Thursday, May 3, 2012

Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat Guide










Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat


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Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat

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Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat Feature


  • All control buttons are on the face of the product with a display that shows current and set temperatures
  • Precise temperature control of +/- 1 degree F
  • Basic one programmable with four programmable periods per day
  • Vertical positioning for easy upgrade from standard manual thermostats
  • One-touch hold


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    Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat Overviews


    Offering the ease and reliability of basic programming, the Honeywell RTH221B One-Week Programmable Thermostat can help save money on your energy bills--without sacrificing your comfort. Featuring a sleek one-piece design that blends seamlessly with any decor, the RTH221B is compatible with most heating and cooling systems.

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    RTH221B One-Week Programmable Thermostat
    At a Glance:
    • Basic operation keeps programming easy

    • 4 program periods per day

    • Precise temperature control of + /- 1 degree

    • For use with central gas, oil, or electric furnaces and AC

    • 1-year warranty
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    Honeywell RTH221B One-Week Programmable Thermostat
    Using a programmable thermostat is one of the easiest ways to reduce energy costs.
    Precise, Programmable Temperature Control
    The RTH221B lets you control the temperature inside your home, even when you're not there. In just minutes, you can create one simple program that will run for the entire week, with up to four program periods per day (wake, leave, return, and sleep).

    For further convenience, the RTH221B gives you precise temperature control plus or minus one degree Fahrenheit, so you can create the atmosphere that's perfect for you.

    Save up to 33% on Annual Heating Costs
    Using a programmable thermostat is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to reduce energy costs and protect the planet--without sacrificing personal comfort.

    By creating a program that automatically adjusts the temperature during times when optimum comfort is not necessary (e.g. when you're sleeping or away from home), you can significantly cut down on your overall energy usage and reduce your monthly bills. In fact, depending on your geographic region and usage patterns, the RTH221B can help you save up to 33% on annual heating costs.

    User-Friendly, One-Piece Design
    One of the RTH221B's key advantages is its user-friendly, one-piece design. All control buttons are visible on the front of the unit for quick and easy accessibility, and the display clearly shows current and set temperatures. Soft-touch/one-touch hold buttons keep things simple, while vertical positioning makes for an easy upgrade from standard manual thermostats.

    Compatibility and Warranty Information
    The RTH221B works with central gas, oil or electric furnaces, AC, and millivolt systems. It is not compatible with multi-stage heating/cooling systems, heat-pump systems, or electric baseboard heat (120 - 240 volts).

    The Honeywell RTH221B One-Week Programmable Thermostat and is backed by a one-year warranty.

    What's in the Box
    Honeywell RTH221B One-Week Programmable Thermostat; mounting hardware; warranty card; and manual.


    COMPATIBILITY
    24-VOLT HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS
    Single-Stage Heating and Cooling yesMultistage Heating and Cooling 
    Heating OnlyyesCooling Onlyyes
    Furnace (Warm Air) yes Central Air Conditioningyes
    Heat Pump without Auxiliary Heat Heat Pump with Auxiliary Heat  
    Hot Water yes Steam or Gravity yes
    750 Millivolt yes Gas Fireplaces
    (24 Volt or 750 Millivolt)
    yes
    Electric Baseboard Heat
    (120 - 240 Volts)
         


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    Honeywell RTH221B Basic Programmable Thermostat Reviews










    1. My wife and I are both retired so every day is a 'weekend day'. Most thermostats require multiple settings for different kinds of days. Good idea if you're a worker but bad idea if you're me since going on vacation etc requires MULTIPLE thermostat adjustments. Also, why pay extra for annoying unused features. This thermostat is simple, easy to install and has typical Honeywell accuracy and reliability. For me it's ideal.











    2. I bought this thermostat this fall from a big box home improvement store and it's paid for itself several times over in a few short months (and I paid more than the listing price on Amazon).I had never installed a thermostat before, but it was a breeze to install. I turned off the breakers to my living room, carefully removed the old thermostat, attached two wires, installed a couple of screws (I think that I ended up drilling one new hole), and turned the power back on. Less than 15 minutes from start to finish, and I'm not the handiest gal you'll ever meet. It worked. I set it to turn down at night while we're sleeping and during the day when we're gone. I also put the plastic on the windows, but other than the new thermostat I did nothing different this year than last.February 2008- the portion of our utility bill for natural gas was $188.03. February 2009, with the average temperature just 4 degrees warmer, our natural gas bill was $88.08. We have saved at least $40 every month since I installed it. It's paid for itself several times over. It's probably the best thing I've purchased in a very long time.











    3. Basic programable t-stat. Works well, easy to install Honeywell is a good brand. **HOWEVER in picture on amazon the screen on it looks back-lit, but it is not lit.











