Keep the peace with smart thermostats
How to prevent a multigenerational home thermostat war
Multigenerational households are on the rise, with a record one in five Americans living in homes shared by multiple adult generations, inevitably leading to various domestic conflicts, including home temperature—but that doesn’t have to happen at your house.
Bridging the thermostat gap
Mom versus dad, grandmother versus granddaughter. When it comes to home climate control, the generation and gender gap is real. There are facts to support this domestic dilemma: • Everyone has a different “thermal comfort level” or preferred room temperature based on physical, psychological and other factors, activity level and clothing. • Women’s bodies produce less heat than men’s, with women preferring a far warmer environment (25 degrees Celsius) than men (22 C). • As people age, their bodies become sensitive to cold temperatures because of a decrease in the metabolic rate.
Here are some practical tips that can help prevent a thermostat war:
Get “smart” about home temperature
When it comes to smart home temperature control, there are smart HVAC systems and smart thermostats. Smart HVAC systems have built-in internet capability and can be controlled directly without additional equipment. Smart home thermostats create “smart” systems by enabling remote temperature control via a mobile or internet-connected device or voice-operated home automation system. Several leading manufacturers, including Fujitsu General America, offer smart systems as well as options to control single and multizone heating and cooling systems using a third-party smart thermostat.
Increase family peace and energy efficiency
Upgrading your system and installing a smart thermostat can significantly reduce your utility expense. The most energy-efficient heating and cooling products on the market, ductless mini-split systems, can save as much as 25 per cent on your energy bill. Further, an efficiently controlled thermostat could save an additional 10 per cent in a year. Here’s how ductless mini-split systems work. Thin copper tubing is used to pump refrigerant from an outdoor compressor directly into an indoor air-handling unit, where the air is quietly distributed to the interior space. This eliminates the need for basement or attic evaporators and bulky, expensive ductwork. Mini-splits are easy to install and usually require only a 7- to 10-centimetre hole through a wall or ceiling to connect the indoor and outdoor units.
Allow for personal preference
Everyone gets to voice his or her own temperature preference. Most HVAC manufacturers offer apps that enable systems to be controlled from anywhere using a mobile device. Now, voice-control capability uses digital assistants, like Amazon Alexa, to verbally dictate home temperatures—“Alexa, set the living room temperature to 21 degrees.” For instance, Fujitsu offers a free app that enables web-activated control via mobile devices and now voice-activated control via Amazon Alexa.
Enjoy customized room by room comfort
Mini-splits feature custom zone control, letting homeowners connect two to eight indoor units to a single outdoor unit. Each zone has its own thermostat so occupants can adjust each room to the temperature they want. Further, only occupied areas are heated, which can represent a significant savings considering the kitchen, dining room, living room and bedrooms are left unoccupied for at least 40 per cent of the time in most households. What’s more, the comfort continues even in extreme cold weather. Fujitsu’s Extra Low Temperature Heating (XLTH) series features outdoor condensing units engineered to operate in temperatures down to -26 C, lower than any other mini-split available today. (NAPSI)