Installing the Nest Gen 3 Learning Thermostat Part 1

Our electric and natural gas supplier, Consumers Energy, offered a special on the Nest Learning Thermostat.  We needed a new stat because the one we have now is white and white plastic always turns yellow after a couple of years. It was nasty looking.

There are several outside ring color combinations to choose from when you place your order.  I ordered the black shiny ring version.  They say the grey ring version picks up the color of the wall.....I would have to see that in person....I'm skeptical like that.  You can also pick from several other colors.  But I stuck with basic black and shiny.

 One of the stipulations of buying the thermostat at a discounted price is that you allow the utility to monitor your stat and raise the temperature during the summer during peak hours when you have your AC running.  In return you also get a slight decrease in your rate.  You will need WiFi for the stat to work remotely.

 Let's start the installation.  Turn off the furnace at the thermostat.  It will take a minute or so for the furnace to actually turn off. Once the furnace is no longer running you can flip the furnace circuit breaker in the breaker box to the off position.  If it is summer and daylight then you can just flip the main circuit breaker to the off position.  But since it was 5PM and dark and winter I chose to just flip the circuit breaker. 

 Take a photo of the wires and the terminals that they are hooked to currently on the old thermostat. 

 The Nest Gen 3 Learning thermostat has a backing plate (where you will attach your wires) and the front display part.

Remove the display part of the thermostat from the box.  In the bottom of the box you will find the new backing plate, 2 screws, and the correct size screwdriver for the screws.

 Remove the wires from the terminals on the old backing plate and then remove the screws holding the old backing plate to the wall.  Marvel at the discoloration of your walls and comment to your spouse that you can no longer live in such filth.  Seriously, ewwwwww.  Roger said he had nothing to do with that dirt and dust.

 Pull the wires through the opening of the new backing plate.

 At the top of the new backing plate you should see a little blue area.  Look closely at it.....it's a bubble level so that when you install the backing plate you can check to make sure that it is level.  Of course you can install it in an un level fashion but then the display will be crooked. If you have OCD when it comes to level things like I do, then make sure the backing plate is level before installing the screws 

Straighten out the wires and cut off the exposed copper wire leaving only 1/4  of an inch exposed.  Refer back to your photo of the old backing plate to locate the correct connections for the wires.  EX the white wire went to W1.  So I pressed on the W1 terminal and slide the white wire into the hole until the wire bottomed out.  I then released my finger and gave the wire a little tug to make sure it was clamped in place and then moved on to the next wire.  

The only difficulty that I had was with the red wire which is the power wire.  My old backing plate only had an R terminal.  This backing plate has Rc and Rh.  When in doubt go to the Internet.  After reading around for a minute I found out that I needed to put it in the Rc location.  

When I installed a new WiFi Honeywell stat in my mother's condo before I sold it, the R wire was located in the same location as the old backing plate but I had to move a wire inside the furnace itself.  

Before attaching the display unit you will need to install the batteries.  These are rechargeable batteries and they will recharge using the power wire in the thermostat. Now attach the display part being careful to have the connectors lined up.  Do not force it on.

  Go to the breaker box and turn the power back on. It will take a moment for the furnace to come back on (if winter or in summer the AC).  If you are not running the heat or AC then you will need to set the stat to turn on whichever one you chose so you can check to make that the installation was done correctly. 

The display will show black if it isn't triggered by a person close by.  If nothing is running it will show the ambient temperature (like the photo above) of the room.  If the furnace is running it will display an orange background and the set temperature and the current temperature.  If the AC is running the background will be blue.

If you wish to see the outside temperature and weather condition just press the bottom portion of the screen.

To change the mode just turn the outside ring.  In the above photo it shows that it is in heat mode because it is orange.  The leaf is the Eco mode, next is the fan mode, next at the bottom right is the calendar where you set the date, next is time, where you set the current time and time zone, the gear symbol is for settings, and the arrow is back to the home screen.

The installation time was 40 minutes from start to finish. This included removing the old stat, install the Nest thermostat, set the mode (heat) and the desired temperature, and then finally making sure that everything was running.  This was my second WiFi programmable stat install so I knew what to expect.  Roger does not like doing this kind of work at all, so I am the designated stat installer in the house.

Tomorrow I will cover syncing up the stat to the WiFi and then setting it up so that the utility company can control our AC during peak hours in the summer.  This was a little more difficult because the pass code/PIN on the modem was sooo  tiny that I could hardly read it with a magnifying glass.  

This stat is suppose save you money by learning your habits and lowering your furnace setting when you are sleeping or away from the house.  The same for the AC. The instructions said it can take between 30 and 60 days to learn your patterns. Also with the Nest thermostat the yearly battery replacement is a thing of the past because of the rechargeable batteries.  Now if they could just make a furnace that changes it's own filter.

We keep our furnace temp fairly low already.  I studied Public Health in college and read about a study done on soldiers that compared the occurrence of head colds between the soldiers who slept in new air tight (higher temps) barracks and those who slept in old drafty (colder temps) barracks.  The occurrence of head colds were higher in the soldiers who slept in the new air tight (warmer) barracks. Our temp is set at 67 degrees in the winter. I also read an article that said you burn more calories if you sleep in colder temperatures.  I wonder just how cold the temps have to be to lose weight?  Obviously it is not 67 degrees.

FYI... I haven't suffered a cold in 9 yrs and my husband hasn't had one in about 5 yrs.  I probably just jinxed myself.

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