Telephone Thermostats

If you happen to own a vacation home, you know the agony of paying to heat and cool two houses. Wouldn't it be nice if you could stop air conditioning your beach house or heating your mountain cabin when you're not there? The only problem would be that when you arrive at your vacation home, the temperature inside would be unbearable. That is, unless you program your thermostat to turn on before you get there. Programmable home thermostats could help solve this heating and cooling problem completely, but they require precise planning of your comings and goings in order to get the desired result. Telephone thermostats, on the other hand, allow you to heat or cool your home with a simple phone call.

vygnyo, SXC If you have a telephone thermostat, you can heat or cool your home with a phone call.

Telephone thermostats replace your existing home thermostats. They connect to both the heating and cooling system and to your phone line. You simply have to call your property and enter a password on a touch-tone phone to access the controls. Then you can adjust not only the temperature setting but the entire system mode as well.

Telephone thermostats can also be handy accessories for permanent residences. The weather can take unexpected turns -- when that happens, preprogrammed thermostats might unnecessarily heat or cool your home. With telephone thermostats, you have complete control over your heating and cooling settings. If a cold front moves in out of nowhere, you can turn up the heat from your office. By the time you arrive home, it will be warm and cozy. Since you have the option to change the settings over the phone should the weather change, remote access like this can help you save energy and money.

Telephone thermostats not only allow you to phone in changes to your heating and cooling system, but they can also alert you, another chosen contact and even your local heating-and-cooling service company to any problems that arise. You can set a minimum and maximum temperature, and the thermostat will send out a message if either temperature is reached. There is also a battery backup in case of a power outage, so there is almost no reason for your pipes to ever freeze again.

Telephone thermostats can handle these functions because they use digital microprocessors as well as a touch-tone detector and telephone interface module. Essentially, you can "talk" to your home thermostat via telephone thanks to the internal telephone access module. A separate phone line isn't necessary, and the telephone thermostat can even coexist with answering machines or voice mail. However, if you have a DSL high-speed Internet connection, you will need a DSL filter on the telephone line that connects to your talking thermostat.

As technological advancements make their way to simple devices like thermostats, consumers benefit greatly from the combination of features.

For more information on home thermostats, check out the links on the following page.