As more and more people become interested in energy efficiency in the home, programmable thermostat technology is improving and becoming more affordable. The Hunter 44550 Auto Save 7 Day Programmable Thermostat is a great example of this. It is the first programmable thermostat that offers 7 day programming and the quality assurance of Energy Star certification for just $40. That is incredible value for money.
Competing brands of digital programmable thermostat such as Lux Products and Honeywell don’t offer such value for money. The cheapest 7 day Honeywell thermostat is the RTH7500D and it costs about $65. The cheapest 7 day programmable thermostat offered by Lux Products is the TX9100E – it costs $55.
So how does the Hunter 44550 compare to these other cheap 7 day programmable thermostats? The general answer is very well. The Hunter has received many glowing reviews on Amazon and other retail sites from satisfied customers. It is reliable and accurate and lives up to its claim of being able to significantly reduce home heating and cooling costs.
The Hunter 44550 is not a ‘bare-bones’ product. It offers many useful functions such as smart recovery that pre-heats and pre-cools a room in readiness for the start of a programmed period and swing control that lets you adjust the range within which the thermostat responds to changes in temperature. The Hunter 44550 also has temporary override, vacation mode and an Indiglo display which has a handy one touch back light. The display has both filter change warning and a 2 stage battery change warning.
There are only two points where the Hunter 44550 Auto Save falls down. The first is that it is only compatible with 1 stage heating and 1 stage cooling and with heat pumps without auxiliary heat. The second possible detracting point is that unlike the Lux TX9100E and the Honeywell RTH7500D, the Hunter 44550 does not have the option for being powered by the HVAC electricity supply.
If however these two minus points do not rate highly in your list of priorities then I would recommend saving money and buying the Hunter 44550 Auto Save 7 Day programmable Thermostat.