[PLUG] Off Topic: Victor is looking for a silent "no light" programmable thermostat

[Denis Heidtmann]

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Victor Soich <vsoich at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> ...
> I recently switched from oil heat to gas heat.  I now have a fancy
> shmantzy digital programmable thermostat.
> It makes a popping and clicking sound whenever the heater changes
> state.  It also lights up whenever the heater
> changes state.  I don't want it to do these things.  ...
>

I have a Honeywell (TH8000 series).  It is a touch-screen LCD unit.  The
light comes on only when the screen is touched.  It does click.  The noise
is from a reed relay.  I can hear them from 15 feet away, but I would not
call them loud.  Perhaps if the unit were mounted with some form of sound
isolation the wall would not be a sounding board.  I doubt that you will
find any units which use solid state relays, since historically the
thermostat is a switch in the line which powers a valve or other relay.
However, Honeywell now markets a system consisting of a "transmitter" at
the thermostat and a "receiver" at the furnace ($).  I assume that it uses
digital signals.  The relays are at the furnace.  Its purpose it to control
multiple functions (cooling, heating of multiple stages, etc.) over the
traditional 3 wires.  These might be silent.

-Denis