When I was growing up we had a thermostat in our house that was about the same size and shape as a light switch.
You know the one, most likely, if you’re over the age of 25. Back in the day, there really were only the two. There was the rectangular one that we had, and there was the fancy round one.
Who knows? Maybe you still have one of these in your house.
They were as ingenious as they were simple. A vial with mercury in it sat at the end of a thin metal coil.
When the air got cool, the metal would contract and the mercury would slide to one end of the vial, completing an electrical circuit that told the furnace to turn on. When it got warm enough, the metal would expand, causing the vial to change balance, and the mercury would slide to the other side, breaking the circuit.
When you moved the temperature slider up or down, whether you wanted it warmer or cooler, it changed the balance of the coiling mechanism, which in turn changed the temperature at which the mercury would move to or away from the side with the circuit on it.
It was basically bombproof. As long as you didn’t take it apart and mess with the coil, it would function from the day it was installed until eternity.
I no longer have one of these thermostats. I have a Nest Smart Thermostat.
Compared to earlier programmable thermostats, the Nest is a dream to use. It’s intuitive and simple, exactly what most programmable thermostats aren’t.
It’s kinda remarkable. It learns when people are home, and will turn up the heat when people are active, and turn it down when there’s nobody awake, or when everyone (should) be in bed and under covers.
Or, if you prefer, you can use a simple app to set the temperature. The wife gets up to go to work at seven, so the house starts getting to up and about temperatures by 6:50. Once she’s at work, the temperature drops down to about 16 Celsius (that’s “we adopted metric in this country nearly 50 years ago now so figure it out” in Fahrenheit.), which is cool, but when I’m in my office with my computer, the temperature in here is pretty warm.
The Nest has probably saved us a whole lot of money over the last few years, because that old thermostat? Was manual.
Went to Mexico for a week and forgot that it was turned up? Your house was nice and toasty. Shame nobody was there to enjoy.
But the Nest? It has a shelf life. Unlike the earlier thermostats, which rarely stop working, smart thermostats are going to stop working someday.
And a software glitch back in 2016 plunged hundreds, perhaps thousands of people into the cold, when the software that powers the device suddenly stopped working.
So, which is better? The new Smart thermostat that costs $170, or the old fashioned dumb one which costs…well, I can’t find one of those anymore, but you can get a pretty dumb one for $30.
If your goal is simply to save money, it seems smarter to grab the dumb one. But that doesn’t really look at money saved across the life of your device. While some sources tout that a smart thermostat can save you 25 percent of your heating bill, Consumer Report puts that number closer to eight percent.
The average heating bill (at least my average heating bill) is around $1500/year, so that means a smart thermostat is saving me about $150 or so.
A basic smart thermostat costs $130, so after one year, you will already be saving money by using a smart thermostat.
Another thing to consider is the lifespan of that smart thermostat, which is about ten years. That doesn’t mean that a Nest thermostat will drop dead after a decade, just, you know, on average.
And, you know, you might think that it’s a lot easier, and a lot cheaper to use a dumb thermostat, but according to that same Consumer Report article, somewhere between half and two-thirds of people don’t use them effectively.
Indeed, they say, regular programmable thermostats (without WiFi or smartphone apps) have been able to do this for decades. “But their button- (or touch-screen-based) scheduling interfaces tend to be cumbersome, and research estimates that about 40 to 70 percent of programmable thermostat users don’t take advantage of these features. The app-based interfaces for smart thermostats are much easier to use, which likely contributes to the real-world energy savings that they achieve.”
Even the interface on my Nest is friendlier and more intuitive; a big number tells you the actual temperature, a second smaller number tells you what the temperature is set at. If it’s heating, it glows red. Want to change what the temperature is set at? Rotate the outer ring.
So to review: smart thermostats are easier to use, last about as long as other thermostats and save you money.
And remember when I said that you could buy a Nest Smart Thermostat for about $170? All this is to say that Pacific Northern Gas (PNG) is actually providing rebates for people who purchase a smart thermostat over the next few months.
In order to qualify, you must be a PNG customer, must use a natural gas or propane furnace or boiler as the primary source of space heating, and must be a property owner.
The maximum amount of the rebate is $250. As I already own a Nest, I cannot say if they are refunding a portion of the cost of the smart thermostat, or the full cost, but considering the highest priced thermostat on their list of approved devices was $249, I think it’s for the purchase price.
It is a rebate, which means you have to purchase the thermostat first and provide them the bill of sale.
The offer is available until the money runs out.
Want to know more? Go to www.png.ca for more information.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
