As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly schedule your heating to save energy.

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, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your thermostat or heating-control app and copy down the brand, model, zones, current schedule and available temperature controls.
   2. Write down your weekday and weekend wake-up, leaving, return and bedtime patterns, including days when someone stays at home.
   3. Record the temperatures you find comfortable, any rooms that need separate treatment, and any frost, pipe, damp or vulnerable-occupant concerns.
   4. Paste those details into the prompt, leaving unknown items marked as unknown rather than guessing them.
   5. Compare the proposed times and temperatures with your actual routine, then ask the chatbot to correct any assumption that does not fit.
   6. Enter the schedule in the thermostat app or controller, comparing each screen with the stated model instructions and removing any setting the controller does not support.
   7. Run the schedule while checking room comfort and the controller's actual programme, then compare energy use with a similar period while accounting for weather and changes in occupancy before deciding whether to keep it.

   Prompt

   Create a practical heating schedule for my home using only the information below.
   
   Home and heating system:
   - Heating system or thermostat brand and model: [insert if known]
   - Rooms or zones controlled separately: [insert]
   - Current heating control options, such as timed periods, weather compensation or smart controls: [insert]
   - Hot water controlled by the same system: [yes/no/unknown]
   - Any occupants who need a different temperature or routine: [insert]
   
   Routine:
   - Usual wake-up time on weekdays: [insert]
   - Usual leave-home time on weekdays: [insert]
   - Usual return-home time on weekdays: [insert]
   - Usual bedtime on weekdays: [insert]
   - Weekend routine: [insert]
   - Days when someone is usually at home: [insert]
   
   Preferences and constraints:
   - Comfortable temperature range: [insert]
   - Rooms that should not be heated routinely: [insert]
   - Known cold rooms, draughts or damp: [insert]
   - Frost-protection or pipe-protection concerns: [insert]
   - Energy tariff or cheaper periods, if relevant: [insert]
   - Current schedule and any recent problem: [insert]
   
   Give me:
   1. A weekday and weekend schedule for each zone, with times and target temperatures.
   2. A version that uses the fewest heating periods if the system cannot set different temperatures.
   3. Exact steps for entering the schedule in the stated thermostat or controller, but say clearly when the model is unknown and do not invent menu names.
   4. The assumptions and missing information that could change the recommendation.
   5. A simple way to test comfort and compare energy use without claiming a guaranteed saving.
   
   Do not claim that you can connect to or control my heating. Do not invent settings, energy savings, tariff rates or safety facts. Keep hot water controls separate unless the information above confirms they are linked. Flag any situation involving vulnerable occupants, freezing conditions, damp or a suspected boiler fault for advice from the manufacturer, a qualified heating engineer or another appropriate professional.

   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