Our thermostat woke us at 5am one morning in mid-November with an intense buzzing. Bleary-eyed, I popped the cover off, fiddled with the buttons in an attempt to quell the noise (to no avail), staggered to the garage, and cut the circuits to the heat and air. Problem solved. No more buzzing, but also no more heat and A/C.
Later in the morning, fortified with coffee, I called my Wonderfully Pragmatic Friend, whom I knew would point me in the right direction. Within 10 minutes, she had one of the guys in her office call me back. I described the problem, he told me the motherboard was shot on the thermostat, and advised me it was a cinch to swap out.
Because Northeast Florida was unseasonably warm this fall and winter, and I grudgingly admit to at times being a procrastinator, thoughts of replacing the thermostat vanished in the press and festivities of the holiday season.
On New Year's Day, for Pete's sake, I had to mow the lawn, basking in the 75 degree temperature. Then I watched the news on Sunday night. To my horror, the weatherman was announcing that we were about to get hit with the first major cold snap of the winter - on Monday evening.
After doing a quick internet search and having a conversation with my brother on Sunday evening, I bounced into Lowe's on Monday morning. I asked the young man behind the counter to point me in the direction of the thermostats. He informed me that Aisle 3 would afford me a wide variety from which to choose. What I found were a sea of outdoor lights and doorbells.
Heading back to the desk, I informed the young man that no thermostats were to be found in said aisle. He said he would get an associate to assist me. Fifteen minutes later, a grandfatherly gent appeared. We walked together to the opposite side of the store, as I told him what I needed. He looked askance when I described the old thermostat buzzing, then asked - somewhat in disbelief - if I was going to be installing the new thermostat.
Faking a confidence I didn't feel, I told him I would, indeed, be the installer. With that, he handed me an $80 thermostat, telling me it was just what I needed. I politely, but very firmly, informed him that I had no intention of paying that sum for a thermostat, especially as the average prices of the ones in front of me were about $39. Ten minutes later, I was headed home, my new programmable Hunter 44132 universal thermostat - $29.95 - resting on the seat next to me.
The package boasted "Easy 5-minute installation.. The directions were clear and concise. The problem, however, was the wiring on the old thermostat. I had labeled all wires, as per the instructions. In theory, I should have been able to pop off the old thermostat, put the carefully labeled wires into the corresponding slots on the new thermostat, flip the circuit breakers back on, and - voila - enjoy the blessed sound of the heat cutting on.
My downfall was the "E" wire. It had been jumped to the "W2" wire. The new thermostat had nothing to allow for such a configuration. In approaching panic, I returned to the internet.
Three hours later, I was paralyzed with terror. Too much knowledge is not a good thing. My head was spinning from reading about terminals and what those prettily colored wires may or may not be, or may or may not do, if I put one into the wrong spot. Though Hunter has a tech support number listed on the package, no one was available to take my call as it was, alas, a holiday.
As visions of a freezing child and burst pipes danced in my head, Wonderfully Pragmatic Friend called. I blathered about my wiring confusion. She calmed me by saying to forget the "E" wire, and just hook all the other wires up as described on the package, then to call her back after I did so.
Hunter doesn't lie. It literally took only 5 minutes to hook up the new thermostat. I flipped the circuit breakers back on, slid the button on the bottom of the thermostat to "heat" and air immediately began flowing out of the vents. Sheepishly, I called Wonderfully Pragmatic Friend back, thanking her profusely for her help.
But we didn't get the blessed heat that we needed last night. This morning, the thermostat was blowing coolish air. And I knew immediately what the problem was. The old thermostat had an orange wire hooked to an "O/B" connection. The new thermostat had separate "O" and "B" slots. The instructions suggested using the "B" terminal, which I did.
Even with less then half a cup of coffee, I assumed it would be a matter of turning off the circuit breakers - again - unhooking the orange wire from the "B" slot, and moving it to the "O" slot. But I decided to err on the side of caution.
At 5:19am, I texted Wonderfully Pragmatic Friend - hey, she gets up early, okay? She called me back, I explained my dilemna, and she laughingly told me to switch the cursed orange wire from "B" to "O".
That did the trick - blessed heat began coursing immediately from the vents. No pipes burst, the house hasn't burned down, Wonderfully Pragmatic Friend still takes my phone calls, and my daughter had a good laugh at my installing my first thermostat.
By the way, I DO know that the thermostat pictured above is a Honeywell, and not a Hunter!
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