You are correct, make note of the wire colors, remove the old, install the new. I'm actually a big fan of the new wi-fi enabled; we can be gone for a weekend and I can turn the temp down (or up in the winter) from my phone on our way home.

I had a Honeywell at my old house which I loved; we recently downsized into a new place and our local electric provider gave us a great deal on a Nest ($129 plus a Google Mini) so I went with that. If you don't want the wifi I can sell you the programmable one that came with the condo (it's new); retails for $89 I'd sell it for $50.

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I miss YaHey

I'm a nest guy, but I understand you reluctance to go that direction. I've had my share of problems over the few years they have been installed.

Go to HD and check out what is on display. They make a several "dumb" thermostats that come very close to mimicking the smart thermostats in a lot of ways.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

There is no reason to turn the power off.

Thanks guys, I'm kind of old fashioned and was very happy with how it worked, just had to change batteries. I would like some modern convince, but in most of the reports I have been reading, there are problems to be worked out. I'm gone a lot from here, and dont want to have some accident of my house being cooled to 60 in the summer, when it is 100 outside all day, will cost a fortune. Same goes for heating, a blip could empty my propane tank in a week, then my pipes will freeze..

Guess same reason I will not get electronic shifting on my bikes, too many things could go wrong, seems like everyone has a story. I'm fine shifting on my own, just have to worry about one thing, a cable...

I will go to Home Depot and have a look, and see what the high school kid has to say...

The actual install should be pretty straightforward but can be dependent on the type of heating system you have. If you live in an older home and have a steam heating system (like me) you may only have two wires to your thermostat from the boiler. I recently installed a new WiFi thermostat and needed an additional C wire to the stat or it wouldn't have worked properly. This was easy enough but I had easy access to be able to run a new wire and knew how/where to make the appropriate connections to the boiler, but it could complicate things if you're not comfortable doing that.

So, make sure the thermostat you choose is going to play nicely with the heating/cooling system you have. Some brands of thermostats (including the Nest stats) don't always work well with steam or forced hot water systems. You should also check if your local utility or state agency offers any sort of rebates. I'm in MA and the rebate program is pretty nice. I paid about $120 for the thermostat and the MassSave program rebates up to $125 for WiFi thermostats.

As for the WiFi, the main reason I wanted a WiFi thermostat is for it's ability to notify me when things aren't doing what they are supposed to. I get emails if the heat drops below a certain temp or goes above a certain temp, which would tell me that something isn't working right. Not really necessary when we're home, but I nice perk for when we're away. I also get notices if the stat loses it's connection to WiFi for more than certain amount of time. This would tell me the power is out, or the WiFi is out, or something else is wrong. In any case, I would know there is something that requires some investigating.

I previously worked for Nest. They make a good product but it's not perfect. Same with similar products. I have a Honeywell thermostat installed. It works great. You can access it remotely which I have found very beneficial. If you do decide to go to a Nest like product sometimes you need to add a ground wire because 4 wires just won't work. Good luck.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

I am not sure about that. At least on my system (baseboard hot water), the thermostats are on a 24VAC circuit, and shorting the wires out accidentally can burn out the transformer. There should be a light switch that turns off the system, so it's easier that figuring out which circuit breaker it is.

Always turn the power off. If you accidentally cross a wire you could blow the circuit board. I heard may stories of customer doing that.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

I have replaced dozens of thermostats without turning the power off. Guess I just don't let any wires touch each other.

Disregard my previous comment.

The Wi-Fi thermostats don't use wifi to control your AC units. That's what all those wires you're reconnecting are for. Rather, the wifi gives you an extra ability to view status and/or change settings without being directly in front of the thermostat. If your wifi drops, everything on the thermostat itself still functions normally.

Nest is a great option. I've been happy with the EcoBee unit we put in two years ago. The EcoBee let us put some remote thermometers throughout the house, which let the system better adapt to rooms we were/weren't using at different times of the day.

I previously worked for Nest. They make a good product but it's not perfect. Same with similar products. I have a Honeywell thermostat installed. It works great. You can access it remotely which I have found very beneficial. //

Thanks for the candid review. Seems Nest is the go to for a lot of people going aftermarket now too. With all the information you guys gave me, I think I will go with a smart device, since it is not contingent on working if the internet goes out. As I understand it, just its information and remote functions will be gone, and it continues to work as a dumb device..


Thanks everyone, and yes Jim, I would probably either cross the wires, or when unscrewing the wires, cause a connection with the screw driver. Congratulations on having surgical skills in all of your electric endeavors... (-;

Keep this in mind...

The program is resident in the Nest unit - it doesn't need to talk the outside world to run the program. However, there is no way I would attempt to program the unit at the unit itself. You can adjust temp my rolling the outside ring, and you can turn it off and on by accessing the menu, put past that the menu is a very big pain in the ass to negotiate. Just entering the Wi-Fi password at set up can be exasperating if it is long with special characters and a mix of small and caps.

I would assume the other major players are the same. Also keep in mind that not all AC/heat combinations work with Nest, as much as Google likes to make you believe. My AC units, new in 2014, work with the Nest and the Nest E but require a C-Wire. My gas furnace refused to work with the Nest (short cycled the unit over and over) even with a C-wire, but works with the Nest E without a C-wire. Since I have a split system - 2 AC systems - I have a Nest E for one AC unit, a Nest E for the furnace, and a Nest for the other AC unit. The Nest was bought to replace the dumb thermostat that controlled both the AC and furnace (the E can't do that) but the furnace wouldn't work. Now I have 2 thermostats on the wall next to each other.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

We have the ecobee4 and like it.

While connected to wifi allows you to change it remotely, if it doesn't have wifi it acts like a normal thermostat.

What we like
1. Multiple sensors so can decide which one is important
2. Two story house and can run the HVAC fan to equilibrate temperature upstairs vs. downstairs without kicking in the AC
3. Ability to remotely monitor and change before we get home, etc.
4. Discount from local electric company paid for portion of it - same for nest etc.
5. Prefer the programming ability over the Nest - I wanted programmable vs. learning (or my understanding of nest learning)

We also discovered a problem with our furnace because we purchased it. Short story is that we had a bad sensor and as the furnace heated up, it would trip the sensor and shut off the furnace. The blower would not stop so until it cooled the sensor down below the "trip point" and the system and everything would reset and start over if the thermostat had not reached temperature. By looking at the data for our furnance, we were able to identify the problem as when it shut down the furnace, the board and ecobee would shutdown/restart. The gap in the data were consistent and we called someone in to take a look.

With our old battery thermostat it we never noticed - the fan kept running when the furnace shut down, and then the furnace kicked once it re-set. Apparently it is not uncommon to identify these types of faults with a smart thermostat - the combination of power from the circuit board and data collection.