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THERMOSTATS
A thermostat is the only part of your HVAC system you touch every day, and the wrong one — or the right one wired badly — will cost you comfort and equipment life. We supply, install and configure them properly.
Thermostats stopped being simple switches a while ago. A current model learns your schedule, adjusts for outdoor conditions, reports runtime so you can see what your equipment is actually doing, reminds you about filters, and can be controlled from your phone when you are somewhere other than the house.
The catch is that a smart thermostat has to be matched to the system behind it. Two-stage furnaces, variable-speed blowers, dual-fuel heat pump setups, humidifier and ventilator controls and zoning all need specific wiring and configuration. A thermostat installed with the wrong staging or a missing changeover setting will run a dual-fuel system on expensive backup heat all winter and you will never know why the bill went up.
Most smart thermostats need constant 24-volt power, supplied by a common wire. A lot of older Ames homes were wired without one. The workarounds sold in the box — power-stealing circuits and add-a-wire adapters — cause intermittent faults, ghost cycling and dropped Wi-Fi. When we install, we either pull a proper common wire or fit a correctly specified transformer, so the thermostat has clean power.
The savings from a programmable thermostat come entirely from setback: letting the house drift while you are asleep or out. Around seven to ten degrees for eight hours a day is the usual recommendation, and done consistently it reduces heating and cooling costs meaningfully over a year.
Two Iowa-specific cautions. If you have a heat pump, large setbacks can trigger auxiliary electric heat on recovery, which costs more than it saved — a heat-pump-aware thermostat with intelligent recovery handles this, a generic one does not. And in a deep cold snap, deep overnight setbacks in a poorly insulated house risk freezing plumbing on exterior walls.
We are a Honeywell Home dealer and install their full range, plus Nest and ecobee models, and the matched controls that come with Trane systems. For zoned homes and dual-fuel setups we will recommend the controller that actually supports your configuration rather than the one with the nicest screen.
The room temperature never matches the display · The system short-cycles on and off every few minutes · The screen goes blank intermittently · Auxiliary or emergency heat comes on when it should not · Schedules do not hold after a power cut · The house overshoots the set point by several degrees
Have Questions?
It can, but only through setback — the thermostat itself does not make the furnace more efficient. Setting the house back seven to ten degrees for eight hours a day typically saves around ten percent a year on heating and cooling. If you already do that manually and never forget, a smart thermostat mostly buys you convenience, remote control and runtime data rather than big savings.
On a simple single-stage gas furnace with a common wire already present, many people do. It gets harder fast with heat pumps, dual-fuel systems, two-stage equipment, zoning, or any house without a Cwire. Those are the situations where a self-install usually works for a week and then produces symptoms that look like an equipment fault. We are happy to install a unit you already bought.
The common wire completes the 24-volt circuit and gives the thermostat continuous power for its display, Wi-Fi and processor. Older homes often have only four wires and no common. Power-stealing workarounds pull small amounts of current through the heating circuit, which can cause ghost cycling and intermittent faults. The reliable fix is a proper common wire or a correctly specified transformer.
For a gas furnace, yes — setting back overnight and while the house is empty saves money, and the idea that reheating costs more than you saved is a myth. Two exceptions: with a heat pump, use a thermostat with intelligent recovery so it does not call auxiliary electric heat to catch up, and during an extreme cold snap keep the setback modest so plumbing on exterior walls stays above freezing.
Placement, usually. A thermostat on an exterior wall, in direct sun, above a lamp or heat source, or in a draught from a hallway will read the wrong thing and cycle the system at the wrong times. Sometimes there is air moving through the wire chase behind it from an uninsulated wall cavity. Relocating it or adding a remote room sensor solves it.
Yes. Commercial programmable controls, occupancy scheduling, lockout ranges so staff cannot set an office to 62 degrees, and integration with rooftop units and multi-zone systems. Lockouts alone often pay for the work in the first year.
Don’t wait for your comfort to freeze over. Get a professional, NATE-certified Converse technician dispatched to your home or business today.
