Blog Action Day - Replace your thermostat

As a proud participant in today's mass blogging event, Blog Action Day, here's a special post about Blog Action Day's topic: the environment.

Last March I went to Wal-Mart and bought a $20 electronic thermostat. The old one in our apartment was typical of most houses and worked just fine- but I just knew there had to be a better version of a thermostat by now. Turns out there is! After a quick 20 minute install (I still have the old thermostat stored in a closet to install before we move out to avoid a damage charge), the new thermostat was up and running. Being electronic (runs off of two AA batteries- use Rechargable batteries and you'll help the environment even more!), it's very accurate when recording the room's temperature. An impressive feature is that it allows you to set different temperatures for whatever times during the day that you want.

Going to work? You don't need it to be a perfect 72 degress inside while you're gone all day!
Like to sleep with it chilly so you can cuddle up next to someone special? Set the thermostat to cool down to 71 degrees from 9pm-7:17am.

What's the benefit here besides protecting the environment?
Well if my calculations from power bills are correct, in the 7 months that we've had the new thermostat, we have saved about $60 a month.
That's a savings of $420 from just a twenty dollar investment.

Go out tomorrow, buy an electronic thermostat, install it, and enjoy the fact that you're helping both the environment AND your wallet!