Protecting the Home’s Thermostat From the Energy Vampires

This is a large house, and I have a ton of kids living here. I put a clear plastic lockbox over the control device as a financial measure, because the family was raising the energy bills too much. As the head of household, I suppose that it’s my job to decide how cool the lake house is, as cooling isn’t free, which is something my family doesn’t seem to understand just yet. Turning the A/C down just a few extra degrees can raise the energy costs by $155 or more. I enjoy keeping cool as much as everyone here, however I have a limited budget. This is why I bought the lockbox, to make sure I was the only person who could access the control device as well as change the settings. That worked great for a few years, but recently it was time for an update and I got a smart control unit. At first I thought this was amazing, because a smart control device has so many more opportunities and features than the older models. I quickly realized that the smart control device could be accessed remotely through an app, so my lockbox was no longer doing the job. My kids are more tech-savvy than I am, as well as they figured out how to change the control device settings from their iPhones. I am not an IT specialist, and couldn’t figure out how to block them, so regretfully I removed the smart control device and then hooked up the old dinosaur thermostat again. This is such a downgrade from the smart control unit, but it’s the only way I have of protecting my investment as well as my budget.

 

Air conditioning installation