Programmable thermostats

kelley198721 · June 2015

My fiancé and I are getting married in four months. We are getting ready to put down a deposit on an apartment sometime in June or July. We want to save money on our utility bill. I am a tad concerned about it as I tend to be very hot-natured. I also take long, thirty minute showers. I've tried to cut down on how long I am in the shower but I seem to be incapable of spending less than thirty minutes lol. But I try to make up for it by only taking showers every other day. I also am vigilant about turning off the lights in the room when I leave.

So today my fiancé came across the Nest thermostat. Have y'all heard of it? The website makes it sound awesome. I wanted to see what y'all think about it though. Or do you recommend a different type of programmable thermostat?

Also, are there any other ways we can cut down on the utility bill? Or are we pretty limited since we'll be in an apartment complex?

AprilZ81 · June 2015

Programmable thermostats will save you money on utilities since you can adjust the temperature to save money when you are sleeping or away at work or out of town for a long weekend. I don't have a nest thermostat, but you can get one for about $30-50 at any home improvement store.

Since you are in an apartment you don't have a lot of options to make the apartment more energy efficient. The biggest difference will be window coverings... If you have drafty windows or get a lot of sun you will want to get some thicker curtains and use them to cover the windows to block air drafts or peak sun in warm weather.

Using less energy overall is the only other thing that I can think of that will lower your usage. LED lightbulbs are coming down in price, and be sure you are diligent about turning off lights and other things when you are finished with them.

Can you talk to your landlord about making some energy savings improvements? S/he may be able to take advantage of tax rebates for the improvements.

Xstatic3333 · June 2015

On the shower front, I play music on my phone and limit my showers to 2 songs. If I didn't I'd zone out in there for ages!

We did focus on window coverings in our old, drafty rental and I agree, they are awesome! In the winter we "shrink wrapped" our windows using a cheap kit from Home Depot. Well worth the time and effort to install. In our new home we installed ready-made cellular blinds.

In the winter I just wear fleeces inside to stay warm and cozy. Another big energy upgrade we made was getting a newer fridge (for free from a moving friend!) even while we were renting. Our landlord's fridge was ancient and an energy suck, so this saved us literally $20/month on electric.

Our area's energy company, National Grid, always gives out free LED bulbs at events they attend. Check into similar promotions from your company. They also offer free energy audits for homeowners, and we learned that brushing off the coils under our fridge saves lots of energy. It's also great for dust and pet hair control.

The other big option is using power strips to easily turn off multiple electronics when leaving the house. Some have an "always on" spot where you can leave your internet router on while turning off the TV, DVD player, etc. We really make a game out of how low we can get our bills. It's fun in a weird way!

blondie42107 · June 2015

I agree with the OPs. I've heard great things about the Nest but unless the landlord gives you the ok, you'll have to focus on other things to reduce use.

H and I are pretty anti AC until we really need to use it. We have a programmable thermostat and love it. It wasn't very expensive and we have it programmed based on our wake times, etc.

hoffse · June 2015

One of H's best friends is a techy guy, and he raves about the nest. He bought one when they first came out and still loves it.

We recently installed LED cans throughout our house. It was an expensive project, but I've been able to see the difference in our energy bill, and we will be here long enough that I think they will pay for themselves over time. Even if they don't, I won't have to buy a lightbulb for this house ever again.

We also just had our attic insulated. The insulation guy told us that more heat/cold is lost through the ceiling than anything else. Obviously he's an insulation person, so who knows if that's true.... but the ~$1000 we spent to have them blow in insulation across 2000 sq ft has made an enormous difference already, and when all is said and done it was a pretty cheap project for the difference it has made. Our May electric bill was $80 under budget (and we've been running the A/C good and strong down here). So I feel like the insulation should pay for itself within a year or two, and it will also make the house feel more comfortable/consistent immediately. The biggest difference has been in our master bedroom. We literally had no insulation over that room, and it always felt hotter or colder than the rest of the house. Now it's the same temp as the rest of the house.

Since you're in a rental, you will need to talk to your landlord about these things.

formerlyGDaisy09 · June 2015

We are all about reducing our energy use, the programmable thermostat makes a huge difference. I'm not familiar with the NEST thermostat, but we have one we can program differently during the week and on weekends and it's nice to not have to think about turning the temp down or up before we leave the house, and in the winter I have the heat kick-on about 15 minutes before we usually get home so we arrive home to a warm house.

as for the showers, I like the idea of the music and limiting yourself to a couple songs.

window coverings for drafty windows are a good idea, we did that this winter and it made a difference (we're replacing all our windows this summer so we shouldn't have to do that next year)

the windows and limiting shower time are about the only thing you can do without clearing it with your landlord.

FutureMrsMerati · June 2015

We recently renovated our entire home including heating system. Going into it, we were very much interested in the Nest thermostat. However, during my research I found that, depending on what type of heating and cooling system you have, the Nest can turn on BOTH AT ONCE, which of course results in dramatically increasing your energy bills. We asked the company that installed our system and they had seen similar experiences with customers, so we decided against it. Apparently this is not an isolated incident and has been reported by many users who have a central system with both heating and cooling like we do. If I were you, I would consider a programmable thermostat that you can adjust yourself - until they work the kinks out of the Nest, we definitely won't be spending $250 on one.

Erikan73 · June 2015

The a programmable thermostat is great, but check to see what utilities you have to pay for. In apartments I have rented, I only had to pay for electric, cable & internet. Water & heat were included as part of the rent. If you don't have to pay for your own heat, it's not worth it to change out the thermostat. Also depending on the size of the apartment, it might be just as easy to change it manually when you come and go. I know in the apartments I had, I had a wall unit Air Conditioner. Since my apartment wasn't that big, I would turn it off when I left for the day and then just turn it back on when I came home from work. It would have my place comfortable in about 20 minutes. So not worth it to leave it running all day long when I wasn't home. I did switch out some of the light bulbs to CFL to reduce my electric bill. I kept the ones that were installed in a box & put those back in when I moved out and took my more expensive light bulbls with me. I did put plastic up on the windows in one place during the winter to cut back on drafts because it was right by my computer so putting the plastic up made it more comfortable.

Programmable thermostats

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