If you’re away from home for a large chunk of the day, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that you can save as much as 10 percent in heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 10 degrees for eight hours a day from its normal setting. You can even do this pretty comfortably if you are home most of the time.

With a smart thermostat, you never have to think about it because the unit adjusts temperatures for you! You can also boost the energy savings you get from this tool by adding some attic insulation or new window installation to stop cool air from seeping out of your home.

How do Energy Saving Thermostats Actually Save Energy?

Here’s a look at how smart thermostats make life inside your home more comfortable while also saving you money:

• Allowing temperatures to increase during times of the day/night when you’re not home.
• Slowly decreasing temperature leading up to your arrival home to ensure a comfortable house with no wait!
• Creating the perfect temperature for sleeping.

The other options for saving on energy costs aren’t great. Some people simply turn off the air conditioning before they leave for the day. However, this ensures that you’ll return home to a hot, stuffy house. That heat can also be dangerous for houseplants, pets and certain components of your home that deteriorate with excessive heat.

There is a misconception that cranking your thermostat all the way to “max” when you want your home to cool down quickly is a good technique. This “trick” does not cool your home any faster. Your air conditioner will still take the same amount of time to cool down.

When you crank your thermostat to the max, there’s a good chance that you’ll forget about it. It’s only after your home is curiously frigid that you’ll realize you just wasted tons of money.

If you’re looking for a smart thermostat to help you decrease your energy bill, you have some user-friendly ones on the market to know about.

Take a look at some top picks!

Google Nest Learning Thermostat

A trailblazer, the Nest was the first ENERGY STAR® certified smart thermostat. This is touted as a thermostat that both programs itself and pays for itself.

This thermostat adapts as it learns your daily lifestyle habits. It also adjusts to things like time of day and seasons. This thermostat has a large, clear display that you can see across the room when taking a quick glance to confirm the comfort level in your home.

You can also manually check and control your home’s cooling from anywhere using the Nest app.

The biggest benefit to this thermostat is that it’s like having a handyman in your home 24 hours a day. This system is actually built to monitor your heating and cooling systems around the clock to be able to establish norms and benchmarks. If anything goes wrong, you’ll receive an alert right away.

Catching the start of a problem with this smart thermostat can potentially save you thousands of dollars because you’ll be able to prevent damage before the problem gets out of control. The Nest also sends you maintenance alerts to remind you when it’s time to change filters to help you preserve the life and performance of your system!

Honeywell Home Smart Color Thermostat

This ENERGY STAR® certified smart thermostat syncs up with Amazon Alexa and Google Home to allow you to control and monitor settings with ease. It uses smart technology to learn your schedule and temperature preferences.

The Total Connect Comfort App allows you to monitor indoor temperatures and humidity levels for free from any connected device. You’ll also receive email alerts related to safety, comfort and energy usage at your home!

One of the highlights of this system is the ability to create a seven-day custom temperature setting for every day of the week. You can even create custom settings for times when your schedule will change before easily defaulting back to your normal settings.

Emerson Sensi Touch Smart Thermostat With Touchscreen Color Display

Control your temperature and humidity levels with one tap from anywhere! A special humidity-reading feature allows you to track humidity throughout your home. It offers flexible scheduling to allow you to control your indoor temperature based on your habits.

With this ENERGY STAR® certified thermostat, you’re also getting HVAC monitoring smart alerts that let you know when extreme temperatures, high humidity levels or loss of heating/cooling are occurring.

This system works with Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings and Apple Homekit.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat With Voice Control

This smart thermostat learns and adapts based on your schedule to help you live comfortably. According to Ecobee, users can save up to 23 percent on energy costs in some circumstances using this ENERGY-STAR® certified thermostat.

Using occupancy detection, this system will manage indoor temperatures by room automatically. It’s designed to keep a steady, balanced temperature around the clock based on how you use your home.

This smart thermostat comes with built-in Alexa compatibility. It also works with Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, SmartThings and IFTTT.

This system also includes some pretty impressive eco-friendly benefits that are designed to reduce strain on the electricity grid. First, it automatically heats and cools your home based on when energy is cheaper and cleanest to save you money while helping everyone! Next, it pre-cools your home at times of the day when energy costs are lowest.

Creating a More Energy Efficient Home With Smarter Temperature Control

A smart thermostat is an easy way to make your home more energy efficient without pain. In fact, you really only have things to gain by making the switch. We hope you make one of these energy saving smart thermostats an addition to your home.

Smart systems know to condition your home based on what’s going to create a comfortable and consistent experience for you! There’s also the benefit of saving money every month on your energy bills. Of course, the best part of all is the sense of knowing that you’re living an eco-friendly life!