7 Smart Thermostat Features That Actually Lower Your Energy Bills

One of the bigger line items in your household budget is heating and cooling. Your HVAC system uses a lot of energy to keep you comfortable in the winter and summer. Smart thermostats can help you control the energy usage and keep your house comfortable. One advantage of a smart thermostat is that it allows for more ways to control the temperature of your home than a traditional thermostat.

In addition to controlling the temperature, some smart thermostats can learn your habits and change settings based on if you are home or away. There is not a one size fits all way to describe the cost saving features of a smart thermostat. For some homes, a smart thermostat will always control temperature changes to save money. For other homes, like one with a less efficient HVAC system, the smart thermostat will use the same technology to improve comfort.

We will go over the seven most common ways smart thermostats help save money, explain how each feature works, and give you a framework to evaluate them before buying.

How Does a Smart Thermostat Help Lower Energy Bills?

You can control when and how your heating and cooling system runs with a smart thermostat. With smart thermostats, you can lower the temperature while you’re away in the winter and raise it while you’re away in the summer. Because HVAC systems run for hours every day, those minor adjustments can really add up.

Smart thermostats give you an easier way to manage the settings of your thermostat with your phone and have features that allow the thermostat to manage the settings for you. A smart thermostat isn’t likely to lower your bill by itself. It takes behavioral changes, along with improvements to the HVAC system and how it works with your thermostat in order to possibly reduce your bill.

Now let’s look at the seven features of smart thermostats that you should think about.

1. Smart Scheduling That Matches Your Daily Routine

A smart feature of smart thermostats is the ability to make schedules for when your heat or A/C turns on and off. Many people have a tendency to keep their homes at a constant temperature all day. Consider a normal weekday. Let’s say you leave the house at 8 and come back at 5. If your thermostat keeps your home at your preferred temperature all the time you’re away, it may use more energy than necessary.

A schedule can allow you to not have your thermostat heat or cool for certain hours. You can then set it to start heating or cooling to your preferred temp right before you come back.

How scheduling saves energy

In the winter (or summer), dropping (raising) the indoor temperature by a few degrees can slow the rate of heat loss (gain). Since your HVAC system is switched off when you are away, and since heat loss (gain) can be predicted, you can adjust your thermostat to different temperatures at different times of the day. Your thermostat will follow the schedule you set.

Although settings schedules for your thermostat can reduce energy usage, you should avoid schedules that cause your HVAC system to work inefficiently. Some HVAC equipment, including heat pumps and radiant systems, don’t respond well to large changes in temperature. Contact your heat pump or radiant heater manufacturer to see what their recommendations are.

2. Learning Features That Adapt to Your Habits

Some smart thermostats are designed to capture how you adjust your thermostats and what temperature settings you prefer. Instead of requiring you to create schedules and settings from scratch, these learning thermostats can take what they learn and give suggestions or create settings for you. As an example, if you lower the temperature every night before bed and raise it in the morning before you leave for work, a learning thermostat may be able to pick up on this and do it for you.

Ultimately, a learning thermostat allows you to spend less and less time adjusting the thermostat and more and more time enjoying a comfortable home.

Why learning capabilities matter

Your schedule isn’t fixed because it shifts as your life does. Work might look completely different on weekdays compared to the weekend, and your family’s routine can change just as easily. That’s why it’s important for your thermostat to be able to adapt to your changing schedule. Some thermostats can actually learn your habits and changes, allowing for greater savings. Others can adjust depending on changes in the local weather.

Learning features can help increase savings, but if a more rigid thermostat is programmed with the correct schedule, it can also be just as effective as a learning model. It is important for the thermostat to have manual controls, as it needs to be able to be adjusted. Your thermostat shouldn’t work against you to save energy. It should help you.

3. Geofencing That Adjusts the Temperature When You Leave

Have you ever left for work in the morning only to realize you’ve left your heating or air conditioning set to your personal comfort level? This problem can be fixed with a feature known as geofencing. With this feature, your phone is used to determine when you are leaving or returning home.

Based on your thermostat and the settings you have selected, the thermostat can adjust the temperature for you based on your location. For example, you can set your thermostat to use a lower temperature when you are away and then set it to a higher temperature when you are about to get home. This way you are saving energy while you are away and be more comfortable when you are at home.

How geofencing can reduce waste

Geofencing is perfect for people who’s schedules change during the week. With this, the thermostat can tell when you are leaving the house earlier and set itself to away mode. It can also tell when you are coming home to start adjusting the temperature.

There are a couple things to keep in mind with geofencing. Some thermostat models use the GPS on your phone too much and end up using more phone battery. Also, some models cannot support all of the household members and may need special configurations not to switch to away mode when some family members leave and others stay home. Different systems take different times to react and respond to changes. For example, it takes a larger system longer to react to changes compared to a smaller system. It may also take longer for a larger house to adjust to the temperature changes than a smaller apartment.

4. Energy Reports That Show Where You Can Improve

Understanding how your thermostat use affects energy use can help you reduce wasted energy. This is where energy reports can help. Reports from smart thermostats analyze runtimes of your system, the settings the system is controlled at, and the energy used. Some of these thermostats can create reports over different time periods, give you alerts to perform maintenance, and even give you reports comparing your usage to previous time periods. Energy reports assist you in pinpointing negative habits you may have regarding energy usage.

Turn energy data into practical action

You may notice your thermostat showing your A/C running for extended periods in the afternoons. This may be due to hot outside temperatures, lack of shade from trees, and/or sufficient insulation, as well as a setting for the temperature that is too low. You could look into these issues instead of jumping to the conclusion that the thermostat is at fault. There could also be several reasons why your heating system is running for longer periods of time including a blocked air filter or drafty doors and/or windows. You could also schedule preventative maintenance.

