How Much for a Thermostat?
Then why are thermostats so popular?
Our homes are getting more advanced every year and this technology has transformed everything from our TVs to our vacuum cleaners.
Heating technology has become incredibly popular over the past few years, providing us with tools and features that were beyond understanding a few decades earlier.
But many aren’t so sure of the new smart thermostats and prefer simple thermostats.
What kinds of thermostats do you have?
There are three kinds of thermostats – manual, smart and programmable. We’ll explore the thermostats in more depth in the next part, but for the moment we’ll explore some of the most common costs for installing the thermostats in your home.
House Thermostat Prices
For this reason we’ve put together a useful price table that is averaging below:
| Job Description | Duration | Average Cost |
| Installing a Smart Thermostat | 1-2 hours | £250-£400 |
| Installing a Programmable Thermostat | 1-2 hours | £140-£170 |
| Installing a Manual Thermostat | 1-2 hours | £110-£140 |
What are the Supply Costs of Thermostat Replacement?
Below, we’ve included a table to show the cost of the only materials required to set up the new thermostats for each type. We’ll examine these costs further in the future.
| Style of Thermostat | Average Price |
| Smart Thermostat | £70-£250 |
| Programmable Thermostat | £35-£70 |
| Manual Thermostat | £10-£40 |
If you’re getting the installation of a new thermostat however, it’s probably best to purchase the thermostat on your own for a variety of reasons.
In the first place, you’re far more likely to score the best price or discount on a thermostat when you shop for it on your own than if you let a tradesperson purchase the thermostat for you, merely because they’re not able to search to find the most affordable price.
Then, you’ll be able to choose a thermostat with the features you’d like and some smart thermostats have features that other thermostats do not.
It’s also recommended to look at the dimensions and shape, as well as the color of the items prior to when you are installing them so that you have the opportunity to change your decision.
The cost varies a bit in the case of thermostats that are manual or programmable because they all have the same features. They appear very similar, and have the same basic features. They’ve been around for quite a while.
But, today, businesses are focusing more on creating smart thermostats rather than other products that have a wide pricing. This is due to the fact that there are numerous models and brands to choose from starting from basic thermostats to high-end choices.
Online stores like Amazon and eBay have become extremely famous as stockists for a selection and models of thermostats with smart features. This means that you can find many thermostats for sale at a reduced price and are therefore an excellent place to begin to find your thermostat.
What are the Additional Costs of a Thermostat Installation?
Although installing a thermostat can be a relatively simple, fast and cost-effective task, there are additional expenses that are usually related to new thermostat installation. We’ve looked at the most popular types of thermostats here.
New Boiler
It’s likely that the thermostat that you have was fitted along with your boiler, so If you’re in search of an alternative thermostat, it might be time for a brand new boiler as well.
New boilers provide a lot of benefits and, even though they’re an investment, grants and schemes can help reduce the cost of these boilers.
New boilers improve your home’s efficiency in energy and use less energy than what you have to, thereby lessening the carbon footprint of your home. They can also help you reduce the cost of wasted energy.
New boilers appear more contemporary, perform better, are more reliable and they are also less likely to break. The new boilers have a very long warranty.
Cost-wise, the range can be anything between £600 and £2,000, with low-cost models starting at £1,000, while the premium models costing up to £2,000.
The fact that models are classified within the budget section doesn’t mean that they’re not efficient. A budget boiler that is new is always more efficient than one that is older.
Installation of a brand new boiler can be expensive, with prices that range between £1,200 and £3,500 based on the level of complexity involved in the boiler installation and place of your house.
We mentioned that large cities such as London have prices that are on the high part of the spectrum. But, we did suggest savings potential through programs and grants.
GOV.UK offers a wide range of financial aids that can assist in the purchase of new boilers, ranging across The Green Scheme to the Turn2Us grant. Each of these schemes comes with various eligibility criteria and so it’s recommended to take a look at the various programs available and check what you qualify for.
You can locate these grant and scheme information on GOV.UK or by searching them on search engines.
Smart Home Appliances
Smart thermostats are often used with other smart technologies within your home. For instance, you could connect a Hive smart thermostat to the Amazon Alexa device to manage the heating using speaking. These devices also manage TVs, lighting and speakers as well as doorbells.
The concept behind smart appliances and thermostats isn’t only to offer more convenience to clients, but also to improve efficiency in the home’s energy usage. As an example, suppose you don’t remember to turn off the lights in your home and television off prior to leaving for work.
If you do, you should turn off the apps on your phone immediately when you notice you’re not wasting all of your energy during the day, even when no one is at home.
Smart home appliances vary in a wide range in price, ranging from £10 for a plug with a voice activation to £500 for CCTV systems. But, you can equip your home with a few useful devices that control lighting and other electronic components at under £100.
New Radiators
If you’re looking to evaluate the efficiency of your thermostat and boiler You should also take a look at the radiators within your home. In time, radiators are filled with all kinds of dirt and grease which can significantly hinder their ability to release heat as efficiently as they did in the past.
It is possible to look into hiring a professional service for flushing to remove any accumulated waste from your radiators. It usually costs between £400 and £450.
If you decide to upgrade the radiators in the most frequently used rooms in your house the cost will be between £180–£240 per radiator, based on the size and design of radiators that you choose.
