I am now the unwilling new owner of a new high efficiency furnace and AC. I am still rocking the old cryptic “programable” thermostat and wondering if I should pay a bit more for a Nest or some smart type thermostat. I like the idea of remote wifi access to adjust temp, but am wondering if it would actually save any money. Has anyone noticed any impact on bills with one?
They are just for convenience, not for saving money. The programmable will save just as much money.
Has anyone noticed any impact on bills with one?
No, but if you travel for work like I do, it’s always fun to mess with the wife and change the setpoint without her knowing,,,,,
HRG
If you feel that you must waste more money just to keep up with the Jones’s…
Pretty tough to save money finding new ways to spend it.
The smart thermostats have some nice features which may save money depending on your situation. For example, I have radiant in floor heat. By using the fan to move air 30 minutes every hour, it keeps my upper level 3-4 degrees warmer than no fan. Yes, you could leave the fan on all the time, but I found this to be a reasonable balance between additional electricity use and propane/natural gas consumption. Absolutely no question it saves us money on heating costs.
FYI with the Nest thermostat, you could opt to add a nest protect smoke/carbon monoxide detector. If for some reason you had a CO2 leak, it has the ability to turn off your furnace. It also can then start the furnace back up for freeze protection even though there is a CO2 alarm active.
I used to have a dumb programmable one at cabin. Would have it turn up heat Friday afternoon until Sunday. If I didn’t go up would heat it up to 70. Just got dsl at cabin and got a WiFi thermostat. It is a Honeywell less than a 100 bucks. I can adjust it a few hours before I head up now. Heat or air. Definitely saves me money too.
We installed one last year. We were gone for over 2 months in the winter. Prior our neighbor checked our house every day or two. With the new thermostat, we could check it ourself every morning on our phones. We also put a wi-fi sensor in the freezer that we just put a deer and a quarter beef in before we left. We leave our heat on 65 when we are gone. 20 degrees farther from frozen pipes than 45. Furnace guy said it only makes about $30 a month difference in utility bill, with new furnace.
Yes just don’t waste your money on a over priced nest. Worst wifi thermostat many others are better.
When you factor in the available rebates for a smart thermostat such as Nest you gotta believe that the state and utilities consider them an energy-saving asset … plus the overall cost of the thermostat drops significantly. I see no reason not to get one unless you are dedicated to analog stuff for the sake of simplicity … but since you are using an online forum I’d guess that’s not the case.
We have a Honeywell in the new house. Just got it programmed yesterday. We were gone all day today so had it set at 62 degrees. 45 minutes before coming home turned it up to 70. Nice in the house when we/you get home.
they don’t save you enough life changing amounts of money unless you have a desk job that gives you the freedom to change temps at the push of a button. it’s basically wall swag that can be controlled by your wifi. it looks sweet, i have a honeywell of some sort that won’t link to my wifi and it just looks nice on my wall. wiring these smart stats can be very challenging depending on many variables.
When my new furnace was installed part of it was a wifi thermostat. I can’t say that it saves us any money but it does show the actual fuel and electric usage in gallon/kw and dollars. Being able to turn the heat up or ac down on your way home from out of town is convenient.
. wiring these smart stats can be very challenging depending on many variables.
I have installed at least 10 smart thermostats and they are extremely easy to wire..just as easy as a dumb thermostat. Smarts do required a g-wire from your furnace (or you can get a 120v transformer that works too) for constant power. No more thermostat batteries.
Yeah they seem great, until you go to check why the furnace isn’t running and find a blank screen. I didn’t put this one in, its a Honeywell, it came with the house. Assume I’ll be buying another one tomorrow as I have run through the list of what I can check, and the furnace will still run continously if I put the thing back on the wall, so I have to assume it’s just the unit that’s shot. Wish I had the old programmable at the old place, 15 years never broke once.
We had a programming issue with ours when we turned the heat on this fall. Furnace would warm it up, the air would come on and cool it off. All weekend. Ended up an error on our part with the phone link. Service call, pain in the butt. But worth it to us in the long run. Cost of being old, in a tech world.
if you have kids in school, and work outside the home, it can be quite a saver. you can attach the settings to the detection of your phones on the wifi system and it will go to specific settings.
But if you just set it up like your old thermostats, You aren’t going to save much. having wifi access is the biggest thing.
We have an eccobee and a nest for our 2 furnaces. The nest stinks. its basically always like “HERE IS WHAT I BELIEVE YOUR OPTIMAL SETTINGS SHOULD BE PLEASE ASSIMILATE”
also, most power companies have programs where they will pay like 75-100 bucks for each one you buy. I spent 225 on the 2 we have and were reimbursed 150 through midamerican.
I wasted my money on the over priced Nest. Got it a couple years ago. I really like it.
Don’t most new furnace include one smart thermostat.
Hope you didn’t get a heat pump model.
I work in HVAC controls. A properly set occupancy schedule is about as efficient as you can get in terms of thermostat operation.
I have a smart stat in my house, but really never use the connected features. I do use the additional inputs on the sensor though for a dirty filter switch, discharge temp sensor, and a space relative humidity sensor.
I do use the remote access features for the stat installed for our cabin often; as mentioned by an above poster, it’s nice to set it to warm up/occupied mode before we leave to drive up there.
We had a Nest at our last house. HATED IT!! The house was never comfortable and the bill looked the same. When we were moving out the wife asked if I was going to take the Nest, I said “F*** NO, let the new homeowners deal with it. ”
I now have a programmable wifi thermostat that is much better. Have it set for our normal routine, then just place it on hold if we have a routine change. And if we’re gone for a weekend and forgot to change it just log in and make the adjustments. On our way home then make another adjustment. Easy peasy, only requires you to have a slight bit of awareness about your home.
We had a Nest at our last house. HATED IT!! The house was never comfortable and the bill looked the same. When we were moving out the wife asked if I was going to take the Nest, I said “F*** NO, let the new homeowners deal with it. ”
I now have a programmable wifi thermostat that is much better. Have it set for our normal routine, then just place it on hold if we have a routine change. And if we’re gone for a weekend and forgot to change it just log in and make the adjustments. On our way home then make another adjustment. Easy peasy, only requires you to have a slight bit of awareness about your home.
^Sign me up for this. Having a bill stay the same would be a Godsend.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
We had a Nest at our last house. HATED IT!! The house was never comfortable and the bill looked the same. When we were moving out the wife asked if I was going to take the Nest, I said “F*** NO, let the new homeowners deal with it. ”I now have a programmable wifi thermostat that is much better. Have it set for our normal routine, then just place it on hold if we have a routine change. And if we’re gone for a weekend and forgot to change it just log in and make the adjustments. On our way home then make another adjustment. Easy peasy, only requires you to have a slight bit of awareness about your home.
^Sign me up for this. Having a bill stay the same would be a Godsend.
I guess I should clarify, the bill looked the same as before the Nest was installed…even though they claim they save money…
I won’t buy a nest but am looking at putting one in my garage. So the nights I plan on working in there I can bring the temp up before I leave work. This works great for the cabin.
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