What Temperature Should You Set Your Thermostat to Save Money?

October 13, 2020

Can you “hack” your thermostat to save money? Today, Parker and Sons is here to give you top thermostat tips!

Best Temps for Budget Management

If you go to the Department of Energy’s website, they recommend setting your thermostat to 78 degrees in summer and 68 degrees in winter[1] — lower when you are asleep. Now, with both of these recommendations, you might be thinking, the first one is way too hot and the second one is way too cold!

These recommendations are magic numbers to help you save money. If the first is too hot and the second is too cold for personal comfort, keep reading.

Adjust Temps When You're Away

When nobody’s home, we recommend setting your thermostat 7 to 10 degrees away from what you normally would, closer to the temperature outdoors. For example, if it’s 90° outside today, and you’re used to setting your thermostat to 72°, go ahead and set it to 80° – 82° while you’re gone. Or if it’s a cooler October night at 55°, set your thermostat to 62° – 65°.

That rule of thumb is still true if you are asleep at night. Volunteer Energy recommends sleeping at 60° – 67° at night, as a compromise between comfort/health and energy savings[2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that if you are awake, your home should not be cooler than 64°, or you could compromise your immune system[3].

Multiple Options for Automatically Saving

We offer programmable thermostats as wekk as REM thermostats, which let you control your home’s temperature remotely from your laptop or smartphone. We also sell "learning" thermostats, which learn your schedule as you use them, and can even provide monthly energy reports.

This means that you have many options to automatically help you save money on your energy bills, without having to think about it yourself.

Personal Comfort vs Budget Debate

We like to put concrete numbers here, and cite our sources, because we know that setting your thermostat can be a big source of family arguments!

Some people care more about the comfort aspect (or what is comfortable to them is different than what is comfortable to another family member), and some people care more about the money-saving aspect.

Of course, both are important in their own way, and that’s why we here at Parker and Sons prioritize both your comfort and your budget.

Would you like us to help you choose the right thermostat for you and your family in Phoenix or Tucson? Or do you need to schedule a different type of HVAC service? Click to schedule service online.