How To Get The Perfect Temperature Setting For Your Home
Home comfort and the perfect temperature are important. But saving money on your bills and lowering your energy consumption is a concern as well. How can you strike a balance between your family’s comfort level and savings? And is it possible to have both?
If your goals are to combine home comfort and savings, then your thermostat settings can make a big difference. Heating and cooling your home often account for more than half of your utility bills, so taking steps to optimize your settings is a good place to start.
Best temperature settings for your home in the summer
Las Vegas summertime can be brutally hot. You’ll be tempted to keep your A/C system on super-chill so you can look forward to that arctic air hitting you when you walk through the door. However, your system doesn’t need to be constantly running to deliver efficient cooling.
Programmable thermostats allow you to vary your indoor temperatures based on your schedule. You can set your temperature a few degrees higher when you’re not at home and cooler when you are.
According to the American Energy Department, you can save up to 10 percent every year by reducing your setting by 10˚ for eight hours a day. At the end of the year, you may have saved up enough to buy yourself something really nice!
Tips for keeping your home cool
The ideal temperature for home comfort during the summer is anywhere from 72˚ to 78˚F. While easing off on the setting might not seem like something you want to do in the dog days of summer, there are other ways to keep your home cool, so the indoor temps don’t get too out of hand.
Here are a few tips for keeping your cool:
- Open windows at night if the air is cool to reduce the burden on your cooling system
- Close all the curtains and blinds during the day to keep the cool temps in
- Make sure your windows and doors are properly sealed
- Set your ceiling fan to a “counterclockwise” motion, so the air is forced down
- Use floor fans to circulate cool air to hard-to-cool areas of the home
- Keep shades drawn on the south and west-facing rooms
- Install a smart thermostat
- Keep your HVAC system maintained
Getting the most out of your smart thermostat
When programming your smart thermostat, think about when you sleep, when you wake in the morning, and what times you are out of the house for work. When you make your adjustments, program the changes to happen 30 minutes ahead of your schedule.
Think about the other people in your household too – what times do they tend to come and go? If your home is going to be empty for hours during the day, it doesn’t make sense to be cooling it when nobody’s there.
Finding the perfect temperature setting for your home may not be as simple as settling on a specific number and sticking to it. But, keeping your interiors at a constant temperature all the time isn’t always good for your wallet. With a smart thermostat, you can program your home to keep you cool (or warm) while you’re there and save you money while you’re at work. It’s the best of both worlds!
To learn more about smart thermostats or to schedule an installation, reach out today.
Check out our Spring Cleaning For Your HVAC blog post!