Latest / Cool Talk with Hartzell's | Your HVAC Questions, Answered! / Two thermostat settings to lower AC bills

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Two thermostat settings to lower AC bills · Cool Talk with Hartzell's | Your HVAC Questions, Answered!

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Picture the scenario for a second.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: It is the third week of May, and you live in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I already know where this is going.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the very first real brutal heat wave of the season has just hit the area.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: And a homeowner is standing in their kitchen just staring at an electric bill that is exactly$80 higher than it was during the exact same week last June.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is a terrible feeling.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they're scratching their head because, you know, they live in the exact same house.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have the exact same air conditioning unit sitting out in the backyard.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: They even have the thermostat set to the exact same temperature as last year.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: So um what on earth is going on?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is the ultimate summer mystery for homeowners, really.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we're jumping straight into the field notes of Dave Hartzell today for this deep dive to solve this exact mystery.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Dave is an HVAC master.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: He has 47 years of experience running service calls across central Oklahoma.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: 47 years is a lot of service calls.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is a massive amount of experience.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the culprit he points to in his notes is not a broken compressor.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is not a failing motor.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Nine times out of ten, he says it comes down to two very specific, highly secretive thermostat settings that most people, well, they do not even know they exist.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Which is wild.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: People immediately assume their equipment is dying of old age.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or they think the utility company made a billing error.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what Dave has found after almost half a century of diagnosing these systems is that these two settings are just quietly wasting money every single day.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: He actually notes that he sees them set incorrectly in almost every single Oklahoma house he walks into.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Almost every single house.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I am looking at my own thermostat in my head right now, wondering if I am making these mistakes.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: You probably are.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let us start with the first setting because honestly, it sounds completely counterintuitive based on how human beings just naturally experience heat.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Dave calls this the fan trap.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The fan trap, yes.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about the primary fan switch on your thermostat, which is usually set to either ah and or a u teto.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Psychologically, um, when you and I are hot, we want a breeze.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: We think moving air automatically equals cooler air.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It makes complete logical sense on a purely human level.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So people naturally flip that fan setting from Ayu toe over to on, thinking they're helping the house cool down faster.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if you were standing outside in the heat, a breeze feels wonderful.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It evaporates sweat off your skin.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But mechanically speaking, doing that inside a house in a humid climate like Oklahoma is, well, it is a massive mistake.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because of the humidity levels.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: During an Oklahoma summer, the outdoor humidity is regularly sitting between 65 and 80 percent.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you set your indoor thermostat fan to on, your indoor blower motor is forced to run 24 hours a day.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Seven days a week.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, regardless of what the actual air conditioner is doing.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right off the bat, I have to assume that running a large blower motor around the clock is going to pull a significant amount of electricity.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you are essentially leaving a massive appliance running nonstop.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You are definitely paying to run that motor constantly.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um the wasted electricity from the fan itself is actually the much smaller problem here.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, really?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: The real issue is what that constant unyielding airflow does to the moisture inside your home.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: We need to look at the underlying physics of your evaporator coil.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, lay it on me.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So when your air conditioner is running a cooling cycle, the indoor evaporator coil gets incredibly cold.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right, that makes sense.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as warm, moist air from your house passes over those freezing copper tubes, the moisture condenses out of the air.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is exactly like taking a freezing cold glass of iced tea out onto a warm patio.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's a perfect way to visualize it.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Within seconds, the outside of the glass is dripping wet because it is pulling the humidity right out of the summer air.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: The air conditioner is acting as a giant dehumidifier for your house.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So at the end of a cooling cycle, when the outdoor compressor finally cycles off, the coil is just sitting there wet.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Completely soaking wet.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is dripping with all the water just pulled out of your living room air.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where Dave brings in a really vivid analogy in his notes.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Think about wiping down a wet kitchen counter with a dry sponge.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: The sponge soaks up all the water, doing exactly what it was designed to do.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: But leaving your AC fan set to on in is the equivalent of taking that soaking wet sponge and just wringing it out right back onto the counter.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is so frustrating to think about.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: The air conditioner just did all this heavy lifting to pull the moisture out of the air.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And by leaving the fan constantly blowing across that wet coil, you are picking all that trapped moisture right back up.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And blowing it straight through the vents into your bedroom.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The fan literally re-evaporates the water off the coil.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the physical sensation of that happening inside a house is miserable.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Your house ends up feeling incredibly sticky and muggy.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because the humidity is back in the air.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: You walk past the thermostat and the digital display tells you the room is 75 degrees.