The longer answer depends on where you live, how you heat, and what type of thermostat you're replacing. Here's all of it.
What Are You Actually Spending on Heating and Cooling?
Before you can calculate savings, you need a baseline.
Heating and cooling account for 45–55% of total home energy spend — more than any other category. That's according to the EIA, the Center for Sustainable Systems, and C2ES, all arriving at the same range independently.
The average US household paid $144/month for electricity in 2024. In 2025, that rose another 9.6% — pushing the average to $154–$178/month. That's electricity alone. Add natural gas for heating and the average combined non-water utility bill runs about $4,300/year, according to J.D. Power's 2025 US Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.
Apply the 45–55% HVAC share to that combined figure and you get roughly $1,935–$2,365/year that your thermostat directly controls.
That's the number that matters. And it's been going up. Household utility costs have risen 41% over the last five years.
What Do Smart Thermostats Actually Save?
Two independent government sources put the savings potential in the same range.
The US Department of Energy says homeowners can save up to 10% per year on heating and cooling by adjusting their thermostat 7–10°F for 8 hours per day. That's the underlying savings from temperature setbacks, which a smart thermostat automates reliably.
The EPA's ENERGY STAR program independently verified an 8% reduction in heating and cooling costs for certified smart thermostats.
Eight to ten percent. From two Tier 1 government sources, independently arrived at.
What you'll hear from thermostat brands is different — 12%, 15%, even 23%. Those figures come from manufacturers' own marketing materials, not independent verification. Worth knowing before you compare.
What Does 8–10% Mean in Dollars?
At today's energy costs, with $1,935–$2,365/year in HVAC spend:
- At 8% (ENERGY STAR verified): $155–$189/year
- At 10% (DOE verified): $194–$237/year
A reasonable, defensible range for most US households: $155 to $237 per year.
You'll still see the EPA's "$50/year" figure cited on older pages — including the EPA's own FAQ. That number was calculated against an energy cost baseline roughly half what households pay today. The savings percentage is still valid. The dollar translation needed updating.
What about colder climates? The dollar savings are higher. Cold-climate households (New England, Upper Midwest, Rockies) spend 55–70% of their energy budget on HVAC — meaning the thermostat controls an even larger share of the bill. New England customers pay over 29 cents/kWh as of early 2026, roughly double the national average. The percentage savings stay the same; the dollars go up considerably.
Why Smart Thermostats Outperform Programmable Ones
If you have a programmable thermostat, you probably don't use it as designed. That's not a personal failing — it's how programmable thermostats work in the real world.
The ACEEE/Cadmus utility study found that 51–78% of programmable thermostat users overrode their programmed schedule regularly, effectively defeating the device's purpose. ENERGY STAR actually suspended its certification program for programmable thermostats in 2009 because field performance was so inconsistent with theoretical savings.
Smart thermostats remove the human failure point. The savings don't depend on you remembering to set a schedule, lower the temperature before bed, or change the settings before a trip. Geofencing detects when you leave and switches to Away automatically. Scheduling works because the device handles it.
The same ACEEE/Cadmus study measured the difference head-to-head across two Indiana utilities. Programmable thermostats saved about 5% on gas heating. A smart thermostat saved 12.5–16.1%. Cooling savings followed the same pattern.
If your current thermostat is a programmable one you've mostly ignored, your savings upside is at the higher end of the range — not because smart thermostats are magic, but because an unused programmable thermostat is functionally the same as a manual one.
How Fast Does a Smart Thermostat Pay for Itself?
CliQ starts at $69.99.
At $155/year in savings: paid back in 5–6 months.
At $237/year: paid back in under 4 months.
That's before utility rebates. Many US utilities offer $50–$200 rebates on ENERGY STAR certified smart thermostats. If yours does, the effective out-of-pocket cost drops further — and so does the payback period.
After that, the savings are yours. Every year. Without doing anything differently.
Most people keep a thermostat for 7–10 years. Over that period, a $69.99 thermostat saving $155–237/year returns roughly $1,085–$1,660 — 15–24x the purchase price.
What Affects How Much You Save?
The 8–10% figure is a national average. Your number could be higher or lower depending on a few factors.
What you're replacing matters most. Upgrading from a manual or ignored programmable thermostat gets you the full savings — because you're starting from zero setback behavior. Upgrading from a smart thermostat you already use well means a smaller delta.
Climate affects the dollar value, not the savings rate. The percentage stays consistent, but colder climates run more HVAC hours, which means more spend and more absolute savings. Someone in Minnesota saves more dollars than someone in San Diego at the same savings rate.
Scheduling and Away Mode do the work. The DOE's 10% figure is based on an 8-hour setback per day — lower the temperature when you sleep, raise it when you get home. Set a schedule in the CliQ app once, and it runs automatically. Turn on geofencing and the switch to Away happens the moment you leave.
Demand-response programs add more. Some utilities pay $20–$50/year in bill credits for smart thermostat participation in demand-response programs — small automated setbacks during peak grid events. Your programmable thermostat can't do this.
The Bottom Line
The argument for a smart thermostat is straightforward. At current energy costs, the independently verified savings range is $155–$237/year. CliQ costs $69.99. The payback period is months.
Every other smart thermostat starts at $100 or more — and most require a C-wire, which stops roughly half of homeowners before they even finish installing. CliQ doesn't require a C-wire. Installs in minutes, without tools. The payback math doesn't change.
If your energy bill has gone up over the past few years — and at 41% over five years, statistically it has — a smart thermostat is one of the highest-return things you can do about it.
Set it up once. The rest shows up in your bill.
Not sure if your home has a C-wire? Check in about 60 seconds →
No C-wire? Here's what that means for smart thermostat installation →
Sources
- US Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey: eia.gov
- EIA Average Monthly Bill — Residential: eia.gov
- EIA Electric Power Monthly: eia.gov
- US Department of Energy, Energy Saver — Programmable Thermostats: energy.gov
- EPA ENERGY STAR Smart Thermostat FAQ: energystar.gov
- J.D. Power, 2025 US Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study
- ACEEE/Cadmus utility field study (Indiana utilities) — smart vs. programmable thermostat comparison
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