There's nothing

wrong with setting the thermostat yourself on your home heating and cooling

system. Nothing wrong, that is, except that you're probably wasting money,

energy and effort.

It's time to

ask yourself whether you're finally ready to buy a programmable thermostat.

Why get up each morning to a cold house when one of the new types of programmable

thermostats can have the house nice and warm for you? And why have the

added burden of remembering to turn down the thermostat when you leave

for work and when you go to bed?

You'll waste

a lot of energy and money by leaving your heating or cooling system on

longer than you wish if you forget to turn it off. There are lots of estimates

on how much you can save, but let's take one small example.

$50 on a programmable thermostat, you may be able to save $900-$1,000

over 10 years assuming a home of 1,500 square feet and an average monthly

energy bill of just below $100. While those figures can vary a great deal

depending on climate and energy costs, people in larger homes often can

save even more.

What is a programmable

thermostat, anyway? Well, to begin, you need to understand the thermostats

millions of people still have. For the most part, they're mechanical.

That is, they use a system of gears, levers and other devices straight

out of the dark ages. Whether they come in round or rectangular boxes,

you must manually set the temperature you wish each time you want to raise

or lower it.

Other than

the extra effort you need to remember to set temperatures every day, there's

also the error factor. Most of these "dinosaur" thermostats

have notorious error margins of up to 5 degrees. Newer programmable thermostats

can have an error margin of a half-degree.

A programmable

thermostat is a temperature control that can be set for automatic turn-on

and turn-off of heating and cooling systems, often with the ability to

have multiple settings for each day of the week. You don't have to set

the temperature each time, you can electronically and automatically control

temperature changes in advance.

And the best

thing is that programmable thermostats are relatively cheap. They can

be purchased from heating/cooling outlets as well as hardware stores and

home centers. And they're so easy to install that anyone with a screwdriver

and the ability to follow simple directions can do it.

You can find

programmable thermostats priced from $19 to more than $100. The chief

factors affecting their cost include the degree of control or multiple

settings, whether back-up batteries are used and whether they're included,

and whether a manual override is available. They should be able to replace

mechanical thermostats on any standard 24-volt electric, gas, oil or hot

water heating and cooling system. You can even find some that will remind

you when it's time to change your furnace filter.

If you shop

for a programmable thermostat yourself, be sure to get one that is meant

for your heating/cooling system. For instance, a thermostat built to work

with a heat pump probably won't work with a forced-air system, and vice

versa.

So, be sure

to read the label.

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