saving heat

We've been talking about replacing the 2nd floor thermostat with a programmable model like the one we have on our first floor. So we went to the H0me Dep0t a couple of weeks ago and picked one up.

It was with a chuckle and interest that I read Weese's tip about installing their thermostat and providing the step by step tutorial in such fine form. If you read her blog, you know she is very thorough, so make sure, if you want an end to end solution go right to that post and you'll find it. I am sharing my experience, just in case you have some of the same questions I came across in my not-so-perfect installation.

First up, I read my instruction pamphlet. It told me to turn the electricity off, which I did by going to the garage panel and shutting the heat off. I did wonder whether the thermostat would still have electricity running to it, even though the heat was off. I didn't get electrified so I guess I did it correctly.

I read that all I would need was a phillips screwdriver and a drill. The instructions said I could easily pop off the cover of the old thermostat which I did carefully, just in case the project went south and I had to put the old thermostat back in place. I had to go find a small slotted screwdriver to take the rest of the old thermostat off the wall. Note to self: always bring more tools than you think you need because you'll end up running up and down two sets of stairs to the cellar and back.

The hardest part of the job was determining what labels matched up with the three wires that were attached to the old part. Two of them did not show up on the handy strip of labels that came with the new thermostat. Oh Oh. I was attempting to follow these fine instructions but it was going to take a little guessing to determine which wire went where.

After spending more than a small amount of time attaching the three wires to the new thermostat, loading up the batteries, and screwing it back on the wall, it was ready to test my handywork.

First though, one must relight the gas furnace to make it all work. This is always scary to me, as I take a long match stick, press the pilot knob down and stick the match in. Always hoping that the furnace works as it should and lights the little light that runs the furnace.

Ah, but look how nice the new one looks next that old thing I replaced. Just a couple of hours later and we have programmable heat upstairs near the bedrooms and don't have to worry about whether the temperature has been turned down before we've turned in.