How do I program a thermostat to save money?

The money is in the setback: the hours when the house can be cooler in winter or warmer in summer because nobody needs it comfortable. The Department of Energy estimated you can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by turning the thermostat back 7°F to 10°F for eight hours a day from its normal setting, and noted that the percentage saved is larger in milder climates than in harsh ones.^[1]

A programmable thermostat simply does the turning for you. Programmable thermostats can store six or more temperature settings a day, and you can override one without changing the rest of the program.^[1]

Build the schedule around your real week

Start with when the house is empty or asleep. A useful rule is to treat any stretch of four hours or more with nobody home as a setback period.^[1] Most households end up with four periods on weekdays (wake, leave, return, sleep) and two on weekends.

Then choose the numbers:

• Winter, home and awake: around 68°F to 70°F, the Department of Energy's suggestion.^[1]
• Winter, asleep or out: 7°F to 10°F below that.
• Summer, home: as warm as you are comfortable with. Dominion Energy suggests 68 degrees or lower in winter and 78 degrees or higher in summer, and, for long absences, 62 to 65 degrees in winter and 80 to 83 degrees in summer.^[2]
• Summer, out: several degrees warmer than your home setting, returning before you get back.

Time the recovery so the house is comfortable when you need it. On most thermostats that means setting the "wake" period to begin a little before the alarm goes off rather than at the moment you get up. Some thermostats learn how long recovery takes and start early on their own.

Why setbacks work

A common worry is that the furnace burns the savings by working hard to warm the house back up. It does not: the house loses heat more slowly once it is cooler, so the longer it stays at the lower temperature, the more energy you save.^[1] The same logic runs in reverse in summer.

Two habits undo a good schedule. The first is overriding it with a permanent hold and forgetting to release it. The second is cranking the air conditioner down to cool off faster. Setting the air conditioner colder than normal will not cool the house any faster; it only overshoots and costs more.^[1]

Heat pumps need a lighter touch

If your heat comes from a heat pump, the usual advice changes. The Department of Energy warned that setting back a heat pump in heating mode can make it run inefficiently and cancel the savings, so a moderate setting is usually the cheapest choice.^[1] The cause is the backup heat, which your thermostat controls automatically. Trane notes that the thermostat will trigger auxiliary heat if you raise the heating temperature by more than 3 to 4 degrees, and suggests raising it only a degree or two at a time.^[6]

That leaves two sensible choices. One is to hold a moderate, steady heating setting. The other is a programmable thermostat made for heat pumps: these typically use special algorithms to minimize the use of backup electric resistance heat, which is what makes a setback pay off.^[1] In cooling mode a heat pump acts like an air conditioner, and a warmer away setting saves money as usual. More on keeping one efficient is in how to keep a heat pump running well in winter.

Electric baseboard heat is different again. Electric baseboard heat needs a thermostat that switches 120-volt or 240-volt circuits directly, and only a few companies make programmable line-voltage models.^[1] Changing one of those is line-voltage electrical work.

What a smart thermostat adds

A smart thermostat runs the same schedule but can adjust it for you. ENERGY STAR lists features such as geofencing, which notices when you have left and sets the system back, and learning features that build a schedule from your preferences.^[3] To be certified, a model must show, from a year of data across hundreds of homes, that it cut heating run time by at least 8% and cooling run time by at least 10% on a statistical lower bound, and certified models must still work as a basic thermostat when the internet connection drops, and they must let you set a schedule.^[4]

Some Virginia utilities pay for the connection. When we checked on 26 October 2026, Dominion Energy Virginia's Smart Thermostat Rewards offered an upfront incentive of $25 plus $25 for each year you stay enrolled, in exchange for brief "energy events" that make small, temporary thermostat adjustments.^[5]

Put the thermostat where it reads the room

A schedule is only as good as the reading behind it. A thermostat should sit on an interior wall away from direct sunlight, drafts, doorways, skylights and windows, with no furniture blocking air around it.^[1] A lamp or TV just below it can make it think the room is warmer than it is.

Stop and call a pro if

• The system does not respond to the schedule at all, or the thermostat calls for heat and nothing happens. Start with why a thermostat is not turning on the heat.
• A heat pump shows auxiliary or emergency heat for long stretches in mild weather, which points to a problem in the heat pump, not the program.
• Rooms never reach the setpoint even after a long recovery, or some rooms run much hotter than others.
• You have line-voltage baseboard thermostats you want to replace with programmable ones. That is work for a licensed electrician.

For what to set and when through the year, see what temperature to set your thermostat in winter and summer. You can also browse more heating and cooling answers, or find licensed HVAC businesses near Blacksburg.

If the thermostat itself is acting up, describe the problem once and get quotes from licensed HVAC businesses.