Part of our motivation behind writing this blog is to provide useful content for others interested in DIY projects. With that we want to share experiences, mistakes we have made, and tips that we have learned. One of our projects from yesterday was to change out our ecobee4 Smart thermostat at our old residence for the original thermostat. This way we could use our new thermostat at our new residence without having to purchase it again. This was done in agreement with the buyers of the old house and was written into the contract that we were removing the smart thermostat.
Having owned the ecobee4 for almost 3 years, we can wholeheartedly say that we love it! It is completely customizable with a schedule to fit your needs. There is also a corresponding app where you can control the temperature right from your phone. We also love that is compatible with Alexa. The particular model that we have has an Alexa built it. However, we turned that off since the thermostat was located in the kitchen next to our Alexa Show. Our model also came with sensors that we would put in various rooms to help us control the temperature in the house to make it more comfortable. Our old house had old windows that did not provide very much insulation. We also only had 1 unit for a two story house with a walkout basement. The second floor was constantly too hot or too cold at night so we needed a solution. With the smart thermostat we were able to put sensors in both kids’ rooms and the master bedroom. This allowed us to deactivate the main thermostat from reading the temperature and only regulate the temperature on the second level during the night. What a difference that made!
Now we that we are in our new house, we have two units, one for the second floor and one for the main floor and the basement. The temperature is better in the new house but we will still be installing our smart thermostat so that we can better regulate the house.
We had anticipated that uninstallation would be pretty easy, as we had installed the ecobee by ourselves a few years ago. It turned out that our 15 minute project occupied several hours. When we switched to the original thermostat it was unable to operate the fan or the heating and cooling systems. We then tried to switch back to the ecobee (which had been operational when we started), it was unable to power on. Then we proceeded to look at numerous articles and videos online but were unable to resolve the problem. Here are a few things that we learned from this project:
- Always make sure to take pictures of how things are originally plugged in. A few additional photos would have given us confidence that everything was connected correctly.
- Make sure to check the fuse to make sure that the fuse is not blown. This ended up being our problem, not any incorrect connections. Although we could visually see that the fuse was blown, we took it into Home Depot and they confirmed.
- Later, it was recommended to us to make sure that we flip the switch to turn off the system prior to flipping the breakers on an off. It seems that blowing these fuses is a pretty common occurrence if you do not do that.
In the end, everything worked out. We were able to change out the thermostat and look forward to installing our ecobee at the new house. After our initial heating bill, we are going to need it!
Below is a link to the ecobee4 that we own and love, and the fuse that we needed for our particular system.
It is safe to say that we are certainly not electricians and do not intend to offer any electrical advice. Furthermore, we recommend that you consult an electrician for support if you are not comfortable with electrical work. We will add that you should be sure breakers are off before doing any work.
The links above are provided to you through Amazon. These items were bought by us and were not gifted in an effort to promote. This post was not sponsored by the makers of the Ecobee Smart Thermostat.
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases.