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How to Override an Indoor Thermostat

Kimberly Turtenwald

Many years ago, thermostats were created to help keep your home at a consistent temperature. However, people would often prefer to have the house at different temperatures at different times of the day. For instance, when you are at work, you will not care so much about the house being the same as what you'd want when you're at home; when you are sleeping, you may want yet another temperature. This is why newer thermostats are programmable, allowing for varying temperatures at different times of day. However, there may be times you wish to override the programming.

Programmable thermostats can be overridden to further customize the experience.

Step 1

Press the hold button to place a hold on the current programming. The hold button will completely stop the program from running until either the hold button is pressed again or the resume button is pressed, depending on the model, or until the unit is completely turned off. In some models, pressing the hold button will only override the current program and operation will resume when the next time period in the program begins or at a set amount of time, depending on the model.

Step 2

Press and hold the temperature adjustment button. Doing this will allow you to override the current temperature for the duration of the current time period of the programming. Then you can adjust the temperature as you see fit. For instance, if you have the day off work and will be home instead, you can override the temperature you have chosen for that time period where you are not home and change it to the temperature setting for when you are home. When the thermostat hits the next time period in the program, normal programming will resume. Some thermostats will resume normal operation after a set amount of time, rather than with the next time period.

Step 3

Change the program. Programmable thermostat programs can be changed at any time. Temporary overrides are useful when you wish to temporarily change the temperature. However, sometimes, it may be necessary to change the program altogether. Even if it is only for a few weeks, it is easier to change the programming on the thermostat than to manually override it each day.