A Programable Thermostat: the convenience of warm WITHOUT the sacrifice!

A programmable thermostat is a fabulous investment!  A basic one costs about $30, but you can easily save that in one season!

No one likes to wake up to a cold house OR come home to a cold house.  A programmable thermostat allows you to have the temperature set lower while you are away OR under your covers (nice a cozy)!  You can easily program it to warm up the house 30 minutes before your alarm goes off in the morning OR before you return home from work.  This way you maximize your comfort, are doing a great simple thing to save money --ALL while being environmentally friendly!

When we had little babies in the house, I didn’t set the temperatures as low because they would unravel themselves from their blankets and I worried about them getting cold.  (I didn’t want to put a huge comforter in their crib that could smother them either.)  HOWEVER, now that my children are not babies anymore, we have invested in some really warm comforters from IKEA.  Because they are so PLUSH and WARM (rated 4-5), our “program” is set to decrease to 60˚F at 11p.m.  Please remember the program doesn’t function on an instant drop (like opening the refrigerator) …it just means the furnace doesn’t kick on again until it reaches that temperature.  SOOOO…it takes a while for it to get there.  The thermostat’s program kicks back up to warmer temperatures 20 minutes before my husband’s alarm clock goes off, (which is 45 minutes before our children get up.)  In all honesty—NOT ONE PERSON in our house has noticed the change.  The house is warm when all of us hop into bed, and warm when we all get up in the morning.  Stretching pennies couldn’t be easier!!  Convenience of warm WITHOUT the sacrifice!

Since I am a stay-at-home mother, we generally only have the daytime temperatures set lower when we are on vacation OR are going to be away for the day.  If your schedule has you away from your home  during the day, consider programming your thermostat to lower temperatures during your absence.  The only thing you will notice is more money in your pockets!! 

NOTE:  Even if you are a stay-at-home mom OR work from home…. IF you have a schedule that has you being gone on certain days or at regular times, make sure you program that in.  Every person can benefit from this trick!

Happy Stretching Pennies….