We have an old mercury switch thermostat in our house, You know the type, gold ring, very common.
We are in new England on a gas/steam system. There is no central AC.
We have been told by more than one heating professional that there really aren't any decent alternatives. The problem is that the thermostat doesn't report the right temperature, so it basically functions as a switch. The other problem is that my wife hates it.
I think we are on a 2 rather than three wire system. The house was built in the late 1920's.
Does anyone have experience with alternative thermostats?
Best Answer
Almost every thermostat on the market today is a better alternative than a mercury switch-type.
Even the cheapest digital thermostats have schedules, so that they can have different heating points during the morning, daytime, evening and overnight, and range from having weekend vs weekday to 7-day indepedent schedules. This allows you to save money by turning down the temperature while you're not home or sleeping.
On the more advanced side of things, there are internet-connected thermostats you can program/control from your PC/phone/etc, and ones that can self-learn based on manual adjustments and motion-sensing. There is a corresponding increase in price, and these typically do require a C-wire so since you only have two wires you'd have to pull a new wire for this.
To connect a basic digital thermostat to the 2-wires, the best thing is to follow the instructions that come with the thermostat. Typically you're going to connect the two wires between R (or Rh) and W.