Curious what your personal experience may be. I had a programmable thermostat a while ago, and I can't say it really saved us much. I'm currently considering an Ecobee Smart Thermostat, which says it can save up to 28%, I was thinking half would be optimistic and a little digging on the web suggests it is.

One study says 6-7%, and another says you might actually spend more. Most websites suggest the best way to save are settings that are way too cold in the winter or way too warm in the summer. And here I thought the point of HVAC was to be comfortable. I'm not afraid to spend a little money to save money, but I'm not yet convinced they actually do.

Depends on how you program it. If you set crazy away/home temps the recovery period can really erase all savings. This is especially true if you are on a heat pump and em/aux heat. Never set one with a range that will force your system to call for aux heat.

Me personally I set my A/C to be within a 3 degree range and heat (gas) within a 6 degree range.

For those that set a 50 degree away then 70 degree home temp, I imagine that most savings are lost when trying to raise the temp 20 degrees before you get home.

Everyone that paid money for one will say it does but people who do HVAC for a living say not a chance unless people have very specific schedules and don't allow big swings.

Bought one for my house. It's a 5/2 day programmable. Not sure it saves money however, I can set it to heat the house at 0500 (about 30 minutes before my wife gets up) until 20 minutes before I depart. It then goes down to a set temp until 15 minutes before she arrives home until 30 minutes before we typically go to bed.

Might not save money but it does make it more easy and comfortable.

It depends on temperature swing, set temperature, outside temperature, whether your house is well insulated, type of HVAC system, efficiency of HVAC system and other factors.

I keep my house at 68 degrees in winter and my programmable Honeywell drops the temp to 62 when I’m away. In summer I keep the house 74ish during the day and drop the temp to 70 at night. The thermostat let’s the temp go up to 82 when I’m away. My electric bill is approx. 15-22% lower in the summer and heat (natural gas) is about 8-12% lower in winter. Well worth it.

My Nest has for sure. The auto away feature is a life saver because I usually forget to cut it down before I leave. Plus you can change it manually with the app. I have it set for 75 cool and 69-70 heat so I never have to bother with it.

Another vote for the Nest. This time of year, I run 68° days and 65° nights. When I leave - I’m in Phoenix now - my nest drops it back to 60°. Plus I can see it and set it from anywhere.

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Originally posted by Skins2881:
Depends on how you program it.

And that is dependent on what your schedule looks like. If you're gone at 7am every morning and don't come home until say 6pm, the programmable stat likely will save you some $$. However, if you or your spouse are in and out during the day moving the system from away to home settings a couple times a day, then I don't think you'll save much money with a programmable stat.

If you do look into a programmable stat make sure to look at Ecobee. I have one and love it. Not so much for the programmable aspect, but rather that it sets on my WiFi and I can access it from anywhere. That way when you go on vacation for a week and forget to set the stat appropriately, you can use your phone to program it from wherever you are.

I've wanted to get a programmable thermostat but I just do it manually. Yes it saves money unless you do crazy swing temperatures as stated in another reply.
I keep my house at 68° most of the Winter unless it gets really cold. I leave the house at 12:30 in the afternoon and turn the temp down to 62. When I get home, anywhere from 9:30pm - midnight, I turn it back up to 68.
I do the same in the Summer except opposite. Thermostat gets turned up to 76 degrees while I'm gone and back down to 72 when I get home.
I've noticed savings in gas and electric.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Depends on how you program it.

And that is dependent on what your schedule looks like. If you're gone at 7am every morning and don't come home until say 6pm, the programmable stat likely will save you some $$. However, if you or your spouse are in and out during the day moving the system from away to home settings a couple times a day, then I don't think you'll save much money with a programmable stat.

If you do look into a programmable stat make sure to look at Ecobee. I have one and love it. Not so much for the programmable aspect, but rather that it sets on my WiFi and I can access it from anywhere. That way when you go on vacation for a week and forget to set the stat appropriately, you can use your phone to program it from wherever you are.

My T-stat is 8+ years old, but still works just fine and has remote app access. Why do you recommend an Ecobee specifically?

If you want something that’s higher quality than Nest or Ecobee: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...i%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Fair warning: If you have a problem with your HVAC system, your HVAC man is going to look at your Nest or Ecobee first.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Why do you recommend an Ecobee specifically?

