So, our existing thermostat received exposure from the sunniest area in our home, and would occasionally read 80 degrees in, you know, December, which meant we would have no heat in any other rooms of the house. Below is the best photo I could find of the previous setup. If I had holed up in our hallway of a kitchen, that was no big deal because it was probably 70+ in there anyways, but if we were anywhere else it was not so great and Nyobi and I just huddled under the blankets. Come to think of it, why did I push to change this arrangement?
We ordered a Nest.

It is so shiny and beautiful and perfect and has an app and we can manage the temp from anywhere with it. That alone is worthwhile, as evidenced by the week I was recently holed up in bed sick.
It also "learns" our habits and will figure out that, no, people who sleep with a dog and a cat and a good blanket do not need it to be 74 in the night, so even the cold person wakes up sweating. And, even if the learning did not happen, it would be helpful because there is an option that we can turn on and it ignores a turn of "Sun Beats Down" (yes, a nerdy board game reference).
I also researched online, and learned that utility companies can offer a rebate on a new thermostat, which helped to soften the blow. Our electric company provides a substantial rebate of $100, and our gas company does as well, only $20, but we are going to heat no matter what, so they have us. Given that I found the Nest on Amazon for $247, that's almost half of the cost, for what we really wanted.
For anyone considering a new thermostat, we also looked into the Ecobee smart thermostat, but our wiring was not appropriate. We needed a different power supply set up than our current HVAC wiring allowed, and it would have required another fix which seems really silly. No additional fixes for our fix, please. You can learn about this on both the Ecobee and Nest websites.
I probably could have learned some cheats to work out the thermostat properly, but it just wasn't worth it to us as we plan to live here long-term, and a huge part of why we DIY is to improve our life and home without breaking the bank when we can, so we can budget out for larger needs that we find appropriate. There's also no one who would put up with these working conditions, I mean cats and food stuff everywhere at any given time, but, hey, we have to make do with what we can.
I probably could have learned some cheats to work out the thermostat properly, but it just wasn't worth it to us as we plan to live here long-term, and a huge part of why we DIY is to improve our life and home without breaking the bank when we can, so we can budget out for larger needs that we find appropriate. There's also no one who would put up with these working conditions, I mean cats and food stuff everywhere at any given time, but, hey, we have to make do with what we can.
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