My husband and I both work full-time jobs that are demanding, stressful and involve long hours.
We have three boys who are all heavily involved in sports.
Between work, school, practices, games and tournaments, we spend a lot of time away from home. I used to try to remember to adjust the thermostat every time we left the house. I most often forgot. I then paid to either heat or cool empty rooms to the ideal temperature while we were gone. If I managed to raise or lower the thermostat to conserve energy, we then returned home to wither an overheated or freezing cold house. I finally looked into updating our thermostat. Modern smart thermostats include all sorts of really helpful operations. The thermostat connects to my phone, allowing me to make adjustments from virtually anywhere. Because of a feature called geofencing, I rarely need to mess with the temperature setting. The thermostat includes a GPS feature that tracks the whereabouts of our phones. It knows when we enter or leave a perimeter around the house and reacts accordingly. The thermostat automatically adjusts to use less energy when the residence is empty and makes sure to welcome us home to ideal comfort. I like that I get reminders when it’s time to change air filters or schedule professional maintenance. I now take way better care of the furnace and air conditioner and spend a lot less on monthly energy bills. Although the thermostat came with a $200 price tag, it has nearly paid for itself in a year. It’s one of the best home improvements I’ve ever made.