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We live in the era of the smart home, and one of the most useful smart home devices of them all is the smart thermostat. That’s because heating and cooling account for more than half of the energy use in the average U.S. home. It makes sense to think carefully about how to make your air conditioner and furnace more efficient, and the smart thermostat’s primary benefit is to make it easier than eve...
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systems, but can lead to energy waste when not operated as designed by the manufacturers. We utilized Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing service, to investigate thermostat settings andbehavior in households. We posted a survey and paid respondents to upload pictures of their thermostatsto verify self-reported data. About 40% of programmable thermostat owners did not use programming fe...
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While Americans continue to take precautions to manage the spread of COVID-19, many people will be spending even more time at home as the months get colder. As a result, households may be seeing higher energy bills from keeping heat, lights, and computers on as the temperature drops—and as work continues to shift from the office to the home. The extra costs will be especially challenging for peopl...
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The winter season in Scottsdale, AZ is one of the mildest in the continental U.S., and in general we don’t need to spend an exorbitant amount of money to keep our homes warm through to the spring. However, homeowners often spend more than they should on heating because of simple errors regarding when and how to operate a heating system. People in colder parts of the country have more experience wi...
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Energy technology has changed rapidly over the past few years, whether at your home or at your local electric utility. Much of this innovation has been focused on adding technology that allows different parts of the network to communicate with others, and one of the most popular of these “smart” technologies is the smart thermostat. These new devices, available from companies like Honeywell, saswe...
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If you're looking to upgrade your home with smart devices, it's worth considering a smart thermostat in the winter months, when high heating bills and air quality become a concern. And with new products frequently hitting the market, there are plenty of devices to choose from: In September 2021, for instance, Amazon announced a slew of new smart home devices, one of which is the Amazon Smart Therm...
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In the cold winter months it can be tempting to leave the thermostat at a set temperature when away so that when returning home it is warm. The attraction is not only the immediate gratification of a warm home, but many assume this practice saves energy because the heater won’t have to work as hard to heat the room to the desired temperature. Unfortunately, this is not true. It's actually mo...
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Some homeowners don’t even consider HPWHs because the technology requires a relatively large up-front investment. The purchase price of a HPWH typically runs three or four times higher than a conventional model. To fairly judge the cost-effectiveness of a water heater, however, you must consider the cost of running it as well as the cost of the equipment itself. By virtue of their unparalleled eff...
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Before purchasing a HPWH, it’s vital to confirm that your home can provide the appliance with what it needs to operate with greatest efficiency—a sufficient supply of warm air. While it’s possible to install other water-heating technologies in areas as small as a closet, HPWHs usually need at least 750 or 1,000 square feet. Any location big enough must also be stable in temperature (ideally never ...
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The popularity of HPWHs stem not from the nuances of their underlying technology, but from their remarkable efficiency—and more specifically, how inexpensive they are to operate. In fact, of the many water-heating technologies available today, HPWHs offer the lowest running costs of all, saving the homeowner every month for as long as the appliance lasts (an estimated 13 years). Those incremental ...
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