To maximize your energy savings without sacrificing comfort, you can install an automatic setback or programmable thermostat. They adjust the temperature setting for you. By maintaining the highest or lowest required temperatures for four or five hours a day instead of 24 hours, a programmable thermostat can pay for itself in energy saved within four years.

Programmable thermostats have features with which you may be unfamiliar. The newest generation of residential thermostat technologies is based on microprocessors and thermistor sensors. Most of these programmable thermostats perform one or more of the following energy control functions:

• They store and repeat multiple daily settings, which you can manually override without affecting the rest of the daily or weekly program.
• They store six or more temperature settings a day.
• They adjust heating or air conditioning turn-on times as the outside temperature changes.

Most programmable thermostats have liquid crystal temperature displays. Some have back-up battery packs that eliminate the need to reprogram the time or clock in case of a power failure. New programmable thermostats can be programmed to accommodate life style and control heating and cooling systems as needed.

There are five basic types of automatic and programmable thermostats:

Most range in price from $30 to $100, except for occupancy and light sensing thermostats, which cost around $200.