Your thermostat can give you a runtime report for your HVAC system. Thermostats do not always give an accurate measurement of the energy used by your HVAC system. Other factors such as the outside temperature, the efficiency of your equipment, and the cost of your electricity also impact your electric bill. So, always consider reports from your thermostat a possible starting point as to whether a change saved you money as opposed to definite proof.

5. Room Sensors That Help Balance Temperatures

Does your home feel like it has hot and cold spots? You could always just crank up the heat or turn on the air conditioning to cool the entire house, but that’s not great for your energy bill. Room sensors can help.

Several smart thermostats let you buy room sensors to better fine tune the temperature in your home. And, some of these sensors can even tell when a room is being occupied. The thermostat can use this information to tell the heater or air conditioner to focus on a given room. You might want your office to be cooler during the day and your bedroom to be cooler at night, for example.

Can room sensors lower your energy bills?

Room sensors know when a room is comfortable or not. Right now, room sensors don’t allow users to control the temperature in a room. In general, a Central HVAC system either heats or cools the entire home. A thermostat may use sensor readings to decide when to call on the Central HVAC system to heat or cool. However, unless compatible zoning equipment is also installed, the thermostat may not be able to send more conditioned air to the room.

Issues resulting in hot or cold spots are often a result of poor airflow, inadequate insulation, or air infiltration, and poor ductwork. Sensors can’t improve airflow or improve ductwork. Make sure to think about where you place your sensors. Outside factors can affect rooms near heat vents, in direct sunlight, or on exterior walls, leading to temperature changes.

6. HVAC Runtime Monitoring and System Alerts

Smart thermostats monitor the running times of your heating and cooling equipment. Many can also detect issues and alert you. For example, you may be alerted to change your air filter if the thermostat detects equipment run times are increasing.

These devices can assist you with preventative maintenance. For example, if your air conditioner is restricted with heat buildup and/or is experiencing low airflow and/or has a dirty air filter, the thermostat may alert you to investigate this.

Why maintenance alerts matter

Performing routine maintenance on your HVAC system is essential. Something as simple as a clogged air filter can restrict airflow and impact system performance. Something that homeowners should have no problem doing themselves, which is replacing the air filter, can correct this issue.

Some thermostats can assist in this area as well. These thermostats can approximate system runtimes and give a reminder based on elapsed time. Just because the system is giving a runtime warning, doesn’t mean something is wrong and broken.

As previously stated, not everything can be known for certain and that is why it is a good idea to call a HVAC technician for odd noises and if you are getting repeated warning codes and if you are unable to keep the temperature where it should be.

Additionally, the advanced monitoring capabilities that thermostats have are based on the equipment type and thermostat itself. So, a thermostat designed to work with a conventional furnace may not have the same monitoring capabilities as a thermostat designed for a heat pump or communicating HVAC system.

7. Smart Home Integration That Connects Your Devices

For even greater ease in controlling the temperature of your home, smart thermostats can interact with other smart gadgets in your home. Different smart thermostats work with different smart devices and have different capabilities. For voice activation, the thermostat can work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and/or Apple Home devices, among others. Various thermostats can be paired with different smart home devices to control the temperature of your home with voice commands and program different home automation routines.

Home automation routines can be set to help users be energy conscious. Routines can automatically adjust the temperature when the home is unoccupied and change it back when it is occupied. “Bedtime” routines can be set to lower the temperature and turn off the lights.

Do you need a smart home hub?

Probably not as a lot of Wi-Fi thermostats connect to your home network through the manufacturer’s app. Smart home hubs help create routines and automations. The goal is to use them to decrease your reliance on the cloud. As you shop for new smart home devices, you may come across Zigbee and Thread. Zigbee and Thread are low-power wireless technologies. Zigbee thermostats and accessories need a hub. Thread devices need a Thread Border Router and Platform.

Mesh networks increase the coverage of a wireless network by using devices to relay data, but this is not the case for Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Thread, so do not expect to have all your smart devices on the same mesh network.

Adding more smart home devices means more routines. For example, with away mode, you can set your home to a certain temperature when the house is unoccupied. When adding a new smart home device, see if it has the routines that you want, and see if it has good occupancy sensing.

How to Choose a Smart Thermostat That Fits Your Budget

What is the long term value of a smart thermostat?
You want to make sure the smart thermostat is compatible with your heating and cooling systems before buying it.
Look for thermostat wiring. Check to see if your thermostat needs a C-wire (continuous power). Other thermostat models come with an adapter. If you’re not comfortable with any wiring, you should contact an electrician. You want to look at the features of different thermostats. Some thermostats provide reporting of energy use and help you save energy and money. Look for thermostats with geofencing features.
Check the thermostat costs and look for other services offered by the thermostat company. Determine the cost of thermostat sensors and a hub. Check to see what services the thermostat company offers, i.e. professional installation. Savings are often overstated. Check with your local utility company. Your local utility company may have a program to provide rebates for qualifying smart thermostats

Final Thoughts: Is a Smart Thermostat Worth It?

A smart thermostat helps you control heating and cooling better. When choosing a thermostat, having the right features is more important than a long list of specs. Smart scheduling is a strong starting point for most households. Learning features and geofencing make temperature adjustments simple. Energy reports help you see how your system works. Room sensors may improve comfort, and runtime alerts can encourage timely maintenance. Smart home integration connects temperature control to your daily routines.

Before buying, check if your HVAC system is compatible. Then, compare the total cost. Finally, choose features that match your lifestyle. You don’t have to buy the priciest thermostat to use energy wisely. A smart thermostat keeps you cozy. It reduces wasted heating and cooling. Plus, it helps you save energy.