The heat pump installer said my settings were lazy, he had a point
Last month in Austin, I had a heat pump put in and just left the default schedule the app gave me. The installer, Rick, came back for a check and said I was basically running it like a dumb thermostat, always ramping up full blast at 6 p.m. He showed me the 2 degree setback rule and how to stagger the stages, now my electric bill dropped about $40 and the place stays steady. Has anyone else had a contractor call out their smart home habits and actually improve things?
Watched my buddy go through this exact thing last winter with his new system. He kept cranking it up and down all day because he was cold then hot then cold again, and his bill was awful. His HVAC guy finally sat him down and explained that heat pumps work best when you just pick a temp and leave it alone, maybe drop it 2 degrees at night at most. My buddy was fighting the thing without even knowing it, treating it like his old gas furnace where you could slam it up and down. Once he stopped messing with it constantly, his place actually felt better and his bill dropped like 50 bucks. So yeah, installers calling out our habits is a real thing, and it stings a little but it helps.