With winter just around the corner (stop laughing all of you who live in the South!), homeowners’ thoughts turn to… heating our homes for less. Aside from all the obvious ideas (set the thermostat on 50 and wear a parka inside, blah, blah), CNNMoney.com came up with a few new ideas. First, replace that dinosaur of a programmable thermostat with a remote-controlled programmable thermostat. Not returning home when you thought? No problem. Just go online and tell your furnace to chill out for a few more hours. Second, if replacing all those drafty windows is more than your budget can bear, consider storm windows that fit on the inside. Lastly, instead of a pricey home energy audit, equip yourself to do the job with this handy device.
In a related story, there’s a new study showing quite a gap between our assumptions about what saves energy and what really does save energy. For example, your kids will be pleased to know (although you probably won’t tell them) that obsessively turning off the lights whenever you leave a room doesn’t do much to drive down the average household’s energy bills. What has a bigger impact is switching to energy-saving light bulbs like compact fluorescent bulbs. Rather than a curtailment strategy (doing less of what you normally do), the study’s authors advocate an efficiency strategy (doing what you normally do but doing it more cost-effectively), like using energy efficient appliances or the more energy efficient settings on your current appliances.
What are some of your best energy saving strategies?
Andrew – I’ve been searching for an answer to your question and am not coming up with much. Consumer Reports doesn’t seem to have anything on web-controlled thermostats. You’ll find some on Amazon along with customer reviews, but that’s the best I could come up with. I wish I could give you a solid recommendation.
Any recommendations for remote-controlled programmable thermostats? It’s a great concept.