The latest smart home technology is designed to make life easier, and is the perfect way to inject a little bit of added luxury into your day to day living experience. From voice-controlled lighting to smart speakers that can fulfil your every command, the options today are seemingly endless – but as we head into autumn and winter, one of the best upgrades you can make to your abode is the installation of a smart home thermostat.
A programmable thermostat is about as convenient as it gets, and can help you to cut energy bills and live more comfortably by allowing you to control the temperature in your house more effectively and efficiently. No matter how much money you’ve got in the bank, nobody wants to pay over the odds for gas and electricity, and at the current time, this clever addition to your home will likely come in handier than ever.
If you’ve been considering having a smart thermostat installed in your house, then here are some of the advantages you can expect to enjoy, and they will probably make you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
Programmable thermostats vs smart thermostats
Because they allow you to plan ahead of time, programmable thermostats are more flexible than their manual counterparts and mean that you can tailor your energy usage to suit your own personal habits and lifestyle. If you know you’re going to be away and so won’t need it on, but you’d like your house to be nice and toasty in time for your return, then you can quickly and easily set up a schedule to support this, just be sure to consult your thermostat user manuals so you can do this with ease.
Thermostats that can be programmed aren’t always considered smart thermostats, so make sure you look out for the relevant features before you buy if that’s the kind you’re looking for. In order to qualify as ‘smart’, a thermostat must make use of automated technologies to eliminate human error and boost energy efficiency in the area in which it is placed. To put it another way, smart thermostats have an advantage over programmable thermostats, which typically don’t save owners much money because they forget to configure them correctly.
What is the purpose of using an electronic programmable smart room thermostat?
Using a programmable smart thermostat allows you to set certain times for your house’s heating and cooling systems to operate. Regular thermostats need to be changed manually all the time, while programmable thermostats can ensure that the temperature changes automatically and according to your desired schedule.
A smart thermostat is a Wi-Fi-enabled device that connects your heating system to the internet, adjusting heating and cooling systems in your home for optimal performance. Over time, the smart thermostat will learn your household’s patterns and adjust heating and cooling according to when it’s occupied, or when you typically arrive or leave home. This means that you’re no longer using energy when you don’t need it, but that your abode always feels comfortable and welcoming – and best of all, you’ll never have to think about changing the temperature yourself as it does all of the legwork for you.
The benefits
One of the major benefits of upgrading your air home thermostat to a smarter alternative is the ability to connect to your system from afar. Wi-Fi connectivity is now a standard feature on most modern appliances and devices, enabling them to perform better and boost convenience for the user. Even if you are far from the thermostat’s primary controls, you can still use your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to adjust the temperature or switch your electricity supply on and off.
When you upgrade to a smart thermostat, you’ll also be able to take advantage of zoning capabilities. While traditional systems tend to treat homes as a single space, with any tweaks you make to the temperature affecting all of them at once, a smart thermostat offers handy zoning capabilities and will adapt the temperature of each room according to usage. So, you’ll no longer have to heat those three spare bedrooms you forget you even have when you want to warm up your own, and through learning about your habits and usage of individual areas of your home, your new, more intelligent system will improve energy efficiency as well as keeping your bills down.
If you’re looking for the most precise measurements of your temperature or other system parameters, dials and switches may not be the best option. An updated thermostat will provide you with as much information about the status of your air conditioning system as possible in real time on its digital display, making it quicker and easier to see what the current set-up is. And, despite the automation of your smart thermostat, you’ll still be able to make your own tweaks manually should you find you need to, as and when required.
Your new room thermostat is so clever that it will even alert you when it needs maintenance – which means no nasty surprises should things begin to go wrong. By monitoring your system around the clock for any important signs of an issue, it’s able to notify you instantly if anything you should be aware of arises. To prevent any further damage from occurring, the system will advise you to call an engineer for an inspection, and will provide useful information to help them solve the problem. The earlier you identify faults with your heating and cooling systems, the more benefit you’ll get from catching these underlying problems, especially in case of a radiator thermostat.
Exactly how long can a programmable smart thermostat be expected to last?
The life expectancy of a programmable thermostat varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but on average, they can be expected to last for ten years. Keeping the gadget clean and repairing any problems as soon as they arise can extend its longevity.
It’s time to replace your thermostat if you notice your heating and air-conditioning system overheating; that the thermostat’s readings are erroneous or that your utility costs are rising beyond what can be reasonably expected given the current energy crisis. If changing the thermostat’s settings has no effect, then this is also cause for concern, and you should have it serviced as soon as possible.