Absolutely love the interface. The Ecobee is quite powerful and feature packed, but the interface makes it so simple to program, anyone can do it. Their customer support was also terrific the one time I needed it (i.e. when I installed it). Also, it has a feature I've used in the past called geo-fencing. Instead of scheduling home and away settings according to time, I use geo-fencing instead to toggle temps up or down based upon where I am. Works pretty well.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
If you want something that’s higher quality than Nest or Ecobee: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...i%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Fair warning: If you have a problem with your HVAC system, your HVAC man is going to look at your Nest or Ecobee first.

That Honeywell stat is not better than the Ecobee, its just different. If you like it better than the Ecobee, more power to you, but don't downgrade the Ecobee I personally chose for my house over the Honeywell.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
If you want something that’s higher quality than Nest or Ecobee: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...i%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Fair warning: If you have a problem with your HVAC system, your HVAC man is going to look at your Nest or Ecobee first.

That Honeywell stat is not better than the Ecobee, its just different. If you like it better than the Ecobee, more power to you, but don't downgrade the Ecobee I personally chose for my house over the Honeywell.

I judge based on quality since this is what I do for a living. Don’t take it personal.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
If you want something that’s higher quality than Nest or Ecobee: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...i%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Fair warning: If you have a problem with your HVAC system, your HVAC man is going to look at your Nest or Ecobee first.

That Honeywell stat is not better than the Ecobee, its just different. If you like it better than the Ecobee, more power to you, but don't downgrade the Ecobee I personally chose for my house over the Honeywell.

Mine is Honeywell. Besides pain in the dick set up it's freaking great. Can't imagine anything better. It is many years old, probably discontinued at this point but it's a 8320 model.

ETA: Nothing to get personal over. It's a personal choice for what you get. I will take what R.E. Michels sells over what Home Depot sells, every day and twice on Sunday.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
If you want something that’s higher quality than Nest or Ecobee: https://www.amazon.com/Honeywe...i%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-6

Fair warning: If you have a problem with your HVAC system, your HVAC man is going to look at your Nest or Ecobee first.

That Honeywell stat is not better than the Ecobee, its just different. If you like it better than the Ecobee, more power to you, but don't downgrade the Ecobee I personally chose for my house over the Honeywell.

I judge based on quality since this is what I do for a living. Don’t take it personal.

I didn't take it personally. I looked at both stats, including the Nest, before buying my Ecobee. The Honeywell was a good option, I just preferred the Ecobee, and after three years of use I don't regret my decision.

I use a Honeywell RTH9585WF.
It works for its intended use, and I have had this, or the version before it for at least ten years. It controls the heat and cooling. I’m not certain it saves me money, but I’m not air conditioning the house all summer long while we are at work. I’m not heating all day while we are at work.
I have about a ten degree swing in the summer and six in the winter.
My home is wicked insanely insulated. That helps a lot.
We are also on solar, so it’s hard to say how good the savings are. Depends on the sun, temp, clouds, etc.

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My home is wicked insanely insulated. That helps a lot.

Yes it does. It makes it way easier to handle wide temperature swings. No matter what if you are all electric you need to keep within what you heat pump does for cycles, if you are using AUX or EM heat you are killing your efficiency.

We have a Honeywell RTH7600. It's not "smart," but it is programmable.

Does it save us money? Don't know. We actually have it for convenience. We like it cooler during sleeping hours, so it automatically runs the temperature down 4°F around bedtime and runs it back up around the time we get up--both winter and summer. This way it's already cooling down when we head for bed and already warmed up when we get up.

I suspect the "saving money" part only works if you adjust temperature up (summertime) or down (wintertime) long enough so the AC/heat takes less time to get things back where you want them than it would keeping them there full time.

I suspect one would realize less savings during the cooling season than the heating season because of the way cooling, air temperature, and humidity work.

I think this is one of those "the only way you'll know is if you try it" kind of a things.

For us, a "smart" thermostat would make little sense. With us being retired our schedule is all over the map. We're rarely both out of the house at the same time, and even more rarely does that situation obtain for very long. Exception is when we go on vacation. And, even then: We have pets and a pet sitter that comes in twice a day to care for them. So we can't let the house turn into a refrigerator/oven, anyway.

Jesse, no heat pump. Winter gets too cold at night to be useful. Gas furnace and AC unit.