InstaBidsHow long does a thermostat last?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) planning table for multifamily properties gives a dwelling or common area thermostat 15 years in its Family column and 20 in its Elderly column, not a measured life in a home (structured on the ASTM E2018-08 outline, no issue date, read 2026-10-17, national, multifamily, n not published by the source).
Source: HUD CNA e-Tool EUL table, read 17 October 2026.
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InstaBids computed these shares from the public microdata of the 2020 home energy survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Among US households with a thermostat for heating or cooling, 11.7% used a “smart” or Internet-connected thermostat (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 16,663, SE 0.3 points) and 59.7% used either a programmable thermostat or a “smart” or Internet-connected thermostat (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 16,663, SE 0.5 points). The smart share was 14.6% for US households in a single-family house detached from any other house, with a thermostat for heating or cooling (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 11,557, SE 0.3 points), against 5.5% for US households in an apartment in a building with 5 or more units, with a thermostat for heating or cooling (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 1,865, SE 0.7 points). EIA imputed the thermostat answer for 1.7% of all the US households counted with a thermostat, 1.1% of the detached-house households counted and 3.2% of the apartment households counted. Each is a share of homes by thermostat type in 2020 and tells nothing about how long a thermostat lasts.
In our own counts, n is the number of surveyed households behind a share and SE is its standard error, a measure of sampling error, in percentage points.
How long it lasts, by source
Both HUD figures, 15 years and 20 years, sit on one row, “Dwelling/common area thermostat”, in the table's HVAC controls block (structured on the ASTM E2018-08 outline, no issue date, read 2026-10-17, national, multifamily, n not published by the source). They are planning lives for scheduling capital needs in multifamily buildings, not a measured life of a thermostat in a house, and the row draws no line between manual, programmable and smart models.
In Florida
Among Florida households with a thermostat for heating or cooling, 35.4% used a manual or non-programmable thermostat (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 629, SE 1.9 points), 64.6% used a programmable thermostat or a “smart” or Internet-connected thermostat (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 629, SE 1.9 points) and 12.9% used a “smart” or Internet-connected thermostat (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 629, SE 1.4 points). EIA imputed the answer for 2.4% of the Florida households counted.
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Sources for the figures on this page
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, CNA e-Tool Estimated Useful Life Table, read 17 October 2026. U.S. government work, public domain.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), public-use microdata file v7, read 17 October 2026. U.S. government work, public domain; EIA credited as the source. Microdata file: recs2020_public_v7.csv.