My smart thermostat made my electric bill go up $40 last month before I figured out the problem

I got a smart thermostat as a gift for Christmas last year and finally installed it in January. I thought I was being smart setting it to lower the heat while I was at work and warm the house back up before I got home. After two months my electric bill jumped by like $40 each month compared to the same time last year. Turns out the learning feature was overriding my schedule because it kept detecting me walking past it to grab my coat and thought I was home. It was cranking the heat back up at 10am every day for no reason. I had to dig through three help forums to find a setting to turn off the motion learning. Has anyone else had their fancy thermostat outsmart itself and cost them money?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael_green4423d ago

Went through almost the exact same thing with my Nest last winter. I ended up turning off the auto schedule feature completely and just set manual times for when I wanted the heat on and off. It took me forever to find the setting too, it was buried like three menus deep. Now I keep an eye on my usage every week through the app so nothing sneaks by me like that again. Once I locked it down my bill went right back to normal.

phoenix57323d ago

Yeah @michael_green44 nailed it. Auto schedule is garbage, just set it yourself and be done with it.