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Energy Saver: Programmable Thermostat Upgrade
(continued ...) that most of these units have that I find to be useless is the 'change filter' reminder. I've been through several and the timing is always wrong. And the filter change reset is nearly as difficult as the oil change reset on my car. Read the article on filters for the proper time to change filters.
These thermostats are programmed based on time-of-day. As the seasons change, it takes longer or shorter for your equipment to get to that programmed set point. This is that other complication I talked about earlier on about the high end of set-up set-point in cooling mode. A properly sized air conditioning system may never recover in time to be back to your comfort target when you want it to be if the upper limit is too high. You'll find that this begins to intrude on your comfort as the equipment is running but still a long way from getting your house comfortable at the time you've set. One feature that I recommend and use is the ability for the thermostat to 'learn' how well it did the day before. Different manufacturers name this feature differently from 'smart warm-up', 'intelligent return' and 'smart response.' Then, just program in when you want your home back to temperature and the on-board computer starts earlier or later based on how well it performed the day before. The bottom line is, when I set 5 AM as my wake up time, I want it to be at the programmed temperature when I get out of bed. Of course, this feature is only found on the more expensive thermostats upwards of $80 but I recommend it as the best solution.
Now you're ready to do it. First, let's discuss a few words about safety. Likely, your system control is 24 volts AC. If your system is all electric baseboard or electric radiant ceiling, you could have 120 volts or 240 volts control power. If this is the ...