I’m no HVAC expert, but I thought it was time to replace my thermostat.
I wasn’t positive and I didn’t want to make any changes before I was certain, so I called an HVAC professional and scheduled an appointment.
Luckily, an HVAC technician was able to come take a look at my thermostat the following afternoon. I told him about the signs that were leading me to believe my thermostat was malfunctioning. I started with the most obvious sign, which was that my HVAC system wasn’t making any changes. It didn’t matter if I switched on the furnace or if I switched on the air conditioner, because nothing happened. Since my HVAC system wasn’t switching between the furnace and air conditioner, none of the changes I made to the temperature were happening either. I told the HVAC technician that my HVAC system seemed to be stuck on the programmable settings. Before he even looked at the thermostat himself, he said that it sounded like the thermostat was broken and needed a replacement. He spent 20 minutes testing the batteries, looking at the screen, and checking the breakers, but he had no luck getting the thermostat to respond properly. The HVAC technician told me that the thermostat was definitely broken and it would need replaced. He also told me that if I went to the local hardware store, I could buy a new thermostat and he would replace it for me. This is exactly what I did! I picked out a pretty new thermostat and the HVAC technician came back to my house later that evening.