Home Trends from Lou Benis

Lou Benis •

Real Estate Lethbridge

SMART THERMOSTATS With the cost of living on a seemingly never-ending increase these days, saving a few dollars where you can is imperative. One way to save on heating bills (on average about 8%) is to use a smart thermostat that connects to wi-fi that you can program to turn your heating on and off at certain times during the day. If someone were to arrive home at an unusual time, most smart thermostats will allow you to override the schedule with the press of a few buttons on an app, which is really convenient for parents when a child goes home ill, or someone has to stay at home and wait for a maintenance person to arrive, etc. Furthermore, some models have motion sensors or tracking capabilities and can determine when no one is home (or returns home unexpectedly) and adjust the temperature accordingly without you having to set a schedule or remember to change a setting on an app. Another neat feature of some smart thermostats is the ability to have multiple sensors throughout the home. This is great if, for example, your main thermostat is near the kitchen and it always registers the air temperature as warm enough, but leaves the bedrooms on the other end of the home freezing. You can set up a remote sensor near the bedrooms that can take an average temperature and the thermostat will then adjust the furnace settings more appropriately. Experts suggest that when you're home your thermostat should be set between 20˚C and 22˚C for optimal comfort. When you're sleeping or away from home for a short period of time, you can drop the temperature down a few degrees to somewhere between 16˚C and 18˚C. If you leave on vacation for a few days and your home will be empty, you can drop the temperature quite a bit, but not to below 10˚C degrees to keep the pipes from freezing.

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