Looking into smart thermostats
I just recently started looking into a new thermostat for my home.
The existing control is a plastic dial that requires manual adjustment, and it might be older than I am.
It was already installed when we bought the house twelve years ago. It never occurred to me to replace it. The thermostat does its job and I was happy with it. However, the HVAC contractor who handles the regular maintenance of the furnace and air conditioner mentioned that a smart thermostat would not only be more attractive and convenient but help to trim my utility bills. I hadn’t realized the advances in thermostat technology. Modern devices are very streamlined, available in different shapes and include touchscreen interfaces. Some of them allow uploads of photographs to customize the display. Others light up as someone approaches and certain models respond to voice commands. There are learning thermostats that keep track of adjustments that are made for the first week after installation. It then creates a customized schedule and automatically raises or lowers temperature to take advantage of energy saving opportunities. I like the sound of geofencing. These advanced controls know the location of every family member’s smartphone. It reacts to the smartphones entering or exiting a set radius around the home, raising or lowering temperature settings according to occupancy. It will be really handy to be able to access settings through an app on my smartphone from virtually anywhere. If I want to make a change in the middle of the night, I won’t need to get out of bed, walk downstairs and turn the dial.