Thermostat, meet Palm Pilot.
Written: Mar 12 '05 (Updated Mar 31 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use, battery backup, backlit touchscreen display, detachable for "armchair programming"
Cons: Somewhat expensive, but energy savings WILL pay for it within a couple of months.
The Bottom Line: With a screwdriver, 30 minutes, and a hundred bucks, you can reduce your heating and cooling bills by 50% or more without impacting your quality of life. Amazing? You betcha!
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| puter's Full Review: Honeywell Vision PRO 7-Day Touch-Screen Programmab... |
UPDATED March 13, 2005
UPDATED March 31, 2005
(updates toward end)
Why a programmable thermostat?
I recently moved to a new house and the heating bill the first month was insane! After some experimentation I found out that if I just wear warm clothes and only run the thermostat at night, I could shave about $60 off my gas bill. Sure, that's all fine and dandy, but it's sort of a waste because the furnace is running for 10 or 12 hours a day, 8 of which I'm sleeping!
So why not just turn down the thermostat before going to bed? Because I HATE getting out of bed when it's 20 degrees colder outside of the covers! I do a pretty good job of adjusting my thermostat when I come and go, but occasionally I still forget and waste lots of energy when I'm not home.
A programmable thermostat will let you regulate the temperature more when you're awake and at home, and less when you're away or asleep. So, rather than running the furnace only 4 hours when I'm awake and still being a little chilly, I can run it longer and be warmer.
Not all programmable thermostats are created equal
I spent many hours over a period of several months researching programmable thermostats, and I learned that there are some distinct differences between them:
1) Make sure the programmable thermostat is the right one for your heating/cooling system. Some thermostats are made for conventional (gas or electric) furnaces, while others are made for heat pump systems, and yet others are made for high-efficiency furnaces. Then there are multi-stage heat pumps and all sorts of other variations on these systems.
2) You want to stay home every Wednesday? TOUGH!!! The cheaper programmable thermostats are 5-2 or 5-1-1 days, while the better ones are 7-day programmable. This tells you how many distinct programs you can have, and in a way the labeling is inconsistent. "5-2 programmable" means that you can have two distinct schedules, or programs for your thermostat: one that runs on weekdays and one that runs on weekends. Similarly, "5-1-1 programmable" means you can have three programs: one for weekdays, one for Saturday, and another for Sunday. On the other hand, "7-day programmable" means that you can have a separate schedule, or program, for every day of the week. So if you don't work on Wednesdays, you can have the furnace (or air conditioner) run all day long while you're at home, but still turn it off (or down) while you're gone the rest of the week.
3) Battery backup is always a good thing. Most programmable thermostats seem to have battery backup, so if the power goes out, you don't lose all of your temperature programs. Without a battery backup, you would have to reprogram all the temperature settings back into your system whenever the power goes out.
4) Installation. Physically installing the thermostat is just a matter of properly labeling the wires, removing the old thermostat, installing the new thermostat, and tightening some screws. Be sure to turn off the switch or breaker to your heating/cooling system while you're playing with the wires.
5) Initial setup. The Honeywell RTH8500D's initial setup is simply a matter of following some simple, straightforward instructions. The user manual walks you through entering all of the numeric setup codes. Cheaper, single-purpose thermostats (e.g., ones that only work for a conventional low-efficiency furnace) might not require any initial setup other than setting the date and time.
6) Ease of use. Honeywell did a study on programmable thermostats and found that most people who have them don't really use them. Instead they leave the thermostats in "hold" mode permanently and just manually set the thermostat whenever they want to adjust it. Basically, if it's not easy to use, you're not going to use it. I went through the instruction manual and used an online demo before deciding on a Honeywell Vision PRO 8000 series thermostat. Honeywell has done a fantastic job designing a simple, intuitive user interface. For those who are not much into computers, all this means is that it has easy-to-use controls that anyone can learn in just one or two minutes.
Advanced features
The Vision PRO RTH8500D has several features which really set it apart from the competition. First is a large backlit touchscreen display. Think of it like a simplified Palm Pilot that controls your furnace and A/C. It's easier to program than your VCR, and it's almost as easy to use as your microwave.
Programming
Probably one of the nicest features about this gadget is that the thermostat unit itself detaches from the base so you can sit down in a chair and program it during the commercials while you're watching your favorite TV show. As soon as you touch the screen, the backlight automatically turns on, making it easy to read the screen even in a dimly lit hallway or dark room.
There are 4 different periods in each day: wake up, leave, return, and sleep. These are pretty much self-explanatory. You want the temperature to be more comfortable when you wake up and return, and you want the furnace and A/C to run less when you're at work or sleeping. You can also cancel certain periods if you don't need them. For instance, if there are days when you are usually home all day, you can cancel the "leave" and "return" periods so you only have to program the "wake up" and "sleep" periods.
