How smart thermostats can save you fuel and money
With the return to the office in full swing and fuel prices rocketing, smart thermostats offer one relatively easy way to help reduce your energy use without big changes to your central heating system.
These are direct replacements for traditional timers and thermostats that give your boiler a hi-tech upgrade without cancelling out any of its features.
Most work with a large range of gas, LPG, oil or electric boilers, including those with hot water tanks, and many will work with biomass or heat pumps, too.
The majority consist of a control unit that is wired to your boiler and a wired or wireless thermostat that you place in the centre of your home. Many also require a hub that is wired into your router for online or phone-based functions.
Smart thermostats come in all shapes, sizes, prices and capabilities from a range of different manufacturers.
While features vary depending on the model and manufacturer, most give you more control over your heating, hot water and boiler than comes with a standard system.
You can adjust their temperature setting, set timings and turn the heating on and off via an app on your phone or using Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant smart speakers. It is a lot easier to create a detailed schedule of when you want the heating to go on and off in an app than it is on the pokey display of a traditional timer but most smart models will also allow you to adjust their schedules directly on the thermostat’s screen.
Some, such as Google’s Nest thermostats, can learn your habits and automatically adjust your heating schedule to save energy when you don’t need it. Many learn how fast your home heats up, too, so they can turn on at the right moment to hit a certain temperature at a set time. The best models
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