From a much-needed vacation or an extended trip for work, leaving home means making plans for your home comfort system. You won’t be using it as long as you’re on a trip, so you can make adjustments as necessary to conserve your energy use. Simultaneously, you don’t want to just leave it off for the entire time you're out of the house.
In general, it’s ideal to leave your HVAC system going and just raise or lower depending on the time of year. That way you can minimize energy costs without stressing about returning to an uncomfortable home. We’ll explain why you should leave your HVAC system on as well as the ideal thermostat settings for various times of year.
Here’s Why You Avoid Leaving Your Thermostat Alone
While you might be tempted to shut your HVAC system down before a trip, this could end up causing costly problems by the time you get back. This is especially true if the weather will be severely hot or cold while you’re away from home.
For instance, switching the HVAC system down in the summer will sometimes lead to very high humidity. Not only will your home feel like a swamp when you return, but it might have also stimulated mold/mildew growth or pest infestations.
And in the winter, not using the furnace might lead to pipes icing over or even bursting. It’s never fun to come home from a long trip only to discover extensive water damage nearby a broken pipe.
Best Thermostat Settings While at Work
You can optimize the temperature even as you come and go to work. Because you’re not home for around 8 hours or so, it doesn’t seem sensible to keep an empty home heated or cooled as if you were there. Generally, it’s encouraged to adjust the thermostat by 5 degrees or more. This means that if you prefer a comfortable 72 degrees, think about raising it to 76-77 while you’re out.
But you can save even more if you're open to further adjusting the temperature. As reported by the Department of Energy, you might save around 10% on your HVAC costs by increasing the adjustment to 7-10 degrees.
Energy-Efficient Thermostat Settings While on a Trip in Summer
If you’re leaving for an extended trip in the hottest part of summer, you can make more significant adjustments. This prevents wasting energy while still protecting your home from the issues that come with leaving it without air conditioning. Around 5 degrees is recommended for brief trips while around 10 degrees is best if you’ll be out of town for 2 weeks or longer. If you enjoy keeping the house at 72 in the summer, 78-82 should offer the best results.
Recommended Thermostat Settings While on Vacation in Winter
To try and find the ideal thermostat setting for a winter vacation, simply lower it by the same amount you would raise it in summer. 68 is a frequent winter thermostat setting, so adjusting to 63-58 will protect your plumbing while minimizing how frequently your furnace operates.
Smart Thermostats Are Even Better: Advantages of a Smart Thermostat
One of the best ways to manage your home’s HVAC system while away is using a smart thermostat. This advanced type of programmable thermostat utilizes intelligent software to understand your preferred comfort habits. It learns these preferences and makes automatic changes to the schedule for higher energy efficiency. And with Wi-Fi integration, you can remotely control your heating and cooling from a mobile device or tablet.
Smart thermostats are loaded with features to help you save even more. To provide an example, some models can observe electricity prices to boost heating or cooling when prices are lower. They are compatible with high-efficiency, variable-speed equipment to refine how long your HVAC system has to run. It’s the perfect tool to enhance how you control your comfort system. If you’re considering investing in a smart thermostat, there are a variety of ways you can reduce your costs, effectively getting a smart thermostat for free. The next time you are away from home, you can receive true peace of mind that your HVAC system won’t stir up any trouble while you’re away.
