Last Updated on: 30th March 2023, 04:32 pm
We live in a time when it’s difficult to keep the bills paid every month and food on the table. Families are doing everything they can to save a few dollars. Everyone knows that installing a new, more energy efficient furnace is important to saving money, but how many people think about the thermostat?
The programmable thermostat is responsible for monitoring and regulating the temperature of the entire house. Older thermostats, especially analog, can misread the temperature and may end up costing you money over time. Imagine setting the heat for 70, but the thermostat misreads the internal temperature and ends up taking you up to 75, or vice versa during the summer. That’s a lot of energy being burned for no reason.
Many programmable thermostats (and now even smart thermostats) can be found on the market, the Google Nest Thermostat being one of the most popular. Smart thermostats can help you save money and give you more control over your home. These devices are also more convenient to use than traditional thermostats. It is important to consider the features you will use most and how much time you want to spend setting up your thermostat when choosing a smart thermostat. While the price of installing a smart thermostat may be the same as installing an ordinary programmable thermostat, the smart hardware is more expensive.
Installing a programmable thermostat isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
Before You Start Your Thermostat Installation
It’s necessary to inspect the existing thermostat and the wires that run from the furnace to the thermostat in order to determine whether the current setup is suitable for a programmable thermostat, or if an additional wire is needed.
The main goal for installing a programmable thermostat in a house is to connect the thermostat to the furnace to turn it on and off. However, before you can do this, you have to figure out how the wires are connected.
Make sure that the new thermostat is large enough to fit over the hole in the wall. You might need to make a small cutout for the faceplate so it will cover the hole completely.
1. Turn off the furnace/central air unit and circuit breaker
Safety is our first and primary concern, so make sure there is no current running to the furnace or central air unit. Electrical shock is a trip to the ER at best and the cemetery at its worst.
2. Most thermostats can be removed easily
By removing a few screws and simply pulling it out, you expose the connections and wiring. It’s important that the wiring be connected correctly, so if you can, take a picture of the connection with a digital camera. Then you can reference exactly where they were on the old system when installing the new one.
3. Disconnect the wires from the old thermostat
The wires are held loosely in the wall, so be careful not to let them fall down into the wall crevice out of reach. They can be a pain to dig out of the small hole and the last thing you want to do is put more holes in the wall.
4. Install the new thermostat
Before installing your new thermostat, you should attach the face plate to the wall with the included fasteners, then thread the wires through and connect them to the new thermostat.
Screw in the mounting plate for the new thermostat and pull the wires through the holes in the plate.
5. Reconnect the thermostat wiring
Connect the wires to the thermostat terminals, matching them to the original thermostat connections. The new thermostat should simply snap to the new plate. Voila, the thermostat is fully installed. Turn on the breaker and set the settings according to your preferences. Turn on the furnace/central air unit and make sure everything works properly.
The installation is simple and you could end up saving big bucks over the next several years.
Thermostat Installation Cost
Thermostats have been around for a long time. Even though these devices have been used to manage heating and cooling cycles inside the average house for a while, they aren’t well understood. Most people don’t have the time and will to learn how to install a thermostat, no matter how straightforward it is. They are more interested in painting a room than installing a thermostat, but this can be a costly mistake.
When it comes to a home comfort system upgrade, the cost depends on the size of the house, if the thermostat is wired for smart control, as well as the specific model. For an average thermostat, homeowners can expect to pay $200 to $650. The price of the installation will depend largely on the size and type of the room.
DIY thermostat installation
If you’re trying to decide between learning how to install a programmable thermostat and hiring a professional to do it for you, consider the cost savings and ease of doing so yourself, it is easier than you think.
If you’re more into videos, here’s one where the guy installs a replacement Honeywell thermostat, followed by a transcript.
Today, we’re taking a look at how to install a thermostat, so you notice your thermostat has been around the block for a few years and it’s time to give it a much-needed upgrade in this case. We’re gonna use the Honeywell thermostat, but the steps that we’re gonna take today will work for any brand, and this is what we get in the box. We have the manual the screws and anchors and the thermostat we’re gonna need a set, a screwdriver, or a drill. I’m gonna leave a link for that, a thermostat and another Wi-Fi thermostat in the description. If you’re interested now, let’s go ahead and start the installation remember that safety is the number one thing
So the first thing we want to do is turn off the breaker that gives electricity to the thermostat. Now we could go ahead and start removing the old thermostat and now. Finally, after 20 years, he can get his well-deserved retirement at the recycling center. Now that we have removed the first cap, we’re gonna locate the screws to remove the second cap. We proceed on removing the screws. In this case, there are three, and now that we removed that other layer.
Now we have access to the wiring, and here on the system we only have four wires that are used. We have our wire, the W wire, the G wire, and the wire. Let’s go ahead and take a picture of the wires in case.
We need to look back to verify where each wire goes now: let’s go ahead and label each wire with a corresponding letter. You can use paper or tape or if your system came with stickers with labels, you can use those as well. Now we can proceed to remove the screws that hold the wires in now we’re ready to remove the final casing. In this case, we only have to remove the two final screws. If in your case, you have paint around the casing, it’d be best to take the blade and cut all around to make sure that the paint doesn’t come out with your thermostat and then have a bigger paint job than the one you might require. Let’s go ahead and group the wires together, so we could take out the last layer and if you notice that your wires don’t hold up by themselves, you’ll always wrap a pencil with a rubber band, so they won’t go in back in the hole in our taste.
They’re very stiff, so we won’t need to do that now. Let’s go ahead and bring the wiring housing for the new thermostat, and if you have a level you can use the level to level your new thermostat. You can eyeball it or you can set it. However, you want, at the end of the day, you’re the king of your castle. Now that we have our housing level, we can go ahead and place the two screws that hold it in place.
If your wires are not straight, this would be the perfect time to straighten them. Now, let’s go ahead and place each wire according to the letter of its location, and we do that by loosening the screw on the bottom lefty-loosey righty-tighty. So we could go ahead and insert the wire inside once inside. We can go ahead and tighten it and check that it is snug.
Now we could go ahead and turn on the breaker, so we could turn this bad boy on the place. Your batteries in the thermostat and set your system either to gas or oil or to electric or heat pump and connect the thermostat to the wire housing. Now you could pad yourself in the back for a job. Well done, don’t forget if you liked the video give us a thumbs up. That really helps. If you have any questions, please them in the comment section below don’t forget to subscribe. Follow us on social media. Thank you for watching and here’s a link to our latest video.
