Programmable Thermostat Tips for Winter Energy Savings

A programmable thermostat schedule works best when it matches your household’s routine. Set separate blocks for sleeping, time away, and time at home so your heating system adjusts without you touching the dial.

Recommended Daytime and Nighttime Setbacks

The U.S. Department of Energy recommends about 68°F while you’re home and awake. Turning the thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day, while you sleep or are at work, can save up to 10% a year on heating. These thermostat setbacks are one of the easiest ways to lower winter heating bills. If you heat with a heat pump, keep setbacks smaller (see the heat pump section below).

If you’re used to a warmer house, lower the setting a degree or two at a time. Most people adjust within a few days.

Coordinating Daily Timers with Household Routines

Most programmable thermostats let you set separate weekday and weekend schedules. With a furnace, schedule the heat to come back up about 30 minutes before you wake up. Heat pumps, boilers, and radiant floors warm up more slowly, so start them earlier. That way the house is comfortable when you get up, without running at daytime temperatures all night.

Common Programming Errors That Drive Up Energy Bills

A few common mistakes can undo a good schedule. Avoiding them keeps your schedule doing its job.

The Myth of Fast Heating Through High Temperature Settings

Setting the thermostat to 80 degrees doesn’t warm your house any faster than setting it to 68. Most furnaces and heat pumps deliver warm air at the same rate no matter how high you set the target. A higher setting just makes the system run longer, overheating the house and wasting energy until someone turns it back down. With a heat pump, a big jump can also turn on the backup heat strips, which use far more electricity.

Overusing Manual Hold and Temperature Overrides

Most programmable thermostats have an override or hold option. A temporary override, which lasts until the next scheduled block, is fine when you feel chilly. A permanent hold locks in that setting until you cancel it, which defeats the purpose of having a schedule. If you find yourself overriding the schedule often, change the schedule itself to fit your routine.

Thermostat Placement Tips

A thermostat reads the air right around it. If it’s near a drafty door, in direct sunlight, or above a supply register, it gets the wrong reading and runs the heat when it doesn’t need to. If yours is in a hallway far from the rooms you use, or near a draft, a technician can move it to a central interior wall for more even heat across the house.

Matching Your Thermostat Settings to Your Heating Equipment

Different heating systems handle setbacks differently. Knowing what heats your home helps you avoid surprise energy spikes during cold snaps.

Heat Pump Winter Thermostat Settings

Heat pumps work differently than gas or oil furnaces. When a heat pump has to raise the temperature several degrees quickly, it often turns on backup electric heat strips to help. Those strips use a lot of electricity and can cancel out the savings from your setback.

If you heat with a heat pump, use a thermostat designed for heat pumps or keep setbacks small, a few degrees at most. Heat pump thermostats bring the temperature back up gradually using the heat pump itself instead of the backup strips.

Pairing Proper Settings with Regular System Maintenance

A schedule only saves as much as your equipment allows. Dirty air filters restrict airflow through your system and ductwork, which makes it run longer to heat your home. Check your filter once a month during the coldest part of winter.