What temperature is best?

Here in Maryland, you of course use heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. This (most likely) means you’re using a thermostat.

However, you’re probably not using that thermostat correctly or to your advantage. A study found that nine out of ten Americans don’t know how to properly program their thermostats. It turns out people rarely even program their thermostats at all since they don’t know how to do so.

But properly setting your thermostat to the recommended temperatures and learning how to use your thermostat is a great way to save money on your bills. In fact, you could save up to about 10%.

Thermostat Temperatures By Season

So here are some tips on those recommended temperatures and ways you can use a thermostat to your advantage.

Winter Settings
For the winter, the U.S. Department of Energy advises setting your thermostat to 68° Fahrenheit during the day if someone is home. When the house is empty and before going to sleep, you should lower that by about 10°.

Summer Settings
The top recommendation from the U.S. Department of Energy for the summer is to turn off your air conditioning entirely when your house is empty. If you don’t like the idea of having zero AC on while you’re gone, it’s best to set your thermostat to 78° Fahrenheit.

Types of Thermostats

Programmable Thermostats
Programmable thermostats are an easy and efficient way to manage both your heat and air conditioning. They can truly help you start to see savings on your bills. Programmable thermostats allow you to change your home’s temperatures with a timer.

If you know you’re planning on leaving the house for a while, program your thermostat so that it turns off 20-30 minutes before you head out the door and to go on again 20-30 minutes before you’re expected to come home.

About an hour before you head to sleep, have your programmable thermostat increase in temperature if you’re using air conditioning or decrease in temperature if you’re using the heat. Program it to return to the suggested temperatures of 68° in the winter and 78° in the summer about half an hour before you wake up.

Smart Thermostats
Smart thermostats take things one step further and allow you to adjust your home’s temperature from your phone whether you’re home or not. So if you’re out and realize that you forgot to shut your AC off, you could do so via an app that is connected to your smart thermostat.

While learning how to properly use your thermostat can certainly save you money, Q-Dog can too. Our heating oil and propane prices are hard to beat. Contact us today to become a Q-Dog customer and to start saving.