Colin’s Corner: Turning Up the Heat!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another installment of Colin’s Corner!

Now that the holidays are behind us—unless you celebrate Valentine’s Day (don’t get me started!)—I wanted to write an article about heating your home. More specifically, I’d like to talk about thermostats, floor heat, and related topics.

If you are planning on redoing your primary bathroom, I highly recommend installing floor heat. Many customers I speak with say they can’t afford it, but you might be surprised—it’s not as costly as you may think. And if you follow this tip, it will not substantially affect your electric bill. Ready for the tip? Set it and forget it! Pretty simple.

If you have heat under your floor tile, using a programmable thermostat is not a good idea. If you set it to turn on in the morning and off at night, the stone has to heat back up each time it turns on. This is much more costly, as it takes more energy than if you leave the heat on all the time.

The same concept also applies to heating your home with a programmable thermostat. In this case, you can safely lower the temperature by about three degrees while you’re out during the day. Anything more may actually cost you more when the system turns back on, since you’ll need to reheat the entire house. Remember, when you heat your home, you’re also heating the floors, furniture, countertops, and more. Imagine how much energy you’re using in oil, propane, or electricity!

If you decide to use a programmable thermostat, I recommend Honeywell thermostats. They’re available in models that allow anywhere from a single daily setting to up to seven programmable settings per day. Ideally, if you’re going to change the temperature significantly, I recommend doing so when you’re going away. That way, you can keep the house at a reasonable temperature without risking frozen pipes.

If you have an older thermostat, installing a new Honeywell model is very easy. You simply connect the color-coded wires to the corresponding terminals on the back of the thermostat.

I appreciate your feedback and thank you for following our monthly article!

Until next time…