How do smart thermostats save you money?

With the increase in the cost of living, there’s never been a better time to look at how you heat your home and how smart thermostats save your money.

So let’s us jump in and find out how smart thermostats save your hard earned cash.

Are there some tweaks that you could make without compromising on your comfort level? This is a question I get asked a lot when I’m in clients houses.

The answer is usually yes. but only  because I do this every day and know what to look for.

Smaller improvements that make a big difference over time may be less obvious and less publicised.

Of course, there are the major improvements like increasing your Insulation in walls and ceilings, upgrading your boiler, replacing doors and windows etc, this has all been well documented.

Renewable energy options are of course on the up, whether we are designing a hybrid system to work with your existing energy source or going completely fossil fuel free!

Larger changes to the way you heat your home are going to have a more profound impact on your fuel usage.

The problem is of course that  many of the larger changes need investment at the beginning before you start saving. Apart from maybe the insulation, which can be a relatively cheap job in comparison to the energy saved.

Where does that leave people who cannot afford to replace their boiler, switch over to an air source heat pump or fill their roof with solar panels?

What are the smaller, more cost effective changes that can be fitted to a heating system that make a meaningful difference to your fuel bill without breaking the bank.

One of the less costly upgrades to your heating system that won’t cost the earth is upgrading to Smart controls.

But how do smart thermostats save you money?

Well like many people at the moment  switching off your heating altogether is of course the most economical way to get your fuel bill down, but this is not an option if you want to live comfortably. Thats a bit like saying your new diet is to eat one meal a day! Staving yourself is not much fun!

So the next best thing? Why not control the air temperature and schedule  of individual rooms within your home automatically to match your living habits.

That’s exactly how smart thermostats and smart TRVs work their magic!

For instance, in my house, my bedroom only comes on between 6.00 – 7.30am and between 10.30 – 11.30pm when we are in this room and out of bed.

The same can be said for every room in the house which is heated by a radiator, apart from our main living space which is kept at constant 21 degrees all day due to it having under floor heating.

How’s does a smart TRV differ from Smart thermostat?

A smart TRV, in this particular case Tado, works by sending a radio wave signal to the receiver which is hard wired into the boiler. Each individual TRV can trigger the boiler on or off independently based on the schedule and air temperature setting for that room.

The Tado system can also be zoned to wall mounted temperature sensors too, so a TRV in a particular zone can communicate with the temperature sensor first before triggering the boiler to save even more fuel.

Many people ask me about how do smart thermostats save you money on your fuel bill? My first response is always that a Smart thermostat or TRV ( set up correctly) will never let you heat an empty house or room.

All Smart thermostats use geo fencing which uses location services of the occupants to check where everyone is and can also tell if you’ve left a window open!

Smart thermostats  also have built in weather compensation, meaning the thermostat knows what the weather is going to be like that day and may hold off bringing the heating on if it predicts  its going to be warm day.

There are many other functions of a Smart thermostat that help you save money on fuel and I will do another post to go through these in more detail.

To summarise, in my view, once you’ve done all you can to insulate your home, Inmstalling Smart thermostats/ Smart TRVs working together is the single most cost effective and energy efficient way to control a fossil fuel heated home at this moment  without affecting your comfort levels.

For more information on how we may be able to help you cut down your fuel usage please contact us today for a free survey.

– Dean Dawe