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Which should feel great.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: On paper, 75 degrees should be very comfortable.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But because the indoor air is now heavily loaded with all that recycled moisture, your skin cannot effectively cool itself.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you are trapped in a swampy environment.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I know that exact feeling.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if the house says 75, but I feel sticky and miserable, I am not just going to sit on my couch and sweat.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, of course not.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: The natural human reaction is to walk right back over to the thermostat and crank it down to 73 or even 72 just to compensate for that heavy, muggy feeling.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that single action kicks off a terrible downward spiral for your wallet.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: How so?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, by dropping the set point down to 73, your air conditioner now has to run much longer and work much harder to reach that new lower temperature.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the electricity bill spikes.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: The bill spikes because the outdoor compressor is working overtime.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: But keep in mind, the fan is still set to unend.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It never stops blowing.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh right.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the moment that longer cooling cycle ends, the fan goes right back to blowing all the new moisture back into the house.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: You end up paying a premium to cool the house to 73 degrees, and you still feel damp and sticky.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds totally maddening.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is a complete cycle of waste.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: You are literally paying more money to be less comfortable.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So mechanically, how do we break this cycle?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: The fix is incredibly simple.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You just switch that fan setting from on end back to OU Day.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: That is it.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is it.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: When the thermostat is set to AUT, the indoor blower is synchronized with the outdoor compressor.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They work as a unified team.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So when the cooling cycle finishes and the compressor stops outside, the indoor fan stops at the exact same moment.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because the fan stops blowing, there is no wind to pick that water back up off the coil.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It just sits there.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Without that constant wind re evaporating the water, the moisture sitting on the coil is finally allowed to follow the laws of gravity.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Gravity does the work.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: The water droplets drip safely down the coil fins, drop into the drain pan, and flow through a PVC pipe right out of your house.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: That water is permanently removed from your indoor environment.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: That is incredibly satisfying to picture.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Dave notes that simply making this one switch on your wall will drop your indoor humidity levels by five to ten full points.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Five to ten points.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: That is a massive difference in how the air actually feels on human skin.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It changes the entire comfort profile of the home.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because that lower indoor humidity lets your body sweat and cool itself naturally.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: You will suddenly find that you feel perfectly comfortable sitting at 76 degrees instead of needing the room to be 73.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, let us pause and look at the actual dollar savings attached to that temperature change.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Dave references the math from the Department of Energy on this specific issue in the notes.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, their numbers are really illuminating.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: They have a standard rule of thumb for summer cooling costs.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: According to their data, every single degree you raise your thermostat in the summer saves you roughly 3% on your overall cooling cost.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So let us run those numbers for a typical homeowner.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you can comfortably raise your thermostat from 73 up to 76 simply because you finally fixed the humidity problem.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: That is three degrees.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you are saving roughly 9 to 10% on your electric bill every single month.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is a massive return just for flipping a switch from Orion to a Lodo.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: You are running the machine significantly less.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: You are dropping your utility bill, and you are actually more comfortable in the process.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like a no-brainer.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I do have to ask about exceptions here.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: There are always people who say they need the fan running constantly.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: What if someone relies on that continuous airflow for white noise while they sleep?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or, I do not know, they have a heavy-duty filtration system in their home.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very valid point to address.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's one specific scenario where leaving the fan on actually makes strategic sense, but it is highly seasonal.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Seasonal.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a high-end filtration system and you need to circulate the air constantly to catch allergens like dust or pet dander, continuous fan mode is a great tool during the winter, or even in the mild shoulder seasons.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: When the AC isn't running constantly.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It keeps the air mixing and moving through the filter media when the heating or cooling is not actively engaged.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: But during a humid summer, moisture is your primary enemy.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Running the fan constantly just costs you money and ruins your comfort.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the fan setting is usually sitting right there on the main screen of the thermostat.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: It is pretty obvious once you know to look for it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: But Dave talks about a second money-wasting setting that is practically invisible.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Completely hidden.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Most homeowners will never stumble across it in a million years unless a technician points it out to them.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: He calls it the cool differential.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: What exactly is a cool differential?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you might also see it referred to in different owner manuals as the cycle rate or the temperature swing.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: The cool differential is basically a set of programming instructions.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: It tells the thermostat how patient it should be before turning the equipment back on.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: How patient?