House temperatures are typically controlled by a programmable thermostat or in the case of older homes, manual adjustments to the thermostat. I always remember my father nagging us to ‘turn the thermostat down’ when we were going to bed or leaving the house for the day.

There are a number of programmable thermostats readily available. The typical application is to ‘set back’ the temperature during winter days when residents are at work and overnight when residents are sleeping and to ‘set forward’ the temperature during the same periods on summer days.

This is a relatively simple and low cost technology that virtually anyone can apply to any existing home. I was very curious to see how significant the savings would be.

CMHC, in their study Effects of thermostat setting on energy consumption (05-100 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 2005) determined that significant savings could be achieved. Tests showed that various night and day set-back/set-forward (11:00PM to 6:00AM and 9:00AM to 4:00PM) resulted in the following savings:

Temperature setting can have a significant impact on energy consumption for both winter heating and summer cooling.  CMHC completed their tests in very energy efficient homes and still realized significant savings of 13% of winter heating costs and 23.3% on summer cooling costs.  You could realize even greater savings if your home is not as energy efficient.

This simple low cost technology is easy to implement, saves money and reduces energy consumption and green house gases immediately. Everyone should be doing it.

REFERENCE

05-100 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. (2005). Effects of thermostat setting on energy consumption . Ottawa: CMHC.