ROI on programmable thermostats

[Jacob Pereira]

Hello all,

Yesterday I installed my first Wifi enabled thermostat and I'm in love. Basically, Home Depot was offering 30% off of their thermostats, and my local utility (Austin Energy) offers an $85 rebate on thermostats that are internet enabled and join their peak load-shedding program. In other words, I'll end up paying about $15 for the new thermostat, and I expect to make that back in a month or two. 

I'd be ecstatic to extend this benefit to all of my tenants because I think it pays for itself very quickly, but I'm also aware that most people won't pay extra rent for this benefit, even if it'll save them money in the long term. Does anyone have any idea how to extract ROI out of energy efficiency in a rental?