A child lock option on a reverse cycle heating and cooling system might not seem like a must-have feature; however, this is a useful little button. Sited on your control unit, a lock prevents anyone from using the system when they shouldn't. They need to know how to unlock the control pad before they can use it.
Why buy a system with a child lock feature?
Keep Your Control Settings Intact
When you set up your heating and cooling system, you'll probably spend a bit of time programming the controls to automate how it works. For example, you might set timers to have your aircon or heating come on automatically at certain times of the day or night. You might set temperature level ranges for both cooling and heating in individual zones in your home.
Kids can mess these settings up. Younger kids might just find it fun to press all the buttons when they're bored, especially if the buttons beep when kids press them; older kids might press the wrong buttons when they try to turn the unit on or off or change its settings.
The end result is the same. A few lucky presses could reset the control pad so that you lose some or all of your original programming. You'll have to set it all up again to get it back to where you want it.
Keep Control of Your Energy Costs
If you run heating and cooling systems a lot, then your energy bills go up. While you want your system to keep your house at the right temperature to make things comfortable, you don't want to waste money unnecessarily.
Your kids may not understand this. After all, they don't have to pay the bills. If they can use your system's controls, then they could turn the aircon or heating on or up when they feel like it even when it makes no sense.
For example, say your teenager brings some mates home after school. It's a hot day so they turn the aircon up. They then go and play footy in the garden, leaving the aircon on and a load of doors and windows open.
Your system will work overtime to heat the ventilated room. It doesn't even need to be on if nobody is actually indoors. Here, you'd basically pay for your aircon to run cold air out of your house.
If you have a child lock, then your child can't mess with the controls. You can ensure that the system is only used when necessary.
To find out more about child locks and how they work, talk to your heating and cooling contractor.
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