go with a honeywell visionpro IAQ with up to 4-stage heat and 2-stage cool. i installed one and they're great!

I have a Honeywell touch screen model, It's probably Visionpro (i recycled the english handbook instead of the french one, lol) and I'm quite happy with it, but I must say the literature on the package is not very clear, it does not say whether they're celcius/farenheit switchable (they are) so I had to gamble it was (really wanted celcius) because it was getting cold and dark when I bought mine!

One thing I'd like, mine is either fan auto/fan on, I really wanted one that would cycle the fan periodically.

Thanks, I'll look first at Lowes to see what they have in the upper end Honeywell. Those I looked at were below the top of the line, which may be the Visionpro.

Do either of you remember if the terminals were designated wit the same letters as mine: Y1 Y2 W O G ? Again, I have a two stage heat and cool (compressor) plus two steps of resistive auxiliary, which I'd like to be able to switch off (disable) .. I believe the newer HPs come with thermostats that will "walk the heat up"... such that the HP stays in HP only mode, no cut in of the resistive auxiliary boost.

I doubt you will find the vision pro at Lowes or Home Depot unless it is one of the DIY versions. The best place to buy one is online or Ebay. I would also get the outside temp sensor which is an additional $10-20.00 but can be set up to lock out the heat strips or furnace above a set temp 40 or above and lock out the heat pump at your preset temp. I set my heat strips to lock out above 40 degrees and the heat pump to lock out below 15 degrees. If it is going to get down to zero at night I don't have to worry about setting the stat on emergency, I can just let the thermostat run the heat pump until it gets below 15 and then switch to only running the heat strips.

I purchased mine new off Ebay and had it in my hand at less than half of Grainger or any other places.

Thanks.

I'm running a geothermal heat pump, so I don't have to deal with outside air temperatures.

One unresolved issue is all the thermostats I've seen are designed to work with 24 VAC. Mine appears to be DC voltage, it is interconnected with the "Microprocessor Logic Control" which is DC, i.e., logic levels. That said, I haven't opened and measured any voltages, I'll explore that before purchasing any replacement.

My unit is 15 years old, so the microprocessor must be very primitive compared to what's available today. Thinking back 15 years I recall being among the few who used a laptop computer on a regular basis, today everyone does and the computer power and memory capacity has increased beyond what I would have belief, but I have witnessed it myself.

I would say there is no need for the outside temp sensor in this application. I think the t-stat will function off of battery and not just there for memory but it is really nice with a 24v input so the backlight stays on but that would require a transformer and some extra wiring. I think it should work but I would check your voltages and how things are switched and if nothing else give honeywell a call. I have heard they have stellar tech support and customer service.

I found the Honeywell Vision Pro IAQ on Ebay for 135.00 free shipping which is hard to beat I think.

Best of luck,

For those who don't need the multiple staging, my fav tstat is the one HD sells with a 2way radio remote...wake up cold or hot at night? Just fix things from bed with the remote. Ahhh. Any tstat without a remote seems so 20th century now...

Sorry Gary, any thermostat that doesn't connect to your home network and allow access from anywhere in the *WORLD* is sooooo 20th century.

Dead sexy. Yes, I am a technoweenie and proud of it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooool stuff

Hmmm...do you really want to fire up the laptop on the nightstand just to warm up the bedroom? As a technophile, you'll like this site! http://www.welserver.com/

Jerry:

I have a Honeywell VisionPro Model# 8320 (3 heat, 2 cool) touch screen for my air-to-air heat pump. The IAQ's are the 9000 Series. I didn't need all of those functions. The 8320 has a function for staging the aux heat if you want. The 8321 has dehumidification control.

The install manual says it will work with 750 mV DC power.

I like this stat a lot. My only complaint is that it doesn't track compressor run time (no Honeywells currently track run time).

Paid $120 at www.prothermostats.com. You can download the operating and installation manuals and see if the stat will work for you.

Good luck.

MMM I do want a welserver. Yes, firing up the laptop to turn up the heat if you don't want to walk to the thermostat would be somewhat inconvenient, but what gives one the warm fuzzies is knowing you CAN do it.... ;-)

You should check out the geothermal boards as the subject of best thermostats comes up regularly:

Here is a link that might be useful: Geoexchange Forum

I'm a little curious- is your ground-source HP new or 15 years old? I just can't imagine spending the $$$ on a ground-source HP and not adding a couple hundred to it for a new stat.

I think you'd be good with an 8000 series Honeywell Vision Pro. We're running an air-to-air HP w/ gas backup with an 8321. The only advantage of going to the 9000 IAQ version for us would be better staging of the HP vs. gas, since they can't both run at the same time.

FWIW, it does have a "circulate" setting for the fan that appears to cycle it on/off, possibly at low speed (that's one of those things I haven't looked that close at).

And Amazon actually has pretty good prices for them. I know the Vision Pro IAQ there was about the best deal I saw. Admittedly didn't look at Ebay.

My GS HP is 15 years old, and the thermostat that was installed with the HP works fine, it just doesn't have any options on how auxiliary heat is brought on-line, i.e., we set back 6 degrees at night. I can't get up in the morning and set the temperature back up 6 degrees or the resistive strips (there are two of them that come on at timed intervals if there is still a gap between the demand temperature and the room temperature). So I was thinking maybe I could find a new thermostat that would give me some control over how the auxiliary heat is handled. For the time being I have just disconnected the resistive elements, so while the system calls for resistive aux heat, it doesn't come on and the HP just continues to run to bring the temperature up.

The resistive aux is nice, it does raise the temperature faster, but $$$ ouch.

Ebay has the Vision Pro IAQ for $135.99 new in box with free shipping. There is usually someone who has some listed for that price which I did not think was too bad.

Here is a link that might be useful: Honeywell VisionPro IAQ Free Shipping

Ebay has the Vision Pro IAQ for $135.99 new in box with free shipping. There is usually someone who has some listed for that price which I did not think was too bad.

Here is a link that might be useful: Honeywell VisionPro IAQ Free Shipping

Another happy owner of the VisionPRO 8000. One of the few thermostats I'd want on my wall.