Never mind Bronco season or Rockies season – we’re coming into dial-down season.

Yes, autumn has returned and with it comes an easy opportunity to save energy. Adjusting your home’s thermostat by 7 to 10 degrees when you’re not home can save as much as 10% on your energy bills, according to the Department of Energy. But of course, we’ve all got a lot of things on our mind. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to remember?

It’s time to meet the smart thermostat.

We’ve mentioned these gadgets before, back when we were talking about distributed energy resources (DERs), the small-scale energy resources that connect directly to the local electric grid. While many DERs are big and obvious, like an electric car or a rooftop solar panel, smart thermostats are both small and simple. As the name suggests, they make it easy to manage your home’s heating and cooling schedule, giving you the ability to make adjustments automatically when you’re away or asleep, or even tweak the temperature while you’re gone through an app on your smart phone.

Those small adjustments can make a big difference. And it’s simple to do. A visit to the Efficiency Works Store will help you find several to choose from, often with built-in rebates.

Want to go still farther? Have Efficiency Works give your home a low-cost energy assessment, so that you can see other opportunities to save energy, such as window improvements or weatherproofing. Once you decide what you want done, there are more rebates available to help out. (And for income-qualified families, there are even opportunities to get some free energy efficiency improvements through the CARE program from Energy Outreach Colorado.)

 Check it out. You may just find yourself warming to the opportunities.