Smart Thermostats: Are They Always a Smart Choice?
The first megahit smart home device was a smart thermostat. It was by far the winner among the least aesthetics home appliances. When the Nest Thermostat was first released in 2011, it was a revelation with its built-in AI that allows it to program itself and its good looks.
The real selling point of the Nest Thermostat was its ability to save almost 30% off your energy bills. For instance, if the town you’re living in experiences extreme weather, this can result in you overusing the HVAC system, which in return results in steep bills.
That said, smart thermostats offer you the best results, only if your home has central air conditioning and/or furnace. If your home doesn’t, or if you use radiant floors, a smart thermostat is less likely to save you much energy or money.
What’s so smart about Smart Thermostats?
A smart thermostat is considered to be smart because it can manage the climate within your home. This is something traditional thermostats simply can’t do.
A traditional dial thermostat allows you to set a preferred temperature and then informs you AC or heat to turn on until your home is at a comfortable temperature. In other words, you’ll need to adjust your thermostat throughout the day to ensure your home’s comfort.
Whereas, a programmable thermostat gives you the ability to create a schedule that automatically adjusts your home temperature so that your desired temperature can easily shift throughout the day and night.
However, these adjustments are limited to what a smart thermostat is capable of. Some smart thermostats can learn your heating and cooling habits, and further, anticipate what your desired temperature is for the day. A smart thermostat does all of this on auto, without any input from the user’s end.
Moreover, smart thermostats can also calculate the duration it takes for your HVAC system to reach the preferred temperature. In addition, smart thermostats can also detect when you’re home or away through geolocation and sensors.
Lastly, a smart thermostat can also be accessed remotely. This gives you peace of mind when you’re traveling or away for a long time. A smart thermostat ensures that your HVAC is not in use when no one is around.
Why Do Some Homes Not Benefit from Smart Thermostats?
The entire process of making small adjustments works well if you have a central air conditioning system in place in your house, as well as a heating system that releases hot air.
The majority of homes in the U.S. have furnaces with hot air that blows around the house to make it warmer. This is highly inefficient. Air is one of the least useful things that’s used to transfer air. This insulation has a lot of air in it.
Furnaces do make a space warm in a rather short time, but it needs to run often to ensure the home stays warm throughout. As a result, smart thermostats can simply find ways that will help save energy by turning the heat off until it’s required.
In contrast, homes that use water-based, or hydronic, radiant heating tend to rely on a boiler that heats the water, and further sends it throughout a home to radiant flooring or baseboard heaters.
In comparison to forced-air systems, radiant heating is generally more efficient. Radiant is about having the ability to control the amount of heat loss when people leave since humans are radiators themselves.
Whereas forced air systems tend to heat the air, while radiant systems heat people alongside carpets, furniture, and other objects in the room, through infrared heat. What does this have to do with smart thermostats?
The problem with smart thermostats is that their radiant tastes both heat and cool gradually. This results in lesser opportunities to utilize setbacks. For example, when it comes to radiant flooring, it may take a day or more to warm up the entire floor to the perfect temperature. And, it subsequently takes a good amount of time to recover back when the temperature drops,
Whereas, a forced-hot-air system simply takes 20 minutes or so to heat an entire room. There are certain smart thermostat that has built-in software that anticipates the duration it takes to heat and cool, after which they automatically adjust the temperature,
That said since most radiant systems need to run continuously, there’s just so much of an opportunity to gain efficiency with such smart devices. Moreover, radiant heat warms up both people and furniture, and not the air around it.
However, thermostats only measure the air temperature, which isn’t as effective in this situation.
Conclusion
There’s no consensus that smart thermostats are energy-efficient. However, you need to be mindful of your home if a smart thermostat will suit it. If it does, then you can consider investing in the T9 thermostat!