Mark Donovan of http://www.homeadditionplus.com shows how to install a programmable thermostat to save on your home energy bills.

Video Transcription

Installing a Programmable Thermostat by HomeAdditionPlus.Com Hi! I am Mark Donovan from HomeAddtionPlus.com. Today, I am going to show you a tip on how you can save up to a third on your home heating energy bills. What I am going to do today is replace your traditional old thermostat with a programmable thermostat as I have here. This particular model allows me to program for weekdays and weekends and up to four different periods per day. But, using a programmable thermostat over the traditional thermostat, I can save approximately a third on my home heating bills. The particular thermostat I am replacing today is a local thermostat. However, that said, I am still going to power off the circuit breaker associated with the oil burner system and this low voltage circuitry just to make sure that there no risk of any type of shock. The first thing I want to do is remove the cover plate of the existing thermostat and then remove the mounting screws that hold the back and the cover plate onto the wall. Once we removed the base plate off the wall, I want to use a pencil to wrap around the wires to make sure that we do not have any situations with those wires will slide back into this hole. Now that we have the wire wrapped around the pencil, we can now remove the wires themselves from the base plate. Now, with the new programmable thermostat, we remove the cover plate and in this particular model, we removed a screw that holds the programmable portion to the back plate that are mounted to the wall. Mount the new wall plate for the programmable thermostat under this wall. We are going to use a masking tape to wrap around this wire to ensure that it does not fall to the wall. And now, I am going to remove the pencil. Next I am going to slide the wires to the back mounting plate and locate the plates roughly in the position I want to have it on the wall. Now, that I positioned the mounting plate to the location I want it on the wall, I am going to pre-drill some holes for the anchors that are going to hold the screws into the dry wall. Now, I am just attaching the screws to the mounting plate and the dry wall to hold the mounting plate in place. Next we are going to wire the wires coming from the wall into the programmable thermostat back cover plate. Now, this is a two hour configuration, there are three wires and four wire even five wire configuration so depending upon your particular heating cooling system and programmable thermostat, you may have to wire differently. In my case, it is going to be a white wire into a white knot and the red wire into the red heating knot. Next, we need to install two double A batteries into the programmable thermostat itself making sure we put it in wit the right polarity. Now that we have the batteries installed, we can now mount the programmable thermostat to the back mounting plate. Now, what we are doing is mounting the programmable thermostat to the back mounting plate, tightening up the screw and finally clipping on the front cover plate. Now, with the programmable thermostat fully installed, we will turn the power back on to the oil burner and thermostat itself. So, I turned the power back on to the oil burner and the thermostat and we have programmed it to the temperatures we want throughout the day. All that is left is to detach out the bottom underneath the thermostat and this project is done. If you have any other home improvement questions visit us at HomeAdditionPlus.com today. Copyright 2009 DIY HomeAddtionPlus.com