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it defines the exact number of degrees the thermostat will allow the room temperature to drift away from your target before it kicks the air conditioner back into gear.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let me make sure I understand this mechanically.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: If I have my thermostat set to 75 degrees, the differential dictates whether the system waits for the room to hit 76 or maybe 77 before the AC wakes up and starts blowing cold air again.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is the basic concept.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the danger comes into play for the average homeowner.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: The factory default setting on a massive number of modern thermostats is incredibly tight.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: How tight are we talking?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a razor thin half of a degree.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you set your target to 75, the moment the room temperature drifts up to 75.5, the thermostat panics and slams the AC on.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: It clues the room back down to 75, shuts off abruptly, and then 10 minutes later, when the room hits 75.5 again, it slams right back on.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am trying to visualize the impact of that on the machinery.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: If it is constantly turning on and off at a half degree difference, that sounds exactly like driving a car and brutal stop and go traffic.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: What is awful for it?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: You are just hammering the gas pedal, slamming the brakes, hitting the gas, slamming the brakes.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: The stop and go traffic analogy is incredibly accurate for HVAC equipment.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: In the mechanical world, an air conditioner is fundamentally a heavy piece of machinery.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every single time that outdoor compressor starts up, it requires a massive surge electrical power to get the heavy metal parts moving.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Just to get the momentum going.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Technicians call this the locked rotor amps or the startup amperage.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: It pulls three to five times its normal running amperage just to initiate the cycle.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Three to five times?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Running amperage is just the steady, lower flow of electricity it takes to keep the machine cruising once it is already up to speed.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you are basically paying a huge electrical toll just to start the journey.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And with a tight half degree differential, you are forcing the system to pay that massive starting toll every 10 or 15 minutes.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: You are putting incredible mechanical wear and tear on the heart of the system.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: The mechanical wear and tear absolutely destroys the lifespan of the equipment over time, I would imagine.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It really does.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: But the frequent starting and stopping leads to a second major issue that brings us right back to our original enemy.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Moisture.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Single-stage air conditioning units, which represent the vast majority of systems sitting in residential backyards, they operate basically like a giant light switch.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: They are either on or off.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: They are either running at 10% capacity or they are completely off.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: There is no in between.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And these single stage machines are simply not designed for quick little sprints.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: They need a marathon.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: They require long, steady runtimes to effectively pull moisture out of the indoor air.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Walk me through why they need so much time to remove the moisture.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Does the cooling not happen instantly?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it takes time for the physics to catch up.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: When the machine first kicks on, it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes for the indoor evaporator coil just to get cold enough to start efficiently condensing water out of the airflow.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I see.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if your thermostat forces the AC to shut off after just 10 minutes because of that tight half degree differential, the machine stopped right when it was finally ready to do the heavy lifting of dehumidifying the house.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: You just ran a highly expensive sprint for absolutely nothing.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: The air might feel a tiny bit cooler for a few minutes, but the system totally failed at the second half of its job.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: You are left with a house that is cold but incredibly damp.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Cold and clammy.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is the worst.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the actual sweet spot we should be aiming for to fix this?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: For a typical single-stage AC system in the central Oklahoma area, Dave strongly recommends widening that hidden differential setting to one or even one and a half degrees.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so one to one and a half degrees.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: This simple programming change gives the compressor a real rest between cycles.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: The house might drift from 75 up to 76 or 76.5, but when the system finally does turn on, it might run for a solid 20 or 30 minutes instead of a quick 10-minute burst.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that longer runtime is exactly what a single-stage system desperately needs to get the coil freezing cold.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: To pull the humidity out of the air and drain it outside.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking about the technology on my wall right now.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I spent$250 on a highly advanced smart thermostat that connects to the internet and claims to learn my habits.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of people have those now.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Are you telling me this expensive piece of smart technology is still making this fundamental mechanical mistake?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: The frustrating truth is that um many of them still do.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: They might know your zip code to display the local weather forecast on the shiny screen.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But their primary directive from the factory is usually focused on keeping the room temperature as perfectly flat and uniform as possible.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell Because they think that is what luxury is.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: The engineers programming them often prioritize tight temperature control over dehumidification.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So even a smart thermostat can fall victim to this short cycling trap if you do not check the settings.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: We do need to pause and clarify some system exceptions here, though.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: This advice is clearly targeted at standard single-stage air conditioners.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Does this rule apply if someone has a highly advanced system?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell We definitely need to carve out an exception for the newer variable speed systems.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um Dave also installs advanced geothermal heating and cooling setups in Oklahoma, which are incredibly efficient.