Home Ownership If you'd like to turn down your thermostat at night but you hate getting up to a cold house, a setback thermostat is a wise investment.

Setback thermostats automatically decrease the temperature in your house and return it to normal at regular intervals. Since one eight-hour setback of 5°C every day will shave 12 per cent off a typical annual heating bill, a setback thermostat can turn you into a successful energy miser.

If you heat with oil, a daytime and a nighttime eight-hour setback used five days out of seven, with only nighttime setbacks on the weekend, will reduce your fuel bill. In fact, you could save enough in just one heating season to pay for your setback thermostat. Exact savings depend on: the climate and latitude at which you live; the heat-loss co-efficient and heat capacity of your house; the temperature at which you normally set your thermostat; the insulation level of your home, the capacity of your heating system; and the type and price of the fuel you use.

Most setback thermostats are hybrid electro-mechanical devices. You program the time and duration of the setback by sticking pins into an electric clock, and program the temperature change with a lever attached to a mechanical thermostat. In contrast, some setback thermostats are all electronic, solid-state units programmed with a calculator-style keyboard.




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December 4, 2008