Are You Smarter Than A Smart Thermostat?

While the Thermostat Recycling Corporation is busy getting mercury thermostats properly recycled, homeowners are having a ball choosing the mercury thermostat’s successor. That’s right, thermostats are fun now. The latest trend in energy efficient home heating and cooling?

Smart thermostats.

What exactly is a smart thermostat? These nifty new gadgets are a step up from the programmable thermostat, which can be preset to adjust to different temperatures at varying times of day, and the traditional mechanical or mercury thermostat, which change temperatures with manual adjustments. The smart thermostat goes beyond – not only can it be programmed to change temperature throughout the day, these temperatures can be changed remotely through the owner’s smartphone or computeror can “learn” from an owner’s behavior and automatically adjust temperature based upon use.

Depending on the model, the smart thermostat has some other neat features:

• A smart thermostat can learn to auto-program itself based on its owner’s habits – we’re talking space-age stuff here. For example, an Ecobee model has remote sensors that let it know whether you are home or away, and it learns your behavior based on data it collects from these sensors. Pretty soon it has your whole life in sync! Just imagine…

“Thermostat, turn up the temperature to 74 degrees Fahrenheit.”

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“What’s the problem?”

 “I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Your home’s energy efficiency is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.”

• Additionally, smart thermostats can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. This allows the owner to change their home’s climate while lying in bed on their smartphone in the morning not wanting to touch those cold hardwood floors. This also allows the owner to change thermostat settings from hundreds of miles away, just in case someone forgot to turn the heat down before leaving for their Disney World vacation.

• Models like the Honeywell Wi-Fi Thermostat display energy-efficient recommendations on the screen. It will even notify you of extreme temperature changes and when to change your air filter in your HVAC system. It’s like that handy friend that always makes home improvement suggestions, but smaller and less patronizing.

• Lastly, smart thermostats can show you how much money you’re saving by using them. It feels good to know you can save money and protect the environment in a fairly simple way.

Smart thermostats are a great replacement for your old mercury thermostat. It’s hard to argue with saving money, helping out the environment, and ushering your home into the future of climate control. REMEMBER, if you are thinking about replacing your thermostat, recycle your old one! Mercury thermostats can be recycled through TRC, just give us a call at 571-447-4315. TRC does not incur responsibility if your smart thermostat becomes more popular than you.