Adjusting your thermostat can help adjust energy budget Published Oct. 13, 2006 By Jennifer Cooper 16th CES HURLBURT FIELD, Fla -- Your thermostat controls the heating and cooling system that consumes more than half of the energy in your home - the biggest chunk of your family's energy budget. How much of that energy is used to make your house comfortable when no one is home or everyone is asleep? Probably a lot, if you do not adjust the thermostat when you leave the house or go to bed. The programmable thermostat automatically coordinates the temperature of your home with your daily and weekly patterns so you don't have to awaken to a chilly bedroom in winter or come home to a stuffy house in summer. Once you make the settings, you do not have to adjust the thermostat again. When adding a programmable thermostat or replacing a furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump, look for the Energy Star label. The Energy Star label on products designate the products as being in the upper 25 percent of energy efficiency in their class as well as products with low standby power. You can get additional information from the yellow Energy Guide label to compare every mode in a category, its capacity, and estimated yearly energy cost. Energy Star is a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Federal buyers are directed to purchase products with the Energy Star label. Energy Star geothermal heat pumps, similar to the ones in some homes in family housing, use the constant temperature of the earth to efficiently transfer heat to the home in winter or cool air to the home in summer. They require adequate land and up front expenditure. When adjusting the thermostat by hand, remember that the house will not warm up or cool down any faster if you crank up the thermostat past the desired temperature. Besides, it is easy to forget to turn it back down, which will waste energy dollars. If you have a heat pump, dramatically turning up the heat by hand is costly because it may trigger the inefficient backup heater, which is most often electric, eating up any savings from reduction of the thermostat. Programmable thermostats designed for heat pumps will gradually raise the heat without activating the backup heat. For each degree you lower your thermostat in winter, you can save about three percent on your heating bill. An Energy Star furnace could save $1,700 relative to an old furnace, or $1,000 over the lifetime of a standard new furnace. Clean or replace furnace and air conditioner filters once a month during heating/cooling season. October is Energy Awareness Month. You have the power to conserve energy. You can make a difference by saving energy.