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An Easy Installation-
Installing a programmable thermostat is a fast an easy way to save money. It is not only eco-friendly, but extremely convenient to have a thermostat that automatically turns down when you are not at home, but has the house at a comfortable temperature upon your arrival. Digital thermostats are also a cost-effective option if you’re looking to simply replace an old mechanical thermostat. Also, see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
*A Common Misperception…..
Some consumers may be opposed to buying a programmable thermostat because it may seem intimidating to install and program. Many Lux thermostat models are pre-programmed, thus avoiding confusion and complications. See Amazon.com to purchase a programmable thermostat.
Water Heaters Like To Snuggle Too!
You can purchase a blanket designed to fit your water heater at most hardware or home-improvement stores. The blanket will insulate the unit, which makes it run more efficiently. This is an easy way to save on bills.
Be A Household Inspector-
Start at the top and work your way down. Make sure gutters are clear of leaves and debris. Talk a walk around your home and check for drafts and leaks. Since heat rises, make sure you attic is properly insulated. Also, you don’t have to spend tons installing new windows. Put weather stripping under doors and caulk leaky windows.
At Your Service-
Before switching your thermostat over to heat for the season, inspect your heating system. Servicing your heating/cooling system will make sure it’s running properly, thus leading to a more efficient unit. Clean the filters and ductwork on a regular basis. Dirty filters block airflow, which make the system work harder. That means higher energy bills and a shorter life for your system.
Live Smart-
EPA has an informative video to help consumers learn about programmable thermostats. Here is a link. Also, see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
Approximately 36 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies. This summer has been especially tough for allergy sufferers because of unseasonably high amounts of rain and humidity.
Although we can’t control Mother Nature, there is plenty you can do to make your home more comfortable by reducing allergens and irritants.
Why Is Indoor Air Quality So Important?
Allergies, asthma, eczema, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, sinusitis, bronchial problems are all medical conditions that have been linked to poor indoor air quality. Indoor air can be 5 times more polluted than the air outside. The EPA ranks indoor air quality as one of the top 5 environmental risks to public health.
Here are some steps to make the air your family breathes cleaner and healthier:
- Controlling the temperature in your home is a great way control allergens. If you have a programmable thermostat, set the temperature to 70 during the day and 65 during the night. Make sure to keep an eye on the humidity level also, no lower than 40 or 50.
- Change your filters and have your air ducts cleaned. Dust, pests, and mold can collect filters and ducts if they are not cleaned regularly.
- Vacuum rugs often and have your rugs cleaned. Be sure to check cleaning ingredients, as some cleaners have strong odors that can trigger allergies.
- I know pets are like members of the family, but if you’re suffering with allergies, try to keep the family cat or dog off furniture that can trap pet hair and dander. For example, any place where you rest your head, like a fabric sofa or on the bed, should be kept free of pet hair.
- Wash your bed sheets often. You can also purchase pillow and mattress covers that provide a special barrier for dust mites.
- Keep your bathroom clean. Mold grows in damp environments an is a major cause of severe allergies.
- Keep your refrigerator clean. Food that sits beyond its expiration date begins to grow mold. You don’t want that sitting near food you are going to eat.
- Donate or pack up and store old books. I hang on to those old books from college, thinking I may need to refer back to them one day. But old books left on shelves or lying around are huge collectors of dust, which increase allergens.
- Be sure to wash you hands often, as this is one of the fastest way to spread allergens.
- Install a Lux Clean Cycle thermostat, model # CAG1500. It is a fully programmable thermostat that not only gives the homeowner the advantage of automatic temperature control, but also has the added benefit of helping to keep the home’s air clean. What makes it all possible is the innovative Clean Cycle. This feature ensures the heating and air conditioning fan to run for a set duration of time each hour to circulate the air in the home. The Clean Cycle is programmable as well, allowing homeowners to program the fan to run anywhere between 9 and 60 minutes each hour. It also includes a filter monitor that indicates when the filter needs cleaning for optimum air quality and system performance. A programmable thermostat that improves the quality of your air and saves you money!
 Lux Product Clean Cycle thermostat CAG1500 Please see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
Traditionally, thermostats used in residences and businesses had contained mercury. As spring turns to summer and fall turns to winter, many people think about upgrading their heating/cooling system in preparation for winter or summer, including replacing old thermostats.
If your old thermostat contains a mercury switch, it is vital that it is disposed of properly. DO NOT THROW AN OLD MERCURY THERMOSTAT IN THE TRASH!
Each mercury thermostat has an average of 4 grams of mercury in it, which could pollute an 80-acre lake or 20 million gallons of water. Never throw mercury down the drain. It can leak out and enter the ground water which can be extremely toxic.
Go to www.earth911.com to find a drop-off or recycling center near you.
Is Your Mercury Thermostat Safe?
