Replacing a thermostat - how easy/difficult?
Thinking about replacing the thermostat in our 4-unit co-op. The boiler is from the mid-80s, but still seems to work fine–it’s the #@#$% thermostat with its little blue and red pins for setting the time/temperature cycles that’s driving me crazy. Is replacing it easy? Can I just go to Lowes and buy a nice, new-fangled,…
Thinking about replacing the thermostat in our 4-unit co-op. The boiler is from the mid-80s, but still seems to work fine–it’s the #@#$% thermostat with its little blue and red pins for setting the time/temperature cycles that’s driving me crazy. Is replacing it easy? Can I just go to Lowes and buy a nice, new-fangled, easy-to-program digital thermostat to swap in? Do I need to know the specifics of the boiler itself in order to choose one? And is replacing/installing the thermostat a DIY thing, or do we need an electrician to do it?
Many thanks!!
WARNING!
There are TWO types of thermostat! One that uses low voltage, you can just pop them on and put the new one back on. The other kind uses direct, full power.
The second kind is as dangerous as any electricity. Turn Off Your Power!
The second type is equally easy… just more like changing a light switch and less like changing a 9 volt battery. More killing power.
Also, the second type has very expensive thermostats. I wanted to get a new one for an old apartment, and was very annoyed. The $12 low-voltage thermostat is $40 in the high-voltage version… and fewer fancy options…. actually fewer options, period.
Very easy to do, but if your fellow members are so challenged, don’t tell them that electricity is involved 😉
Um, don’t think so superstooper… Haven’t yet discussed this with any my neighbors (who are incidentally all upstairs from me)… But good luck!
I was just having this conversation over wine with upstairs neighbors from my four unit co-op. If you are the neighbor that I am thinking of, there is no way you are going to install this on your own. Not without a lot of wine, anyway. LOL!
Yay! Thanks. Now I just have to convince my slightly less DIY-inclined fellow co-op members to let me do it… 😉
Did really just manage to spell expensive with a Z? Anyway thermostats are very simple devices. They are a relay that is activated by a timer and a thermometer. Go with one you find aesthetically pleasing and simple to program.
Okay, I know this isn’t the kind of first hand experience you come to me for, but I was visiting my sister and she said it was easy.
Seriously: she was trying to convince me that we should buy a new thermostat even though we’re planning to move within a year. We were raised by a handyman, but she swears she didn’t have to call him. I think she did employ his Consumer Reports password to choose it.
Painless. Though one caveat – from my experience, the more expenzive the thermostat, the better written the instructions.