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, geothermal.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a variable speed unit or a smart geothermal heat pump, you should leave the differential settings completely alone.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let them do their own thing.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those systems act very much like a car with a continuously variable transmission.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: They have the intelligence to ramp their cooling power up and down in tiny increments to match the exact heat load of the house perfectly.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so they manage their own cycle rates beautifully.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: But for the vast majority of older standard single-stage units sitting outside normal houses, widening this differential tweak is absolutely vital for the health of the machine.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: This raises a massive philosophical question for me, though.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: If these tight default settings are so terrible for our human comfort and so damaging to our expensive equipment, why do they exist?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Why on earth are they the default standard in the first place?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why ship a product that works so poorly out of the box?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: It really comes down to a massive disconnect in the modern manufacturing and installation process.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thermostats are generic, mass-produced controllers.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: They are made for everyone, everywhere.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: They are assembled by the thousands in factories that are often located in completely different environments, far away from the sticky, oppressive humidity of central Oklahoma.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That makes a lot of sense.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: A product designer sitting in a mild, dry climate assumes a half-degree swing is a fantastic way to deliver a premium luxury experience where the temperature never fluctuates.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: The thermostat hardware simply does not know what your specific local climate demands.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the local installers who put them in our houses are just slapping them on the wall and driving to the next job.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, that is the reality of the trade.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: The installer who wired up that thermostat in your hallway 10 years ago was likely under a massive time crunch to finish the job and get to the next house.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they left everything locked at the factory default.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: That little box on your wall has no idea how well your house is insulated.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: It does not know your local summer humidity levels, and it does not know the specific capabilities of the heavy machinery sitting outside in the dirt.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the burden falls entirely on the homeowner to fix it.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let us give people some actionable advice on how to actually dig into these menus and make the change.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Dave provides some great specific guidance in his notes.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: He does.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a traditional Honeywell or trained thermostat, you usually need to press and hold the main menu button for about five to ten seconds to unlock the hidden installer settings.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are using a modern smart thermostat like a nest or an Ecoby, you will want to open the smartphone app or dig deeply into the on-screen settings menu.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: You are looking for a section usually called equipment or thresholds.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, equipment or thresholds.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: You might see the specific setting labeled as minimum cycle off time, temperature differential, or simply cycle rate.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where Dave's dedication to his local community really shines through.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: He knows perfectly well that these installer menus can be highly intimidating for someone who is not a technician.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like a foreign language sometimes.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you cannot find the setting, he literally offers to tell you how to navigate the menus over the phone for completely free.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: He just wants people's systems to run correctly and efficiently.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Which is incredibly generous of him.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you are still terrified of messing up the secret installer menus, you can just pay a standard$99 dispatch fee.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Dave or one of his trained professionals will come out to your house and dial the system in perfectly in about 15 minutes.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is an incredibly tiny investment of your time or money that fundamentally changes how your expensive machine operates for the entire rest of its lifespan.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Let us do the final tally here as we start to wrap up this deep dive because the return on investment we are talking about today is honestly staggering.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Numbers do not lie.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about zero new equipment cost.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: You do not need to buy any parts.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: It requires maybe five minutes of your time to click through a few digital menus.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just five minutes.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: By simply flipping that obvious fan setting over to Auditoe and digging in to widen the cool differential to one or one and a half degrees, Dave sees average homeowners save between 16 and$30 a month on a typical house.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when you stretch those monthly savings out over a brutal, relentless five-month cooling season from May through September, you are looking at keeping up to$150 right in your own pocket every single year.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: All from pressing a few buttons on a plastic box.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: You are saving a noticeable amount of money.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: You are drastically extending the life of your compressor by stopping the brutal short cycling wear and tear.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: And most importantly, your living room actually feels dry and perfectly comfortable instead of feeling like a muggy, humid swamp.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: The whole situation really highlights an important vulnerability in our modern reliance on automated technology.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: We blindly trust these little digital boxes on our walls to make the best possible decisions for our homes.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: But they are completely blind to the actual physical realities of our local environment.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: That is the perfect closing thought to chew on as we finish up.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Think back to that frustrated homeowner in Kingfisher staring at the massive$80 bill increase.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: The brain of their air conditioner was blindly following a set of factory defaults designed by someone in a totally different climate halfway across the country.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: It makes you stop and wonder.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It really does.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: How many other expensive smart devices inside your home are actually working against your local environment, quietly draining your wallet simply because no one ever told you to go in and change the factory default settings?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us on today's deep dive.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And seriously, go check that fan switch right now.