Yes, mercury-containing thermostats are safe. In normal use, the consumer is never exposed to the mercury, which is entirely contained in a glass bulb. Thermostats are specifically designed to protect and hold the mercury inside. The bulb is protected by a sturdy casing. Nevertheless, it is prudent to handle these thermostats with care.
I’d Like To Replace My Thermostat But I Like My Old Round Thermostat
Traditional round thermostats are available without mercury.
 Ecostat® Heat & Cool Thermostat For more information about the Lux products Ecostat please vist this link: http://www.luxproducts.com/thermostats/thc15.htm. Also, see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
Going Green With Energy Star 
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2008 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 29 million cars – all while saving $19 billion on their utility bills.
Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort. ENERGY STAR helps you make the energy efficient choice.
- If looking for new household products, look for ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR. They meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and US Department of Energy.
- If looking for a new home, look for one that has earned the ENERGY STAR.
- If looking to make larger improvements to your home, EPA offers tools and resources to help you plan and undertake projects to reduce your energy bills and improve your home comfort.
A Thermostat Can Save Money And The Environment
Did you know that properly using a programmable thermostat in your home is one of the easiest ways you can save energy, money, and help fight global warming? An ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostat helps make it easy for you to save by offering four pre-programmed settings to regulate your home’s temperature in both SUMMER and WINTER –when you are asleep or away.
The average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills – nearly half of which goes to heating and cooling. Homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings. The pre-programmed settings that come with ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostats are intended to deliver savings without sacrificing comfort. Depending on your family’s schedule, you can see significant savings by sticking with those settings or adjust them as appropriate for your family. The key is to establish a program that automatically reduces heating and cooling in your home when you don’t need as much.
An example settings schedule
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HEAT
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COOL
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Morning
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6:00AM
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70°
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75°
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(Wake Up)
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Comfort
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Day
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8:30AM
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60°
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85°
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(School/Work)
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Savings
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Evening
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3:00PM
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70°
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75°
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(Children Home)
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Comfort
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Night
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11:00PM
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65°
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80°
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(Sleeping)
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Savings
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Please see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and your home still has the winter blues. Spring Cleaning is the perfect time to freshen up our homes and get a head start on the busy seasons of Spring and Summer.
One of the biggest parts of Spring Cleaning is getting rid of the clutter that you don’t need.
Start in the basement or garage where things have a tendency to pile up. Create storage by category: sporting goods, gardening tools, seasonal decorations, etc. You can buy bins or get cardboard boxes from your local grocer. Label and seal each box.
Take a walk around your property, and inspect for any damage that may have occurred during the winter months. Check lawn furniture and make any necessary repairs.
Check the roof for leaks, missing or broken shingles and check for blocked drain pipes.
Make sure your air conditioner works and change filters. Arrange for any needed repairs now, since contractors may be more difficult to find during the height of summer construction season.
Changing season means changing clothes. Go through closets and get rid of items that you
No longer need, or that the children have outgrown.
Try to get the whole family involved. Making it fun makes the job much easier. Have a garage sale and give each member of the family a responsibility. You will de-clutter your home and make a few dollars too. And who can’t use some extra cash in this economy?
Clean The Air:
The long winter months with closed up homes and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems working over-time can result in the perfect breeding ground for contaminants. Come Spring, many homeowners throw open the windows, scrub the floors and breathe fresh air, but what many fail to realize is that their indoor air quality may be preventing optimal cleanliness.
Leading environmental health researchers have discovered that indoor air quality is often 2 to 5 times more polluted than outdoor air! Given that many of us spend more than 90% of our time indoors, the health risks associated with indoor air quality are becoming a major concern.
Your Spring Cleaning ritual is the perfect time to improve your indoor air quality. Maintenance is a key factor. The first step is to change air filters. Have you entire HVAC system inspected and, if necessary, cleaned. Many components of your HVAC system can trap contaminants and contribute to poor indoor air quality if not kept in proper working order.
A Thermostat That Cleans For You:
With Spring Cleaning at hand and indoor air quality a major concern, a thermostat that makes your HVAC system perform to its’ full potential is extremely important. A Lux Clean Cycle thermostat is the perfect solution. It is a fully programmable thermostat that not only gives homeowners the advantage of automatic temperature control, but also has the added benefit of helping keep a home’s air clean. What makes it all possible is the innovative Clean Cycle. This feature ensures the heating and air conditioning fan to run for a set duration of time each hour to circulate and filter the air in the home. The Clean Cycle is programmable as well, allowing homeowners to program the fan to run anywhere between 9 and 60 minutes each hour. It also includes a comprehensive graphical filter monitor that indicates when the filter needs cleaning for optimum air quality and system performance. A programmable thermostat that improves the quality of your air and saves you money. Now what could be better than that? Please see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
Change Your Clocks & Change Your Batteries:
We are always told that when we change our clocks for Daylight Savings we should also change the batteries in our smoke detectors. However we should also be changing the batteries in our thermostats.
