A common energy-saving question for heat-pump owners is whether turning down the thermostat at night time and while away from the house will help you save on heating costs. Many homeowners become confused when faced with conflicting advice from different sources–to turn the temperature down at night, or to leave the thermostat at a constant setting? The answer is that both strategies are valid energy savers, but which one you should use will depend on which kind of heat-pump thermostat that you own. 

Most heat pumps come with standard manual thermostats, although some come with electronic programmable thermostats. With a manual heat-pump thermostat, it’s usually most efficient to choose a comfortable temperature and stick with it. This is because heat-pumps have to work hard to recover from large temperature setbacks. To recover from a large nighttime setback, heat-pumps tell the secondary heat source (strip heat) to kick in, which uses more energy and ultimately costs you more money.

With a programmable thermostat, however, setting the temperature down at night or when you are away will save you money. Most programmable thermostats will prevent strip heat from being used during recovery unless the heat-pump isn’t adequately raising the temperature.

Additionally, programmable thermostats often come with adaptive or intelligent recovery technology, which allows them to calculate the time needed to recover from nighttime temperature to comfort temperature. This is possible because electronic thermostats, much like humans, can gauge the temperature not only of the air, but of your home’s walls, giving it a more accurate picture of how warm or cold the room actually feels to you and your family.

Electronic thermostats with adaptive recovery technology even can learn from experience how soon to turn on your heating or cooling system. Your thermostat does this by recording the time it takes to hit the target temperature and adjusting start time accordingly. Only a week or so after installation, a programmable thermostat will have adjusted to the specifics of your home’s heating and cooling system, construction, and local climate.

If you have any further questions about heat pumps or programmable thermostats, don’t hesitate to contact the professionals at Modern Mechanical. We proudly serve residential customers in Northern Virginia and Maryland, and looking forward to meeting all of your heating and cooling needs.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about heat pumps and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Modern Mechanical services the Northern Virginia and Maryland areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!   

Thermostat photo via Shutterstock