New Thermostat in Northern Cliamate

[Scott Schultz]

As we come into fall, I was thinking about the next 2 rehabs we are starting that will include new furnaces, and I just had a Boiler installed at another property. The advice from the HVAC Guy that put the boiler in, was to leave the old manual T-Stat, because if a tenant moves out at midnight in January, the heat will still work, because they dont require batteries, like the digital ones do. Do tenants really care about the T-stat? all mine are SFR's so tenants pay all their own utilities. Keep in mind, Im in Northern Wisconsin, we can have sub Zero temps for weeks at a time, and pretty much 5 or more, months of below 32 degrees. pipe freeze up and extensive water damage, can occur in less 24 hours of no heat.

[Ryan Werner]

This one really depends on the tenant. I highly doubt the thermostat will be the make or break point for the house. However maintenance is pretty minimal as the batteries tend to last a pretty long time. If the tenants work normal hours the ability to adjust the schedule with programmable tstat may save them some money. However I like to just set and forget my tstat and when it is programmed wrong I get irritated.

[Scott Schultz]

ive seen frozen houses from dead T-stat batteries, if i can save just one insurance claim, it would be worth it to spend $12 instead of $17 on a Tstat. 

[Eric M.]

I just installed a smart Tstat and hooked it up to my "c" wire which provides constant power from the furnace. No batteries needed.  If you want a digital thermostat and don't want to worry about the batteries maybe you can just hook it up to the "c" wire (or whatever wire you have that provides power).