Going Digital

A few weeks ago, Seth and I purchased a digital, programmable thermostat.  I was very excited because we bought one that will switch over between heat and air conditioning as needed.  No having to think and flip a switch.  I love not thinking.  I do too much thinking and if I can eliminate some, that is always helpful.  We had one like this in our house in Illinois and it was amazing.  It's the simple things in life that make me happy.

It was pretty simple to install.  First, Seth removed the old one which looked something like this...

It was sometimes a struggle to get the exact temperature I wanted with that little dial.  I like how you can set the digital thermostat to exactly what temperature you want.  I also like that it is programmable.  I work nights and Seth works days so we haven't come up with our programs yet, but we'll figure it out soon.  I'm interested to see if we start noticing a change in our power bills.  

Installation was pretty straightforward.  We got lucky in that whoever wired our house actually used colored wires.  Our neighbors were not so lucky and had to guess at which wire was which when installing their new thermostat. 

The back of the new thermostat has initials corresponding to the colors of the wires.  In the photo below the initials are partially covered by the wires but there is a "G" for green, a "Y" for yellow, and so on (approximately where the blue circles are).  So it's as easy peasy as inserting the appropriate colored wire into the corresponding spot and using a small screwdriver to tighten the screws down onto the wire to make a connection.  

Then you just use a couple of screws placed through the holes in the backplate to secure it to the wall.  

The cover just snaps on over the backplate and you're done!  And then your brand spankin' new thermostat informs you that your house is not wired so that it can switch automatically between heat and air conditioning even though you spent the extra money for the thermostat that could do this.  Shucks!

Now I have big plans to disguise this thing after all of Seth's hard work (sorry, honey).  I'm thinking of either a canvas with hinges to completely cover it or a frame hung around it to help it blend in with the other frames in the gallery wall I'm planning.  I was leaning toward the hinged canvas until I read that it might affect the temperature readings on the thermostat.  So...the solution is still to be determined.  I'll keep you posted of course.  I took pictures of every room in the house today to update you guys on our progress and I plan to start working on that post on Monday.  It's going to be a long one though so it may take me a few days.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!