Update The Thermostat With Your New Furnace
You're planning to have a new furnace installed – awesome – but have you thought about the thermostat that controls the system? How long has it been since you've updated the thermostat? Are you still fighting with one of those old analog thermostats? Here, you'll find a little information to help you determine if it's time to upgrade to a new thermostat to go with your new furnace.
Analog or Digital?
Well, hands down – digital. While analog thermostats can be good for some things, they are not the ideal mechanism for controlling the heating system in your home. Why? Well, it's as simple as efficiency – they are just not efficient, at all.
Now, the digital thermostats – they have some tremendous capabilities to help you lower the cost of heating the home. The only real downside to digital is that they need to be powered – either by battery or electricity. Not too bad – right?
Types of Digital Thermostats
You have your two basic types of digital thermostats – programmable and smart.
Programmable thermostats come in various price ranges and are basic to sophisticated. The basic digital thermostat won't cost you much, and it will allow you to set the thermostat to change the temperature in the home at different times. The more sophisticated programmable thermostats can be set for various times of the day, different days of the week and so on.
Ok, to the smart thermostats – they are very smart indeed. These little gadgets can actually interact with your smartphone. You'll be able to change the temperature of the home right from your phone – so, if you have the temperature set low when you're not home, and you'll be arriving before you'd expected, you can adjust the temperature, so it's toasty warm when you open your front door.
Smart thermostats also provide you with a lot of data that you can use to keep the cost of heating down. It will show you the peaks and dips in your energy use, the temperature averages throughout the day, and so much more. They can even come capable of alerting you if the system is malfunctioning or if there is a power outage in the hone that could cause pipes to freeze.
Talk with your furnace installation professional to learn more about the thermostat that could help you reduce the energy costs and help the new furnace run optimally for a very, very long time.
