Providing Los Angeles homeowners with the finest air conditioning advice since 1990.

Advanced Thermostats

- Control your air conditioning and heating like never before.

Thermostats have evolved into being not just a way to adjust temperature, but they are now available as programmable control centers featuring contemporary mounting, while some even boast additional features like storing digital photos.

Did we mention these things have become fancy?

Below we'll start with basic information you need to know about thermostat types, and then we'll talk about some advanced features that you might find very cool. Read on...

Single-Stage, Multi-Stage - what?
When you're choosing a thermostat, one of the first things you need to decide is what do you need to control. Do you have an air conditioner and furnace or a heat pump and air handler? Radiant heat?

Single-stage: homes that have a gas/electric furnace and an air conditioner (not a heat pump).

Line voltage: for homes using alternative heating like radiant heat.

Multi-stage: a multi-stage thermostat is used when you have multiple heating and cooling sources that overlap. Example: homes that have a heatpump and a furnace. This setup is known as "hybrid heating" because the heat pump and the furnace share the heating load based on outside temperature, and that is controlled by the thermostat.

Heat Pump: if you one have a heatpump and air handler, this is the one.

Type Of Power
You'll need to know whether you have electricity run for the thermostat, or if it needs to have battery power for operation.

Feature Sets
Once you determine power and the items you have to control, you can get into other cool features that will increase your comfort, save energy and more.

Programmable: Ever rush out the door for a game and forget to turn down the A/C? A programmable thermostat will save you money and keep your home more comfortable over the year. 7-day models let you schedule out the entire week for your normal air conditioning and heating requirements.

Auto Heat/Cool: This feature allows a thermostat to automatically switch between heating or cooling mode. This is different than just programming. Some thermostats might be programmable, but only for heating or cooling.

Adjustable Temp Range: You might hear this called "adjustable differential" and it simply means you can control how far the temperature can deviate before your system kicks back on.

Programmable Fan Mode: This allows you to have your fan kick on to move stale air. This is ideal for variable speed fans, and for home using indoor air quality components like advanced air cleaners, ventilators and humidifiers.

Vacation Mode: This feature allows for additional programming so that your system knows when to turn on before you arrive back home.

Remote Access: Ever wish you could turn the A/C on before you got home on a hot summer day? A remote access equipped thermostat allows you to tap into your HVAC system via a phone or the web!

Touch Screen: Touch screen models are just easier to use, and look cool. Like the Venstar® model featured on the right - this one has multiple styles of frames, can cycle through family photos.

As you can see, thermostats are more than they used to be, and they have price tags to match the feature sets. If you load one up with remote access and all the desired programming features, it could ding you over $600. However the majority of high quality thermostats like the Venstar® ColorTouch™ to the right will provide you with all the features you need, some bells and whistles and still come in under $200.

We also cannot stress enough the importance of hiring a Los Angeles air conditioning contractor who knows what they are doing. You'd be surprised at how many HVAC contractors install components the wrong way. What does that mean for you? Loss of energy savings and even equipment malfunction.

See our list for dealers you can trust: Los Angeles Air Conditioning Contractors

Conserving Energy Really Is Important

Modern products make life much easier for us all, but some of them are hurting our environment at alarming rates. Fortunately, manufacturers are taking strides to product energy efficient products and alternative energy solutions that are paving the way for a much better tomorrow.

HVAC & Energy Consumption

Your home heating and cooling system will typically eat up half of your monthly utility bill. All of your computers, blenders, lights and gadgets still will not equal the cost of staying comfortable.

What You Can Do

As mentioned above, technology is coming around with better solutions that are more affordable than ever. Even the most expensive green options, like geothermal and solar energy, are become more affordable every day. Homeowners who cannot afford a new, more efficient HVAC system can still take steps to save energy, like regular system maintenance, enhanced air filtration and more.

Pursue Efficient Solutions

When a Los Angeles AC contractor comes to your home for service work on your heating and cooling system, what is the goal? To save money with the lowest cost fix for a problem? Not the best plan.

Homeowners need to enable their CA HVAC dealer to provide efficient, energy saving products. Often, a dealer is hammered with customers who just want the lowest price. This forces them to put in cheap product to satisfy customer demand. This in turn just prolongs poor environmental practice nation wide.

If you are in search of a local dealer you can trust, check our list of recommended contractors: CA AC

Geothermal Energy

The greenest way to keep your home comfortable is definitely via either solar energy or a geothermal heat pump (GHP). A GHP uses the constant temperature of the earth as a renewable energy source, exchanging energy during the different seasons to keep your home comfortable the same way a normal electric heat pump would. Renewable Energy

Who We Are

Get More Comfortable is a free information resource dedicated to educating homeowners about the products and best practice behind heating and cooling. We can clarify concepts and give you the latest advice. How? Because we are owned by the largest privately held HVAC distributer in the United States.

Since we are owned by industry experts, we know heating and cooling. Plus, Get More Comfortable isn't pushing a brand at you. There are many manufacturers out there making great product. At Get More Comfortable we'll teach you about important concepts, help you learn about things you didn't know were possible.

Our goal is to enable you as a homeowner, to be more confident in HVAC decisions while also moving you to new products and solutions that save energy and give you much more control over the comfort levels in your home. We are confident that when you learn about the many possibilities of residential HVAC, you might actually get excited to try some of them out!

For comments or questions about this site or residential comfort control, use the contact form on our home page. We are not distributing your information to SPAM lists, but simply routing requests to local specialists who can get you the right answer.

We hope that by using this site, you will truly be able to Get More Comfortable.

"My wife and I had a hybrid system installed for our home since fuel prices are pretty high in our area. The dealer we used didn't install it correctly, and for an entire year we didn't benefit at all from the extra expense we paid for hybrid heating.

I talked to the Get More Comfortable team, and they recommended a new thermostat that would handle my existing system. I ordered it, had it installed, and now for the first time we are truly saving money with our home heating system. I highly recommend them!"

- K & S / Memphis, TN