    4. I can't believe I waited so long to replace the old mercury bubble thermostat on my hot water heat system. I noticed a friend had a new one, so I decided it was time to do some research here at Amazon.I wanted a vertical style to match the placement of the old one which narrowed the field considerably. I wanted a simple day/night setback and didn't need separate settings for weekends. I wanted simple controls and ease of temporary adjustment. This one fit the bill perfectly.Installation was a breeze. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. My two-wire system connected to the Rh (Red - heat) and W (White) terminals. The wires weren't that color (probably the original 90 year old wires!) so I either guessed right or, more likely, it would have worked if they were reversed since it's simply an open/close switch to activate the heater. I even reused the mounting screws from the old unit - sweet! Stop by your local Dollar Store and pick up a mini screwdriver set if you don't have one.Programming is straightforward, and again the instructions are clear. It comes preprogrammed with four periods - Wake, Leave, Return, and Sleep. It's easy to adjust these to your desired time/temp. I skipped two of them completely by simply pressing the Hold button for four seconds while that period was displayed during setup. Believe me, you'll be tweaking your settings with abandon after the first run-through... it's that easy.I love the simplicity of the display. What's the current temp? Look at the screen. You're a bit cold? Tap the up arrow once and read the setpoint; tap it again to temporarily raise the setpoint one degree, again for two degrees, etc. The unit will retain your temporary setting until the next programed change (e.g. night setback) or until you press the Run button. Going away for a couple of days? Tap in the desired setpoint and press Hold. Simply press Run again when you get home. As noted in other reviews, there is no backlight in the display.You can download the installation and user's manual at the Honeywell website to get a peek at how it works.Be sure to note the Configuration Menu in the installation instructions. I had to change the "Heating Cycles per Hour" setting to "3" (for my hot water system) from the default "5" setting.What is Heating Cycles per Hour, you ask? It's a means to fine-tune the efficiency of the system's attempts to maintain your desired temperature. It's ONLY active when you're within a degree or so of the setpoint temperature. Here's how it works: Say, your setpoint temperature is 70?. As the heater brings the room air temp up towards the setpoint, an anticipator circuit cuts off the heat at a predetermined value, say 69? to keep from overshooting your requested 70?. Ideally, the residual heat from your burner/blower/fan/radiator will gently nudge the air temp up to 70?, and all is right with the world. So far we have: temp below 69?, run heater; temp above 70?, stop heater. But what happens between 69? and 70?? What if there wasn't enough residual heat to get to 70?? Or what if your furnace isn't sized properly, or your insulation is weak, or the kids left a window open? Where's that 70? you requested? This is where you heater starts cycling. My "Cycles per Hour" is set to 3, which means 3 twenty minute cycles each hour consisting of 10 minutes OFF, 10 minutes ON. When the air temp hit 69? the heater stopped for 10 minutes, hoping the air temp will reach the magic 70?. 10 minutes later it takes a peek at the temp... 70? or above? Great! Job done. No cycling involved. Oops - only 69.3?? - start up again for 10 minutes, shut down, wait 10 minutes and check again. 69.8? this time? Start up again for 10 minutes and another cycle. This time, let's say the temp hit 70? after 8 minutes of heat. Great! - job done, shut off heat and stop cycling. It might overshoot to about 70.3? this time - well within your comfort zone. Now, sit warm and cozy in front of the TV as the temp slowly falls from 70.3? to 69? and listen for the cycling to begin again. If you're well insulated, it's a fairly mild night, and your heater is sized properly, it might go through a cycle every couple of hours. If there's a blizzard blowing outside your poorly insulated shack, it might cycle on and off every 10 minutes, or even stay on constantly if it can't get you above 69?. To recap: Temp below setpoint minus one: heater ON. Temp above setpoint: heater OFF. In between: cycle ON and OFF in attempt to efficiently get to setpoint without too much overshoot. Why? A heater is more efficient running longer cycles rather than rapid On/Off cycles. A heater with a lot of "thermal inertia" - like my hot water system, takes a while for those warm radiators to gently get the air temperature to the desired setpoint... it needs cycles a bit longer to be efficient and effective. A rapid heat system, like an electric wall heater, will get that air temp up quickly - it needs a higher cycle rate / shorter 'burn' time to stay efficient and avoid overshoots. In fact, the cycle rate for electric heat is 9: that's 9 cycles of 6.7 minutes per hour.Air conditioning cycle/hour is fixed at 3.One more thing: if you want the fancier model, the Honeywell TH2110D1009 is the same unit, but with backlight, 5/2 day programming, and something called "Adaptive Intelligent Recovery" which learns how fast your heater gets you to your desired temperature so that you can program it to BE at a given temperature at a given time... handy for those early morning middle-of-winter wake ups!Be sure to properly dispose of that mercury!Enjoy!











