My House is Drafty,should I Replace My Thermostat?

It is relatively easy to replace a thermostat for the average do it yourself person. Most of the time you simply loosen a few screws, remove five or six wires, pull the old stat off the wall, put the new one on the wall and re mount it using the two screws and anchors that come with the stat.

Then simply put the wires back on the same terminals that they were on the old stat. Most of the time the process is fairly easy and most people are able to do this with no real problems. There are a few problems that people have, such as hooking up the jumper between the Rh and the Rc terminal or not to and whether or not you your new thermostat needs a common wire or maybe they did not mark which wires went where, before they took the old one off the wall. I get people calling and emailing all the time about issues like this.

The first thing I always try to identify before I start trouble shooting for them is why was the original thermostat replaced? Was there a problem or some reason that they decided to replace the old stat to begin with. The answer most of the time is yes there was a reason.

Very seldom do people replace their thermostat simply to up grade it. Usually they are un happy with the operation of the furnace, or they sense a draft in the home and think that its the thermostat, or they want to reduce operating costs by installing a programmable thermostat. But very seldom do people replace a thermostat that is doing its job.

The issue is that people who do not trouble shoot for a living, generally can not recognize the difference between a thermostat problem, a mechanical problem or a system problem. So the do it yourselfer will start by replacing the thermostat when they sense a problem with eh system. I have been working in the industry for a long time and I can tell you that even when I did a lot of repairs that most of the time, if a thermostat was faulty, it was always faulty - I mean it usually was not an intermittent problem. If the thermostat was going bad, the problem might happen, once or twice and usually after that, you had a full time problem. A thermostat problem is not one of those things where it happens this morning and once last year - usually once you have a problem with a thermostat its a constant problem. The general rule I used to tell my customers is that when it comes to thermostats, unless the unit was knocked off the wall, or removed and remounted, unless there was a power surge or maybe you did not replace the batteries in the last few years the chances of your stat just going out, are act7ually pretty thin.

Most likely, if you think you have a thermostat problem you probably have a system problem.

If you're trying to save money by replacing the thermostat and you're wrong, then you just spent money you could have put towards having a qualified service technician come and and perform a diagnostic test on your system. If you think that the thermostat is not operating properly, then you are at least 50% correct - there is a chance that something is not operating properly and my point is that if you recognize that something is different and feel motivated to replace the thermostat, then my advice is to save your money and have the system looked at by a professional because as I said before, real and true thermostat failures are very far and few in-between. Most likely you are going to put the new thermostat on trying to solve a problem and end up calling someone out anyway because the stat was never the cause. Most thermostat failures I have ever run into were caused by something else and a stat failure is usually just a symptom of a different problem.

The majority of people who write or call me about thermostat replacement issues - trying to figure out how to wire up a replacement stat - usually have replaced the stat for the wrong reason. If you think you have a problem, you're right and its time to call someone who can trouble shoot.

I am not saying that thermostats do not go bad, they do. My point is that usually, issues that you will notice which may be intermittent or all of a sudden are not thermostat problems at all.

If you want a new thermostat because you want to upgrade with the latest technology that's one thing but if you're replacing a thermostat to fix a problem that’s another. Call a professional to fix problems, if the system is over 15 years old consider replacing it.

Good luck

John