Bee the one saving money
Don’t have a smart thermostat yet? you should! I have had my Ecobee 4 thermostat installed for about a year and the return on investment has been great as it has already paid for itself and then some. The money is great, but more importantly you are also helping the environment. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that environmentalists and capitalists can agree on something, shhh...don't tell the other side.
Return on investment for ecobee4
If you are in the Rochester, NY area RG&E has an incentive program to help offset the initial cost plus check out the numbers below. If you are not in the Rochester area contact your local utility as they will likely have incentives as well.
RGE $25 rebate for Wi-Fi enabled thermostat
RGE $85 e-gift card if you qualify, plus for every temperature adjustment the utility makes you will get a $5 credit, see the link for more information on the program. My first gift card was for $170!
This is how my numbers worked out after one year
-$250 Ecobee4 cost out of pocket I installed it myself, so I didn’t have any installation costs
+$25 RGE rebate
+$170 RGE amazon gift card
+$212 estimated energy savings
+$257 in savings the first year!
Installing the ecobee 4
If you are handy, you can install the thermostat yourself, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can have a qualified HVAC technician do it for you. If you do have the thermostat installed by a pro, time it with your yearly furnace and a/c service so you are only paying for one trip charge out to the house.
If you are going to attempt to install it yourself, there are a couple of things you should look out for which can make this ordinarily easy installation a little more complicated.
Do you have a lot of HVAC accessories (humidifiers, HRV/ERV, dehumidifiers…) if so you might want to leave this to a pro.
Do you have a C wire on your existing thermostat? If not do you have any extra wires that are not being used? If you don't have either you might need to look into the PEK instillation video
You can find installation videos that can help you decide if this is a job that you want to tackle here: https://www.ecobee.com/installing-your-ecobee4/
To book a home inspection online visit www.grandviewinspection.com.
Disclaimer:
There are affiliate links in this article which I do make a small percentage of the purchase price if you buy it through the link. I have not been compensated for this review, and as always this is a product that I use and paid for with my own money. The links are there to try to offset the cost of my time and the cost of the website, your support is appreciated. Amazon may not be the cheapest so always shop around.