A thermostat is one of the best solutions to a comfortable home. It is where it all begins with your home's heating and cooling systems. With a thermostat, you can effortlessly escape the summer heat and the harsh coldness during the chilly Canadian winters. This is why it is important to ensure that you take care of it well by maintaining it in the best way possible. To help you do that, here are some of the most common mistakes people make, that you should avoid.

Did you know that some common thermostat practices might actually be causing your energy bills to shoot up and must be avoided?

Installing a thermostat in a room with extreme temperatures

A thermostat works by maintaining the desired temperature by regulating your homes systems and switching heating or cooling devices on or off as needed. For this, it will need to constantly measure the temperature of its surroundings. If it is installed in a room that is too hot or too cold, it will assume that your entire house is at the same temperature, and that will mess with its final output. This will lead to your house being too cold or too hot, and you setting your thermostat to a desired temperature will be of no use, and it will just be a waste of your money too.

Cranking up the thermostat

When you set your thermostat, it regulates and monitors the temperature of your home, to make sure it is at the desired temperature, regardless of the temperature outside. So if there are weather fluctuations outside one day, they will not affect the final temperature of your home that your thermostat will output. For example, even if it is getting colder outside, turning up the thermostat will only cause your home to become extremely hot, which is not what you wanted either. The same thing goes for if the weather starts to get hotter and hotter outside. One simple act of turning down/ turning up the thermostat will significantly increase your electricity bills.

Turning up the thermostat for faster heating

Many people don’t realize that a thermostat does not control the speed at which your system functions, it only controls the temperature that the house will be. Therefore, turning it up in order to increase the temperature faster will not work. This applies to cooling down your house as well; the speed at which your air conditioner systems functions is not affected by the thermostat. When you set your thermostat to a high setting, all you're going to do is make your heating system run longer, not faster. This means that you will only be wasting electricity, as well as your money just because of this simple mistake.

Constantly turning it on and off

Many people believe that turning off the thermostat when it is ‘not needed’ and then turning it back on when you need it is right. However, this can actually cost you a lot of unnecessary money! If you leave the house and turn it off, the temperature will change while you are out, and then it will take time to get the house back to the temperature you want it to be. Warming up a very cold house as well as cooling down a very warm one needs a lot of energy. If you’re not going out for a long period of time, it is more efficient to just leave the thermostat on. The best thing you can do is to slightly change the set temperature so that your thermostat doesn’t unnecessarily keep working while you are gone. This practice will make sure your money isn't wasted on your energy bills, and additionally, it will prevent the need of constant maintenance for your thermostat, as it is functioning efficiently. The best thing to do to ensure its low power consumption and save your money is to actually just set it to an appropriate temperature and leave it on if you’re not going to be away for too long.

Keeping your thermostat on all day

Of course, we told you about how constantly switching it on and off will be a waste of energy. However, leaving your heating systems on when you are going out to work for a long time, even though it’s not that cold is even worse. The best thing to do in this situation is to set a timer for a couple of minutes before you get back home, so that the temperature is just right, and you’re also not wasting any energy either.

Now that you know how these practices are wrong, you can avoid making such mistakes yourself. The only thing left for you to do is to ensure that you have a well functioning thermostat, and we can help you out with that.

Schedule a thermostat maintenance check by our professionals and we will help you stay efficient when it comes to your thermostat.

Call us at:416-259-6767