Re: HGTV's "Living With Ed" Blog

Hello Ed, I have been participating on fixing
the planet for about a month now and I have been working on

An Evolving Plan for "Going Green" in all areas of our home and life

I have been working each area of my plan and below is a section of it on our experiences with the programmable thermostat you introduced us to on Living with Ed last season and suggested to Helen Hunt last week. Thank you for your nudge it has made our lives better and will help with our energy consumption.

Thermostats:
September 30th, John installed our new programmable thermostat for our central heating
and air conditioning like the one Ed showed on Living with ED last season. It has
cycled though it's 4 programs all day. Very interesting...

• October 11th, well our fall weather
  finally came, the new thermostat
  automatically programs the heater to its built-in energy star
  complaint program settings. The first night or two we were a little too
  warm while sleeping and adjusted the temp by 2 degrees for a few hours,
  ala Rachelle, (It goes back to the energy star setting after the cycle it
  is on. You don't even need to remember to reset it.) Since then we seem to
  have adjusted; now it is cold at night and we have added another blanket to
  the bed. We heat with natural gas so it is clean burning. In Indiana
  our electricity is produced by burning coal. People who heat with electric
  pay less $$$ but add to the problem of pollution.
• October 13th we bought the second
  thermostat it is just like the first one. This one is for the first
  floor system; the heater is in the basement. John will install it this
  weekend.

·
October 14th, John just installed the second
thermostat for the 1st floor and basement the first one was for the second
floor bedrooms and attic. The outstanding attributes of using these Energy Star
programmable thermostats here in the Mid West are:

• 1. Number 1 has to be
     saving energy
  2. Number 2 has to be
     ease of use, in this part of the country there are many days in the Fall
     and the Spring were it is so cold at night you need heat and some times
     heats up in the day so that you need air. These thermostats work together
     on the same 4 rotating schedules to regulate the temperature in the house
     using both your heat and air as needed with out you touching it.

• We adapted very quickly to
  the change in temperature in our house and actually it is a lot more comfortable.
  Usually at this time of year we are freezing because we haven't turned the
  heat on yet, or we are too hot because we turned the air off for the year.
  Now I feel like Goldie Locks, its just right

• October 22nd, the 2 new
  Programmable Thermostats are wonderful, the whole house is comfortable all the
  time you don't walk from warm rooms to cold rooms and they have made it effortless to maintain! For the first time ever
  the two big gas heaters for the central heating are working together. Tell
  Helen Hunt that there is nothing to be afraid in using programmable
  thermostats, she will love it with those cool California
  nights and hot days. Besides, Helen, a woman who can track tornadoes
  shouldn't be afraid of a thermostat. We watch your old tornado movie once a year to
  get us ready for the tornado warnings. There are so many of them each year
  it would be easy to just ignore them, but we don't. While the experts say
  the movie didn't portray the real violence of the tornadoes it did enough
  to make us seek shelter when we are told to. Thank you, Helen, for a fun
  movie that shakes the house enough to make us remember to seek shelter!
  and watch for cows...