    5. I purchased this programmable thermostat to install in the portion of my two-family home that I live in. I also purchased the similar Honeywell RTH111B Vertical Digital Manual Thermostat NON-programmable model for the portion of my home that I rent out. Installation of both models is identical, and the main difference between the two is just the ability to set up a program of varying temperature changes based on your schedule. The non-programmable RTH111B has no clock feature. Just simple buttons to change the temperature up or down, and switches for a system fan (if applicable) and the HEAT-OFF-COOL selection. The programmable RTH221B gives you these same features, PLUS a 7-day, 4-event schedule to work with. In other words, every day of the week is treated the same and you can program in a time and temperature change for waking, leaving, returning, and sleeping. For people who desire to have a different schedule for the weekend, a 5/2 day programmable model would be a wiser choice.The apartment that received the RTH221B is a simple heat-only, oil-fired steam radiator system. The installation instructions were generally easy to follow, but I also found additional information on the Honeywell website explaining what each terminal actually was. It would have been useful for Honeywell to print this in the instructions. Summarized:Rh : Heating power supplyRc : Cooling power supplyW : Heating signalY : Cooling signalG : FanBoth of the two environmental systems in my home are ONLY heat, and have a two-wire connection. The wiring looked about a hundred years old, but still worked perfectly once I connected the wires to the Rh and W terminals. Interesting to note that in both installations it did not seem to make a difference which of the two wires went to what terminal, so long as it was Rh and W. However in a more complicated system that includes more wires for cooling or a fan, I'd use the included labels to mark each wire and be certain it was connected properly.Following the instructions, setting up a schedule for temperature changes was a simple process. Even if you ONLY wished to alter the temperature at night (rather than during the day while at work), it's a breeze because you'll just set the temperature the same for the "leave" and "return" events. Overall, setting the clock and programming took only a couple of minutes.I don't have any dollar amount savings to offer, but I can say that the temperature was MUCH more consistent in my apartment than it had been with the old round-style mercury switch which was prone to large temperature swings. There is no question in my mind that less fuel was used, and it's very likely that the two thermostats I purchased have already paid for themselves one month later.











    6. I bought 2 of these units. After letting them sit on the table next to each other for a while, they displayed different temperatures, by a difference of about 3 degrees. I was surprised they were that different. I considered sending them back, but instead I used them as they were. The temperature difference seems to have worked its self out and they do their job just fine. After using one of the Lux models a few years ago, I found myself wanting the extra features that it had (another mode for weekends). The display constantly shows the current temperature but unless you hit one of the up/down buttons, will not show you what the current thermostat temperature is set to. I found this annoying as my wife is constantly changing the temp on me and I would like to know what it is currently set at. The LUX model displayed both. If I had it to do over again I would have bought a different brand, probably Lux. Also, a horizontal model would have covered the round marking that my previous thermostat left.











    7. I gave this a 3 star because although once connected and running the thermostat works well. The instructions are terrible for connecting the thermostat. They assume that when you remove your old thermostat that all of the wires in the wall were color coded and labeled according to their thermostat specifications. Just connect the right colored wires to the proper connection. Wrong. Over the years I have worked on a lot of furnaces. Most of the furnace people just ran 2 wires from the furnace to the old thermostats. They used whatever wire was convenient at the time. Much of that wire was white and black two wire cable. If Honeywell had spent just 5 minutes writing a proper instruction for connection I would have given them 5 stars. The thermostat deserves a 5 star the employee that wrote the instructions doesn't even deserve a 1 star. The best instructions I found for connections were right here at Amazon in the review section. Just try to call the phone number at Honeywell. Nothing but FAQs on the phone or their web site. One wire, usually the black, gets connected to the RH connection and the white wire to the W connection. Since the thermostat isn't grounded I suspect it doesn't matter which wire goes to the RH terminal and which ones goes to the W terminal for a two wire hook up found in older houses. I didn't see the temperature difference that others have mentioned. Maybe that error was corrected in newer thermostats. My old Honeywell mercury thermostat allowed room temperature to vary sometimes by 5 degrees. Using the RTH221B digital thermostat I only see a 1 degree variance in room temperature. I have a digital thermometer sitting very close to the thermostat and have always monitored the room temperature.Prior to installation, while holding the thermostat in my hand I did get what appeared to an error in temperature readings. It was not an error but a sensitive thermostat reading some of my body temperature.I would highly recommend this thermostat. It is a very good upgrade to your home. Although I didn't buy this from Amazon, I showed my local hardware store Amazon's price and he lowered his price from $35 to Amazon's price. My advice, stick with Amazon.











    8. This is a great product for those looking to replace their older, vertical style, mercury-filled thermostats.Installation was a breeze, as was the programming.An earlier reviewer reported problems with the accuracy of the temperature measurement in their units, but both of mine were dead on, as far the measured accuracy of the room temperature is concerned.One of the best things about digital thermostats (besides their being programmable) compared to their mechanical (bi-metal coil) brethren, and one that I noticed right away, is how constant they keep the temperature in a room - they do not allow wild fluctuations, down or up, to an uncomfortable level. You simply do not notice their work, and that's a good thing. Overall, this is probably the best twenty (x2) bucks I have spent for my home.











    9. I needed a cheap digital thermostat. Bought one (NOT this one) and found that it had a "feature" that caused problems for my business: if we did an override of the temperature setting, it would go back after exactly 2 hours. OK, so I needed a thermostat that did NOT do that.I checked the manual for this one, and it appeared to not do an automatic reset. And now I've installed it (two, actually) and indeed it stays put! The programs kick in like they are supposed to, and if we do an override IT STAYS OVERRIDDEN until the next program cycle. That's exactly what I needed.











    10. I live in MN and these t-stats worked great for my garages. I installed one in each and now can keep each garage at ~40 degrees all winter long. Older units do not go as low as these so this unit worked well for my application. Running strong for over a year, no issues.








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