Energy costs are going up. And while yes, the dollar cost is going up, I’m talking a lot more about the cost our planet is paying for energy use. I noticed last night our thermostat went from using anywhere from 1-4 hrs of HVAC being on, to 8 hrs in March, then 48 in April, then to 148 hrs in May, and now so far in June 188 hrs. The mknth isn’t even over yet, And here on the hot and humid northern US Gulf Coast experts are predicting it to be a broiling hot summer yet to come. I’ve had to make changes to what we think of as “comfortable tempuature” as a result, and programmed the scheduler and locked down the controls (awesome feature, by the way, thanks!) to keep energy use under control as much as possible.
Sometimes however - especially in a humid sticky climate - the house simply requires an air “refresh”. We used to do this by lowering the thermostat 2°F and letting the ac run for one cycle bringing the temp down the adjusting the temp back up for a few hours until we need to do it agwin. It’s a quick literal refresh of stagnant sticky air. Air in this regard is like a puddle of rainwater. Sure it might look all pretty like fresh water at first, but let it sit and it gets yuck. We would love to have a button in the app that would do exactly that - allow the house ac to temporarily accept a one time ac activation to recirculate the air in the home, then when the air reaches a user selected degree of lower temp, cut back off and go back to the preprogrammed/standard settings.
We’ve done this for years with our prior non-smart thermostat, although many times we forget to undo the lowered temp. The same with the Wyze thermostat. Which ok, granted mistakes happen and all but when it happens often, people become acclimated to the lower temp so it goes from being an occasional Oops to becoming what is perceived necessary to be comfortable. Having a refresh option eliminates such mistakes and keeps you acclimized to say a 74° interior being acceptable instead of 72° as an example. Two degrees isn’t much maybe in one home, but multiply that but what say 125mln homes in the United States and you have a mind bending amount of potential energy savings.
I’ve got a MSc in ITM, I know this would be an easy feature to compile and add to the app. And a cheap, smart way to bolster Wyze’s profile in green energy without antagonizing those who deny climate science and the damage our energy use is doing to Earth.