All over the country people are searching for ways to save money. We’re clipping coupons like crazy, re-evaluating our car insurance policies, and cutting back our cable plans. While these are all great ideas, make sure you are also looking at ways to reduce your energy bill. Programmable thermostats make it easy to raise or lower the temperature of your home when you aren’t there. You program the thermostat to change the temperature a few minutes after you usually leave and to go back to your preferred temperature shortly before you come home. You only have to program it once and it does the rest of the work for you. People commonly think that changing the temperature doesn’t matter, because the heater/air conditioner has to work harder to get it back to the right temperature. This isn’t true, because as the temperature of your home gets closer to the natural temperature outside, heating/cooling system doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain the indoor temperature. You can find programmable thermostats online or at your local hardware store for as little as 20. This solution pays for itself by reducing your energy bills up to 1 per degree raised/lowered over any 8 hour period.

Source: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12720