As I mentioned earlier, this thermostat also has a great user interface. You simply go into the program editing mode, choose which days you want to set this program for (you can select any days you want...Tues, Fri, and Sun if you want!), and set the heating temperature and cooling temperature for the different periods of those days. Press "done" and it saves your settings. Later on, you can individually edit each of those days if you wish to. Another nifty related feature is "copy." This lets you copy the settings from one day to another day.
There is also a "hold" mode that you can enable when you want to manually set the thermostat. I think most programmable thermostats have this feature, as well. But what the others may not have are additional programmable hold modes. The RTH8500D has additional temporary hold (for holding for a few hours, in increments of 15 minutes, or until the next scheduled time period) and a vacation hold mode. If you are going on vacation for two weeks, you can set the thermostat to hold at a certain temperature for 14 days. The thermostat will be sure to revert to its normal schedule 2 weeks later so your house will again be comfortable by the time you walk through the door.
Cleaning
What if the screen has all kinds of gunk on it from your greasy, grimy fingers? Honeywell has thought of everything, even that. You can press the "screen" button to disable the touchscreen for 30 seconds while you clean it off.
Other nifty things
Adaptive Intelligent Recovery (tm) is an additional feature that Honeywell has built into this thermostat. While cheaper models may heat and cool your house according to a schedule, many thermostats will simply turn the heating and cooling system on and off at those times. That means that if you programmed your cheaper model to warm your house to 70 degrees at 7 AM, your house might not actually be that warm until 7:10. Adaptive Intelligent Recovery automatically adjusts the time at which your furnace or A/C kicks in, ensuring that your house will be the right temperature at exactly the right time.
"When did I last change my filter?"
If you find yourself asking that question, you'll be happy to know that the RTH8500D also has a filter reminder feature. You can set it to 1, 3, 9, 12, or 36 months. If you always remember to change your filter on your own, you can also disable the reminder.
And, of course, no automated system is worth its weight in gold if it doesn't know about daylight savings time. This thermostat has a built-in calendar along with the built-in clock, so it knows when daylight savings starts and ends.
Who should buy it?
If you know what type of heating system you have and you know how to use a screwdriver, you can easily buy one of these things on eBay and install it yourself. Or, if you aren't comfortable doing that, just ask a handy friend or hire a professional to do it for you. Either way, you can save a lot of money in the long run.
--UPDATE March 13, 2005--
Cool, where do I get one?
I watched these on eBay for about four months to see how the prices fluctuated. After I had been watching the 8000-series models for a couple of months, I also found a new non-touchscreen model, the RTH7500D. Winning bids for the 8000 series typically ranged from about $70 to $150, usually with an additional $10 shipping. Winning bids for the RTH7500D were around $50 with $10 shipping. I paid $85 total for my 8500, which is the second lowest price I ever saw for any of the 8000-series thermostats.
My local Lowe's has a similar model (I think the 8000 or 8320), as well as the non-touchscreen RTH7500D. They sell the 8000-series one for about $120 and the 7500 for about $60. I had thought about buying the 7500 at Lowe's but opted for the 8500 because I had gone to Lowe's to buy something else instead that day and because I thought a touchscreen for about the same price would be cool. ;)
--UPDATE March 13, 2005--
How much money will it really save you?
My first month's heating bill this past winter was $190 with the thermostat set to a relatively comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit. After I put plastic on my sliding glass door and lowered the thermostat to 64 degrees, it went down to $180 the next month.
That was still far too expensive for me, so I basically stopped heating the house, except for 8-10 hours from bedtime until I left for work in the morning. On weekends I went ahead and turned the thermostat up (yes, up) to 58 for most of the weekend. Even though I froze my butt off, month #3 still cost me $120.
Then I finally bought and installed my Honeywell 8500. Even though the thermostat was only installed for a couple of weeks and the daily temperature averaged only 1 degree warmer than month #3, my bill came out to only $90 in month #4. Not only that, but I was actually pretty comfortable during those last two weeks! I programmed the thermostat to keep the temperature at 68 for a couple of hours in the morning, a couple hours at night, and all weekend long. So just to recap, in a mere 2 weeks with this thermostat, I was able to save an additional $30 on my heating bill yet turn the thermostat back up to what it was at the first month when my bill was $190.
By now (end of March) it's finally starting to warm up outside, but next winter I doubt my monthly heating bill will ever rise above $100. In fact, I may replace my ancient, oversized furnace with a more appropriately-sized high-efficiency model, so I wouldn't be too surprised if next winter's heating bills are closer to the $50 range. I'll just have to remember to change some of the setup codes in my thermostat to match the new furnace when I get it.
Of course, your mileage will vary. If you already have a highly efficient heating and cooling system, you probably won't see as drastic a change in your bills. But if you have an older furnace or a drafty house, this will probably be a much better investment than a few sheets of plastic window film and some double-stick tape.
--End updates--
Some final thanks
At first I had this in the wrong place because epinions didn't list the product, but thanks to certain helpful readers and a person who can add product listings, I was able to get a proper home for it. Diane, Kelly, Lorace, and Pogomom, thanks for the help!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
puter
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Member: Rob
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 5 members
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