Installing thermostat.

[unregistered358967]

Going from an old programmable to a newer touch screen (couldn't do the Nest-type one..the big brother aspect worries me!)

Anyway, me with not much handyman experience, is it feasible to expect I can do this myself? Youtube was of help and it didn't look too difficult. Since the SO is mostly gone now I thought I might surprise him by installing it and taking it off his honey-do list.

[haypoint]

Two basic types of thermostats. Low voltage and the ones that operate electric baseboard heaters.

Replacement is easy, but if it is for electric heat, be sure to shut off the electricity.

Installation is easy, for me, but programming it afterwards not so easy.

[unregistered358967]

Thank you. I need to figure out which switch controls the furnace, that much I know..

[Earthling]

If yours is simple with very few wires then you might have no problems. For me, I had to learn how to configure a three-stage heat, two-stage cooling setup and that took a lot of internet research because industry standards are pretty loose when it comes to the labeling and wire colors. I learned more than I ever wanted to know.

[geo in mi]

Most newer ones will have color codes on the terminals....red, green, yellow, etc, Take the old one apart to the point where you can see the wires. If, indeed they are hooked color of terminal to correct color wire, then they are okay at furnace and not crossed. The new unit should be color coded, too, just hook color to color......

geo

[unregistered353870]

Don't know about the touch screen, but I'm guessing it's just as easy as the old fashioned button kind. That's very easy...5-10 minutes to change out if you go slow.

[unregistered358967]

Thank u all. It's on my to do list..right after draining the koi pond the previous owners left.

[ninny]

When you remove the old t-stat, on the base plate you'll see that each of the terminals has a letter next to it, i.e. GYRW etc. Usually the t-stat wire coming into the t-stat will have color coded wires, these being Red, Yellow, Blue, White Green. Unless someone had their own way of wiring the t-stat, the letter on the base of the t-stat will take the color of the t-stat wire. Example: R terminal/Red wire, W terminal/ White wire, G terminal/ Green wire, and so on. Just make note of what color wire goes to a terminal on the t-stat base and you shouldn't have a problem. You may have a wire or two left over, take note of how many wires the old t-stat used. If you have a couple of wires left over, don't worry. We always used a 6-strand t-stat wire but 99% of the time only used 4 of them, so two were left over.

.

[agmantoo]

Never try to make a simple replacement from and older thermostat to a newer thermostat without having the experience/training to go into the unit and verifying where each wire goes. Going from a simple older thermostat to a more current thermostat (programmable) can create issues you never expected. I had a tenant to attempt to just reprogram a thermostat. That did not work for him so he took the thermostat Lowe's. A Lowe's employe "told him what to do" and he then attempted to replace the thermostat. I got a call 2 days later. His home was cold and the heatpump had ran continuously for the last 24 hours plus. When I got there the heatpump was a block of ice. The reason I am posting this is to just let you know that there is no color code wiring standard and some units depending on the manufacturer are not consistent with the wiring between brands. It is not a simple change out so be cautious.