on the device and through the app to allow you to follow the weather and change your own patterns accordingly.

Easy to Install

One thought that causes many homeowners to be avoidant of any smart home device is the concern that they’re too difficult to install. However, smart thermostats are incredibly easy to install. Depending on the wiring in your home, installing a smart thermostat is about the same level of difficulty as installing a manual thermostat. Proper installation requires a skilled and professional technician to ensure that everything is done safely, the system works properly, and nothing is damaged in the process. It is a quick and easy install that normally doesn’t require much alteration to your walls.

Stay Updated on Maintenance

Many people accidentally forget to do regular maintenance on their HVAC systems like changing filters, cleaning the ducts, or getting tune-ups, but these tasks are vital to ensuring the health and longevity of your HVAC system. Smart thermostats send you notifications about maintenance issues that need attention to keep the system in proper working order.

Additionally, smart thermostats detect and diagnose problems with the system. These may be problems that you haven’t noticed but require attention to avoid permanent damage to the system. They may also be problems you know about but would otherwise have difficulty properly identifying on your own.

If you’re interested in installing a smart thermostat in your home, you can count on our experienced technicians at Sheldon's Heating & Air Conditioning to provide you with fast, skilled, and professional service. In addition to smart thermostats, we also offer installation services for digital and programmable thermostats as well as installation and repair services for air conditioning units, heating systems, air purifiers, air ducts, and more. For additional information on any of the services that we provide in the Riverside area, contact us at Sheldon's Heating & Air Conditioning today.