Buying EnergyStar approved appliances is a great way to be green – but not unless you use them correctly! According to the Honeywell, 70% of programmable thermostats are not used correctly. It has always been a debate whether maintaining a consistent temperature in your house or having it fluxuate throughout the day was more efficient.  Better Homes and Gardens Magazine claims that adjusting by only 7 or 8 degrees makes a huge difference in your energy bill. There are thermostats like The Prestige  that are easy to program yourself because it asks questions like: what time does the first person in your house usually wake up? When does the last person leave in the mornings? When does the first person return home? When does the last person go to sleep? But you don’t need to have a $200 dollar device to help you. Instead, save money by getting out your thermostats manual and asking yourself the same questions. This is a basic guideline for what temperatures to use throughout the day. The temperature when you are sleeping or out of the house should be about 7 or 8 degrees in the less comfortable direction :

SETTING:        TIME:       HEAT:                                            COOL:
 wake                6am         70 or lower                                78 or higher
 day                   8am          turn down at  least 8              turn up at least 7
evening           6pm         70 or lower                                 78 or higher
sleep               10pm        turn down at  least 8              turn up at least 7

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.