Thermostat batteries should be replaced at least once a year, or sooner if the LOW BAT battery symbol appears in the thermostat display screen.
To replace the batteries in a thermostat, remove the thermostat’s body from the base plate attached to the wall by pressing the thumb latch, usually at the bottom center of the unit and swinging the body towards you, up and away from the base.
Remove the used batteries from the battery tray and discard appropriately.
Install two new Energizer or Duracell, AA size alkaline batteries into the battery tray. Observe the polarity markings shown in the battery tray to ensure proper installation.
*If you install new batteries into Lux thermostat within 60 seconds, the thermostat will remember its programmed settings so that you will not have to reprogram it.
When finished, hang the top of the unit by the tabs, usually at the top corners of the base. Then snap the bottom of the unit into place. Do not use unnecessary force. If the body does not snap into place easily, remove the body, re-hang it from the tabs and try again.
WARNING: Use Energizer or Duracell alkaline batteries only for thermostats requiring batteries. These are high quality batteries that are proven to be reliable. You may experience problems when using off-brand or cheap batteries. The internal resistance(called impedance) of these batteries is so high that many thermostats do not operate properly with them. The high impedance values do not allow enough current to flow through the battery in order to allow the thermostat to function properly.
Homeowners are constantly looking for ways to lower their monthly bills, especially in this economic environment. Programmable thermostats are a quick, easy and incredibly convenient way to accomplish this goal.
A programmable thermostat helps regulate your home’s temperature in both summer and winter, when you are asleep or away.
Let’s talk dollars and cents:
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, The average household spends more than $2,000 a year on energy bills. Nearly half of this goes to heating and cooling. Homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings. The pre-programmed settings that come with Energy Star qualified programmable thermostats are intended to deliver savings without sacrificing comfort. Depending on your family’s schedule, you can see significant savings by sticking with those settings or adjust them to what is appropriate for your family. The main objective is to establish a program that automatically reduces heating and cooling in your home when you don’t need as much.
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HEAT
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COOL
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Morning
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6:00AM
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70°
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75°
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(Wake Up)
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Comfort
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Day
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8:30AM
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60°
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85°
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(School/Work)
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Savings
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Evening
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3:00PM
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70°
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75°
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(Children Home)
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Comfort
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Night
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11:00PM
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65°
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80°
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(Sleeping)
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Savings
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Please see AMAZON.COM for a wide selection of thermostats for your home.
It’s a matter of convenience:
Besides cutting down on your energy bills, programmable thermostats add a significant convenience factor to the comfort of your home, and save you money without lifting a finger (well maybe one finger!). Basically you are customizing how you heat or cool your home. So turn down your heat while you’re at work during the day, and have it set to turn it back on an hour before you return. That is 8 hours of saved energy and saved dollars. Also, you may prefer a cooler environment while you sleep. You may curl up under a blanket which alleviates the necessity for cranking the heat as much during waking hours. With a programmable thermostat, you can lower the heat for an hour after you go to bed until an hour before you wake up. You’ll never be able to tell when your feet hit that bathroom tile floor in the morning! Similarly, on a summer night, set your cooling temperature higher and crack the windows for a wonderful cross breeze. These types of ideas are a start to really preventing wasted energy and unnecessarily high energy bills.
The big wasters, rooms that aren’t used:
If your house is zoned, programmable thermostats give you the option to turn off the heat or air conditioning in unused areas of your home. There are probably rooms that you don’t use on a daily basis. A guest room normally gets heated or cooled with the rest of the house. But there’s nobody there. Maybe you’re not always using the basement. These are just a few examples.
Whether your house is zoned or not, you can use this same concept for your entire home, while you’re at work or away on vacation. You can program your thermostat to go back on a few hours before your get home.
A Few Tips:
-Many programmable thermostats have variety of pre-programmed settings to choose from. If your thermostat has this feature, it is better not to override these settings and create your own, since you could end up using more energy. Research has shown that the pre-programmed settings are the most useful.
-If you have a heat pump system, you may require a special kind of programmable thermostat to maximize your energy savings. It’s best to talk to an HVAC specialist to figure out what works best for your home.
-Make sure your air conditioning and furnace filter are clean. If your system isn’t working properly, check to make sure that the filter is clean, since that could be causing the problem.
-Programmable thermostats won’t lessen the load on an old furnace or heating/cooling system. It will simply limit the time that it is being used. Your system will work the same way is always has, except the run time will efficiently differ.
A Final Word:
There is a lot of value with the installation of a programmable thermostat. You can ensure the comfort of you and your family by personalizing your heating/cooling system to your preferences or needs, all while saving money in the process. And in this economic environment, who can’t stand to save a few dollars?
News, updates, and thermostat talk from Lux Products.
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