There has been a lot of news and hype about smart thermostats over the past several years. It seems like many people leave their traditional programmable thermostat behind and switch to smart thermostats.
But why buy a smart thermostat? Can smart thermostats help save money on electric bills? Also, what are the pros of switching to a smart thermostat?
Below, you’ll find eight pros you’ll appreciate when you use a smart thermostat and learn why you may want to consider buying one for your own home.
What are the Benefits of Smart Thermostats?
Although there are dozens of reasons to buy and install a smart thermostat, I’ve outlined the top 8 reasons many customers claim it can do.
If these points below sound like good reasons for you to switch from standard programmable thermostats to a smart thermostat then you’ll also want to check out my other post on the top-rated smart thermostat options for the lowest prices.
1. Removes Potential Human Error
Although computers do make mistakes, a smart thermostat is a lot less likely to make mistakes than humans do.
- Learning Thermostats: Smart thermostats learn your heating preferences, habits and schedules. Can a programmable thermostat learn an individual’s habits? I don’t think so.
- Self-adjusts: These devices have the ability to control heating and cooling systems in homes any time of the day. It means that if you leave during the day, the smart thermostat knows it, and self-adjusts the temperature.
- Energy Savings: This type of thermostat has the ability to make potential energy savings on your house’s energy bill. Smart thermostats know when they can turn the heat down and when it’s time to turn it back up again based on your activity of the day. [1]
You don’t have to make the mistake of accidentally programming the energy of the thermostat wrong, or leaving the air conditioning on when you’re out of town or gone from the house running errands.
2. Convenience
If you use a standard programmable thermostat, you know that it can be inconvenient to get up and manually adjust the temperature when it gets too warm or too cold in your home.
Smart thermostats bring convenience because you can adjust these settings and gain remote access from the comfort of your phone via an app. Some thermostat also uses LED touchscreen display where you can adjust the temperature and see all the information needed.
You can even see the temperature and local weather forecasts in a smart thermostat. In addition, you can even adjust a smart thermostat when you’re not at home if you have one that works with the Wi-Fi.
3. Savings Potential
Can a new smart thermostat actually have the ability to save you money on your energy bill? As long as the thermostat in your house run at the right levels, a smart thermostat can probably help save in the cost of energy in the monthly bills.
- Energy Monitoring: Since smart thermostats work by monitoring your home’s temperature and adjust it on their own, this can potentially save you money on your heating and cooling bills. It can actually cut down your home’s overall energy consumption year-round. This is especially useful if you often travel or have more than one home (or rental property) that you want to keep track of when you’re not there.
- Scheduling: A smart thermostat will let you program your heating and cooling schedule. This is something busy people can use. You don’t want to fiddle it from time to time and see what’s going with your thermostats on a daily basis.
- Consumption Reports: Some smart thermostat even has the program where it sends you monthly energy reports from time to time. A notification or an email prompts on your smartphone or any device. That’s if you have remote access and have synced the thermostat with the designated smartphone program. You must have downloaded and installed the designated app, whether on your smartphone or any device.
You can connect to the Wi-Fi, then program it with your smart thermostat. This is helpful in cases like you need to know if you’ve gone over your average energy consumption for the month.
4. Easy to Use
Most smart thermostats are designed to be user-friendly. Like for example, it’s always convenient to work your way around the mobile apps. Most of it has streamlined interfaces, hassle-free, and may be accessed remotely anytime.
It makes it easier to check your thermostat’s energy settings, shut it off, turn it on as you need to. In short, you can check and control the systems of the thermostat when you’re away from home.
The simple installation process of a new thermostat won’t break a sweat, and every one has the ability to install the Wi-Fi thermostat on their own.
It won’t cost you extra money to pay an installation guy. Most of the smart thermostat gives you interactive step-by-step instructions on how to set it up and where everything is.
5. Energy Usage Monitoring System
Monitoring your energy consumption might be easy with most smart thermostats. In this way, it’ll keep a running diagram of your home’s energy consumption.
Some models of these smart thermostats have a program where it offers energy consumption statistics in real-time. This energy monitoring system of a smart thermostat can show you if there are any areas where you could reduce your energy consumption and probably save on the electric bill.
The thermostat will also allow you to check for energy usage patterns and peak usage times using your mobile phone.
6. Better Temperature Control
When using traditional thermostats, temperature control might be a tricky battle that you find yourself constantly fighting.
Is the room too hot or too cold? Is your furnace running too much when you’re not home? Are you worried that it’s hot when you enter the house while on you’re way home?
Some models of these smart thermostats take a lot of this guesswork away by learning your preferences and habits. A thermostat can control the heating and cooling (HVAC system) using your preference.
In this way, it automatically adjusts to keep your home within your preferred comfortable temperature range without you having to worry about micromanaging it.
7. Other Appliance Compatibility
As smart technology continues really to evolve, so does appliance compatibility. This compatibility will allow your smart thermostat to share information and link up to other smart devices that are on the same platform.
Other appliances or smart products like air purifiers, dehumidifiers, and humidifiers can link to your smart thermostat.
A thermostat can control the systems of other smart products. Like switch on and off automatically depending on what’s going on in your home.
8. Optional Features
By now, I’m sure you’re already convinced on the convenience of usage of a smart thermostat. Are there other extra little features worth noting?
Smart thermostats come loaded with a variety of optional features that might make them more convenient to use.
They also give you more opportunities to save money and reduce your energy bills.
- Motion Sensors: For example, you may get a thermostat with motion sensors that control the temperature when they sense that persons are up and moving around.
- Geofencing: Some units are even using a geofencing feature that senses when you’re close by your home. It then automatically turns your heating and cooling (HVAC system) on so it’s the proper temperature before you arrive.
- Filter Change: Another great example would be your smart thermostat giving you reminders to change a furnace filter.
Some thermostats that come with a price may have more features. Some examples are the Nest thermostat, Honeywell, or Ecobee comes with a price.
You may be surprised to know that there are smart thermostats that cost cheap but have every nifty feature and expensive one has.
So, Is a Smart Thermostat Worth Trying?
With the many recent positive reviews from customers of smart thermostats, I would say a new smart thermostat is worth it for every household. I guess you already realized it by now, and there’s no reason not to consider it.
As you learned, these devices have the potential to lower your energy usage, save you money on heating and cooling costs, all while keeping your home comfortable all year round.
These are how smart thermostats offer extra convenience to your home. I hope you find the smart thermostat that best suits your needs at home.
