Can someone recommend a good programmable thermostat?

i have a Honeywell, but remember your needs and how you live...There are some that you can program 7 days a week and 4 times a day, and others that are more simple...I am a firm believer in getting what i need and what i'm going to use... There are some for furnaces only and others for furnaces AND ac units...

they are easy to replace...just follow the directions...My thermostat wires coming out of the wall didn't have a lot of extra wire, so i wrapped the wire around a pencil to keep the wire from falling back into the wall....I'd never find it then....

I have a venstar, it is what was installed with my new energy saving air/heater.

that's a pretty elaborate system George

Ive been thinking about getting one of these programmable devices as well, although I need something much simpler because complexity tends to make me lazy

Just considering that its going to cost double to heat a home this winter, it should pay for itself in about 5 minutes

Ooh I was about to ask this question!

Actually I was talking to a friend about going green and she told me about this Ontario-centric carbon footprint calculator. The website suggested programmable thermostats and ceiling fans as one method of going green.

The website is [URL=http://www.additupontario.ca]

www.yourhome.honeywell.com

They have several to read about.. if you are a DIYer... they have some nice Honeywells at the box stores...
Most important... is your lifestyle... sometimes a $35 entry level will do very nicely...
I have 3 of the Vision Pro 8100 here.. love them..big screen ( it helps with those of us in the bifocal stage of life... this one reminds me when to change filters, uv bulbs... plus outside options... but the best part... I can take it off the wall without upsetting the program and sit down to do any program changes... These are available through HVAC supply houses.. they will cost a little more too..

There is a new series that will let you change the program from a remote site too... how cool is that... There are days I'd like to go to a remote site!!!

Becky

In my county in Northern Virginia, our power company is testing a system where our thermostat is interactive from a computer. If we leave home and forgot to turn down the heat/ac, we can simply go online and turn it down from there. This is still in the pilot phase, but seems like a great idea. We have used it already. The thermostat itself is a White/Rodgers.

Check with your local power company and see if they have such a program.

Allison
http://www.novapros.com

I've had 2 AC contractors/electricians tell me keep our non prorammable thermostat. ofcourse I have trouble programming my cell phone...

Depending on your lifestyle.. programmable might not be your best bet... Do go to digital.. more accurate... You can no longer buy t-stats with mercury in them...

I'm like you.. I hate tp program anything.. just make it run.. so that's one reason I liked the Vision Pro.. I can take it off the wall .. read the manual.. program & watch tv ( does that count as muti tasking???) while the system continues to run...

The older t-stats might be off by 3-4 degrees.. and that can add up to energy dollars...

I have always used a programmable digital one...just got a brand new White Rogers one and really like it....yes programming takes a few minutes but I usually set it for what works for us...but it reality I usually manually put in on hold when I am home to the temp I want and adjust it to use less energy when I am going to be away for awhile...else turn the thing off. I guess I like the program most for when we get up early during the school year...to have the heat automatically come up just before we rise...we keep it quite cold at night.....

What I like about my new unit is it does not have a high pitched beep when I manually change the temp...which used to bug me when I would adjust it right outside the childrens rooms when they were asleep. It says energy star...but I suppose all programmable do...it uses 2 batteries for screen vs 3 of my older unit.

Like so many things hyped to save energy (or save the planet) programmable thermostats may, or may not, do a thing for you.

I haven't used the programmable function on my thermostat since I retired three years ago because I no longer am on a fixed schedule. Today I awoke at 9 AM and I just now (12:15) turned up the thermostat. It was about 65 degrees when I awoke and it is now 67 and I finally felt cold. I will bring the temperature up to about 69 where it will stay without any furnace action until the sun goes down tonight. I may bump the temperature up to 70 later this evening and then back down to 60 before I go to bed.

For those on a fixed schedule a programmable thermostat is a very good idea. Do NOT buy anything but a 7-day programmable, in my area ONLY 7-day programmable are allowed under the building code. Any "decent" programmable thermostat has the ability to copy the program from one day to additional days so it is no more difficult to program a 7 day unit than it is it program a 5-2 or a 5-1-1.

The best thermostats have what is known as "adaptive recovery" and these will learn the characteristics of your heating system so as to wait until the last moment before energizing the heating system to attain the programmed temperature at the programmed time.

If you have a two-stage furnace then you need a two-stage thermostat. Some two-stage furnaces are installed with a single stage thermostat and these should be changed to two-stage units to properly gain the advantages of two stage furnaces.

If you have a heat pump then using a programmable thermostat may, under certain conditions actually cause you to have HIGHER heating costs because the thermostat will energize the back-up (emergency) electric heaters when the temperature setting is raised. There are thermostats available that will "lock out" the electric heat for normal operation of a programmable temperature change.

i had an Aube and it had a few more features than the carrier i have in this house. Four time periods in the day and each day could be programmed separately. Definitely recommend it.
http://www.aubetech.com/

They also carry hard wired light timers for outdoor lights which work great. Those can be found at LampsPlus.

I have a Honeywell 7 day programmable thermostat. Actually, one for upstairs, one for downstairs. They paid for themselves very quickly. They were fairly quick to program, and like Fund said, if there are days you think your schedule is the same, you can easily copy features over to each day with the touch of a button. Or, you can ask it to "hold" and ignore the "schedule" with the touch of a button. Another poster just reminded me I need to set the reminder about the furnace filter - I didn't do that at the first, and forgot about that feature! (I usually write it on my calendar instead, as I buy those 90 day ones.)

The biggest plus I have found is that when it's on "schedule" it automatically turns down the heat after we go to sleep and turns it up before we get up. This has been a huge ** saver. Many times, I would get in bed and THEN remember I didn't turn down the thermostat. While I MIGHT get up to adjust the upstairs one, I NEVER went downstairs to adjust that one. In the summer, it allowed the upstairs to get hotter (we don't spend much time there) until we went to sleep. They absolutely paid for themselves within two months. I have been very pleased. And as an aside, it looks much more attractive on the wall than my 30 year old non-programmable one. It also regulates the temperature much better than the old one.

We've had a Lennox 7 day, 4 x day programmable thermostat for years. The 4 x day are shown as Wake, Leave, Return, Sleep but we control the time of day for each of these. When we go away for any length of time, we turn the air up or the heat down. We normally keep the temp the same but if I get too hot/cool I can adjust with one button...I don't have to reprogram. Our control unit is removable without interrupting operation if I want to sit down to program.

It has served us well over the years.