Smart Thermostat Guide

How Much Can Smart Thermostats Save You?

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) are responsible for about 40% of your home's energy consumption. A traditional thermostat will maintain a specific temperature based on its settings that can be adjusted manually. Smart home companies like Nest estimate that smart thermostats can reduce heating and cooling costs by 10 and 15%, respectively. In a general sense, a smart thermostat can save you money in two ways:

1. On a day-to-day basis, you will spend fewer dollars to heat and cool your home since your home only needs to be conditioned when you are home.
2. You will spend less on repairs because your A/C unit will not work as hard. You can set up your thermostat to notify you of any required maintenance so that you do not fall behind.

A smart thermostat will allow you to set a schedule and modify settings remotely. The heating and cooling schedule can vary based on the time of day, day of the week, and even season. You can set a specific temperature when you are coming home and another when you leave your home. This ensures that energy usage is minimal during hours when you will not benefit from heating or cooling.

Smart thermostats will also rely on sensors to adjust your home's temperature to save energy. This reduces human error with traditional programmable thermostats that sometimes consume more power than manual thermostats. If the smart thermostat senses that no occupants are in the home, it will lower the home's temperature and readjust when residents return home. Passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors and cell phone location data are typically used to determine occupancy within a home.

How Do You Install a Smart Thermostat?

Fortunately, the process of actually setting up a smart thermostat is quite easy. However, before purchasing a smart thermostat, you will want to ensure that it is compatible with your A/C unit. Most smart thermostat manufacturers, such as Nest, offer compatibility checklists online. These are intuitive and easy to follow. Keep in mind that not all smart thermostats work with every home's existing HVAC system. 

Each manufacturer should also provide installation instructions specific to their product, but we will walk through the basics here. Before installation, make sure you are switching thermostats on a mild day where your home will be comfortable without air conditioning or heat for a little while. 

1. Turn off your HVAC system by using your home's breaker box. This critical step will ensure that you do not accidentally short your system while working with the thermostat's wires. 
2. Remove the faceplate of your old thermostat. This step usually is straightforward - pull slightly, and it should pop off the wall. If not, it may be attached with a few small screws. Once removed, take note of how the wires are connected.  
3. Carefully remove the wires from the backplate. Next, remove the backplate from the wall. If you have your original thermostat's manual, it should provide directions on how to do this. 
4. If there is no C-wire already, add one. Here is an in-depth tutorial on how to do this. 
5. Connect the new thermostat's backplate to the wall with a screwdriver or drill. 
6. Once the new backplate is securely attached to the wall, reconnect the wires to the backplate's corresponding terminals. 
7. Install the new thermostat's faceplate. Snap the faceplate to the backplate, and use the thermostat's instruction manual for any additional steps. 
8. Turn on your HVAC system by using your home's breaker box. This should automatically turn on the smart thermostat.

Do I Need More Than One Smart Thermostat?

The average home consists of multiple rooms or, in this case, zones. While these zones require heating and cooling, they may not require it at the same time. By adding additional sensors in different parts of your space, smart thermostats allow you to treat each zone independently instead of applying the heating and cooling needs of your entire home. You may want your bathroom to be at a specific temperature in the morning, but you may not require the same level of comfort while you sleep or are at work. The flexibility of smart thermostats provides calculated comfort and introduces energy savings when programming when zones should be heating and cooling a space or turned off.

Keep in mind that you will need various temperature sensors installed around the house to set up your home using multiple zones. Nest, for instance, sells temperature sensors for about $40 each that you can place in each zone of your home.