Monday Apr 03, 2023
Should I Upgrade To A Smart Thermostat?
"The system can alert your professional sometimes where there is an issue with the system or I mean, it gets cold pipes will freeze pipes will burst and create a really big mess. And people are generally very unhappy with us when they have that big mess."
- Bruce Gammon, Heating & Cooling Expert
Everybody seems to adding new technology to their lives. Smart phones, home automation and so on. Did you know that you can install a thermostat that is 'SMART'? Yes, these smart thermostats can be programmed to change the climate in your home. They can also be adjusted remotely with a computer or phone and will begin to learn what you and your family want. Bruce Gammon from Gammon's Heating & Cooling discusses smart thermostats with Jim Klauck - AKA - Check A Pro Joe on this podcast.
Check out this episode of Gammon's Heating & Cooling Podcast to find out more about proper sizing of air conditioning units in you home ...
For more information about Gammon's Heating & Cooling in Saco, Maine - log on to Gammon's Heating & Air or check them out at www.checkapro.com.
Visit Us At - Gammon's Heating & Air
You Can Call Anytime: (207) 286-3400.
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Whether we like it or not.
Technology is here.
There's a lot of A I going on,
right?
Artificial intelligence.
And you know,
this is great.
We can do so many things today.
We couldn't do years ago.
This is also true for your home in terms of heating and cooling.
I've asked an expert in the air conditioning and heating business to join me.
His name is Bruce Gammon from Gammons in Maine.
Hey,
Bruce,
how are you?
I'm good,
Joe,
how are you?
I'm doing great.
So something came in a number of years ago called a smart thermostat.
These are thermostats that um may be smarter than we are.
They're intuitive.
Uh they can be um adjusted from anywhere in the world.
So if you go on a vacation,
you can actually adjust it with your phone.
You can actually even talk to your systems in your home.
If you have an Amazon Box or if you have a Google device and you can say turn the thermostat up,
turn it off.
And it also does some other stuff which I want you to talk about,
which is,
it gets to know who you are and your family and the trends.
So should people upgrade to a smart thermostat?
I like that.
Yes.
Yes.
So it's that simple.
The question is,
why wouldn't you?
Ok.
What,
what is your fear of upgrading?
Some people don't like technology?
We're in Maine,
we get that.
There's a lot of uh Yankee ingenuity here.
So some of the,
a couple of the benefits of a smart thermostat are,
like you just mentioned,
the system gets to know your trends.
The system can alert your professional sometimes where there is an issue with the system or I mean,
it gets cold pipes will freeze pipes will burst and create a really big mess.
And people are generally very unhappy with us when they have that big mess.
So these system,
these thermostat smart thermostats,
um you know,
if you're down in Florida on vacation in Texas,
California and,
and uh your system falls below a certain set point or your temperature does inside your home,
it's gonna send you an alert.
It could send you a contractor an alert.
So there's a couple of things uh to answer your question is yes.
And then there's also the energy saving side as well.
Do we need to run our systems?
Um And we need to keep our house at 70° in the winter when we're gone for a month.
Probably not.
Yeah.
So in the old days when you went on vacation,
I remember this because my,
my parents would uh would say,
hey,
uh,
Joe,
go,
uh,
to the thermostat as we're on our way out to go on a vacation to Florida.
Uh,
before we locked the door,
would you turn it down to 60?
We don't want the pipes to freeze.
We figure,
I mean,
you know,
probably 50 would be good if there was 50 on the thermostat.
And that was all manual back then and no one could change that temperature until we came back home.
And certainly there was no way to tell if the system was on or off back then today.
You know,
the technology is huge.
We know if our garage door was left open because of the same type of technology.
It's a no brainer.
It doesn't cost that much to install a smart thermostat.
What are roughly the numbers,
a couple $100?
Hey,
sometimes,
you know,
you're,
you could be around,
uh,
four or $500 for a really nice smart thermostat.
And hey,
if you break that down over,
what's over the lifespan of that thermostat?
What's it really costing you per month?
It's,
you're probably saving more than that in energy bills or disasters.
How about peace of mind?
I like to sleep at night.
Me too.
Ok.
Hey,
Bruce Gammon,
he's an expert here on the Checker Pro Radio program,
Gammons.
Love your company.
Love your team.
Thank you so much,
Bruce.
I appreciate your expert opinion on this.
You got it.
Thank you,
Joe