I posted a question about my AC thermostat a week ago, the cooling was working fine but heating was not. The heater will not turn on even when I set it all the way to a low temperature (current temperature is say 70, I set it to 60, it will not turn on, but it may two hours later...) I called the AC company who installed it and they came out for a service fee of $100.
By the way this is the thermostat I am talking about, a real old one. It is a White-Rodger mercury switch.
Front cover:
So now, when I remove the cover and push the dial all the way to the left and the mercury bulb tilted all the way to the right, the heat did not turn on with settings set to AUTO and HEAT. After waiting like over an hour, it finally turned itself on (for what reason I have no idea). The cooling side worked fine, as soon as the bulb tilts right, there is a tiny spark and it kicks on. The heater side did not. I have no clue why it worked perfectly while he was here.
So now my option is to call him back (which means losing a whole day of work - appointments are like 10AM - 3PM anytime in between...and pay $75), buy a new thermostat myself and see, or play with the calibration a bit more myself. But I don't think it's just calibration if I tilt the mercury bulb all the way to the right and the heater does not turn on.
The only problem is with buying a new thermostat is to figure out which one to buy. I browsed HD's catalog and they carried LUX and Honeywell? Any specific models recommended? What should I watch out for when wiring them besides turning off power? Is it a simple color coded 1 to 1 wiring or a different model may require something different?
Thanks,
MC