As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly create an energy-saving heating schedule.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your thermostat or heating-control instructions and record the heating type, control method, zones, current target temperatures and any minimum or maximum settings.
   2. Write down when someone is normally at home, asleep or away on each weekday and at weekends, including any room that needs different treatment.
   3. Open your latest energy bill or supplier account and copy the tariff name and any stated off-peak periods into the prompt, without guessing missing prices.
   4. Paste the completed prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask for the schedule in a table that matches your control system.
   5. Compare every proposed time, temperature and zone with the thermostat instructions and remove any setting that your equipment cannot accept.
   6. Enter the schedule into the thermostat, keep a record of the old settings, and use the manual override if the home becomes uncomfortable.
   7. After a comparable period of use, compare meter readings and comfort notes with the old schedule, then ask the model to revise only the timings that the evidence supports.

   Prompt

   Create an energy-saving heating schedule for my UK home using only the information below. Do not invent details about my boiler, insulation, tariff, weather or thermostat. If important information is missing, list the missing item and make the safest clearly labelled assumption rather than presenting it as fact.
   
   Home and heating:
   - Heating system and fuel: [for example, gas boiler, heat pump or storage heaters]
   - Thermostat and control type: [programmable thermostat, smart thermostat, timer or other]
   - Heating zones and rooms: [details]
   - Hot water control, if relevant: [details]
   - Known minimum or maximum settings: [details]
   
   People and routine:
   - Occupied times on weekdays: [details]
   - Occupied times at weekends: [details]
   - Usual sleeping times: [details]
   - Rooms that need to stay warm: [details]
   - Comfort preferences: [details]
   
   Costs and constraints:
   - Energy tariff and off-peak periods, if relevant: [details]
   - Current schedule, if any: [details]
   - Any rooms, pets or household members needing a different temperature: [details]
   
   Produce:
   1. A simple seven-day schedule with times, target temperatures and zones.
   2. Separate settings for heating and hot water only where the supplied information supports them.
   3. A short explanation of the changes and the assumptions made.
   4. A list of settings I must not change without checking the boiler or thermostat instructions.
   5. A practical test plan for comparing comfort and energy use with my current schedule.
   Do not promise a saving, give unsupported temperature or timing advice, or suggest turning off safety controls. Tell me to check the manufacturer's instructions where the control system is unclear.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Use a tool built for this

   The distant third