Super hot so good time of year to talk about this. Anyone put these in? Any feedback? I have a dual pump heater so my choices are limited. But please do share any experiences anyway.
I don't like having one. Wish I could go back to the old style. I was always good about remembering to adjust the thermostat before I left the house to save myself a little consumption. But now, I have this little gremlin turning on the AC when I'm not even there and -- worse -- turning it off when I am there. I probably use more electricity because of it and I have to mess with the thing more than I did when it was manual.
I put one in and programmed it to 82F during the weekdays while we're out. I honestly am not sure of the savings, as it's rather hard to get a good baseline to compare against. If nothing else though, it's convenient. Sometimes I get annoyed like JV - particularly for vacations because my particular model makes that operation confusing.
I put mine on 80F when I leave. It seems like it has to do a helluva lot of work to cool the house back down when I come home, though. I think that setting it up too high can defeat the purpose of saving money if the a/c has to play catch-up to cool the house back down again when you get home. I'm not clear on how much I will save in such scenarios, either. I'm thinking maybe 78 degrees F is the best temp in this situation...but not sure.
Apparently there are 'smart' thermostats that will track how long it takes to cool/heat a house to a certain temp and will adjust according to your schedule.
Exactly. I've tried multiple settings/temperatures in this regard and I don't think I've noticed any clear savings.
We have heated floors in the bathroom (it's Minnesota), and the thermostat that controls them does just that. It 'remembers' how long it takes to reach the deisred temperature and adjusts accordingly. I would have to think there are AC/Heat thermostats that do the same thing.