Many people opt for this choice for their living spaces and bedrooms, as they are the rooms which receive the greatest benefits from the new heating systems. It usually takes between 2 and 4 hours to replace a radiator and it can make an enormous difference in the amount of energy that you use.
Tradesmen Costs for Replacing or Repairing a Thermostat
The cost of an electrician to install thermostats is very inexpensive, depending on the location you live in. It typically can take between 1 and 2 hours to set up the thermostat, however it can differ in the event that the installer runs against unexpected issues in the installation of the wall and the boiler that could delay the time working on the project.
We’ll examine the length of time required to set up a thermostat in the subsequent section. It’s around the same amount of time to fix an existing thermostat, and you’ll have to pay the same amount of prices.
We’ve already discussed the impact that the location of your home affects the cost of labor throughout this piece; however, we’ll clarify the matter in this article.
In the more populated regions where there is a lot of population, the need for heating engineers and related tradesmen is extremely high since more people compete for jobs. This means that contractors are able to charge more on the cost scale to earn more money for their services.
It’s possible to argue that it’s unfair to the customer however, costs of living in big cities such as London is also higher which means that traders aren’t much more or less fortunate.
In small towns and villages, there are fewer individuals who need work completed. In order to get more people to get work done by contractors, they should remain as cost-effective as they can in their pricing.
How Long Does It Take to Install a Thermostat?
It shouldn’t take more than two hours to set up a thermostat of any type however, sometimes issues will occur that can slow the process down a bit.
For instance when a client would like to have the thermostat installed at a specific location in the walls, however it isn’t feasible due to cables or pipes that are within walls behind, it might require a bit of time to locate an alternative location.
Smart thermostats can take a long to get connected however, manufacturers have made efforts to make the process as simple as they can in order to make sure that more users are enticed to switch to the smart thermostat.
But, certain smart thermostats can require a full two hours due to the fact that there are numerous functions to connect and a majority include wireless sensors. They are dependent on the Internet connection. This could result in delays if the connection isn’t fast enough!
Manual thermostats are the easiest to set up, since they aren’t equipped with
many options to connect, and they’ll be in operation within a matter of minutes.
Choosing a Thermostat
Below are the various types of thermostats on the market, along with their prices:
Manual Thermostat Cost
Manual thermostats are among the simplest of the three alternatives. They’re typically found with a dial that can be controlled in a small, compact box that is attached to the wall and linked to the boiler, allowing users to control the temperature you want for your home.
They have to be operated manually. They aren’t programmed ahead of time, which means that you have to switch the heating off and on whenever you require it.
They’re easy to operate, and cost-effective and up until in 2000 this kind of thermostat was common in homes. There are homes that may be equipped with one mounted on the walls even though they’re not in use today.
They typically cost between £10 and £40.
Programmable Thermostat Cost
Honeywell actually developed the first thermostat with programmable functions in 1906, however they weren’t widely used in homes until the end of the 1990s.
Programmable thermostats include a small interface device that lets you regulate temperatures of the central heating system and the time when the heating will be activated automatically.
These thermostats will remain popular even in 2021, and they let you regulate the temperature in your home as well as keep track of the amount of energy you use every day. The Honeywell thermostat has been a standard in the world of heating for a long time and is still a mainstay till today.
It is possible to pay between £35 and £70.
Smart Thermostat Cost
Smart thermostats have revolutionized the thermostat that is programmable by taking technology higher. Smart thermostats are thermostats that can be programmed using apps for tablets or smartphones instead of a standalone interface.
They are also wireless thermostats, meaning they are controlled via Wi-Fi that is in your home.
The heating system can also be operated remotely, which means you can switch on the heating when you leave to ensure your home is warm and cozy the moment you get there. You can also track the temperature of your home during the night, and switch the heating off without leaving your mattress.
Smart thermostats often integrate with devices and apps that can be used both inside and outside as well as inside. Most popular brands include Hive and Nest and both of them continue to improve each thermostat more efficiently than the previous.
Smart thermostats are priced between £70 and £250.
Thermostat Repair Costs
Thermostats can be sometimes a bit temperamental; they can need attention from an engineer in heating to visit and fix the device.
It’s not particular to any kind of thermostat, and every one of them needs to be repaired in time. Smart thermostats offer more online assistance in case of any issues that could eliminate the need for call-outs from engineers.
The majority of thermostats can be repaired within an hour or less with a cost of between £70 and £100 in labor costs. However, when you call an engineer during non-social hours, you could incur an additional call-out cost. This usually equates to the price for 3 hours of labour.
FAQs
Q: Which smart thermostat is the best?
A: The two front runners for the moniker of the best smart thermostat are the Nest and Hive models. Since their inception, the two have been vying for the top title, and they continue to battle over features and value for money each year.
While both work with other devices such as Google Home and Amazon, they do have different prices and features themselves. Nest has a lot more features ranging from motion sensors to machine learning, but it is £30 more expensive than the Hive, costing £180.
The Hive has all the basic features you need from a smart thermostat and costs £150, so you shouldn’t be disappointed if you choose the Hive over the Nest. It all depends on how much you want those extra technology features and if you’re prepared to pay extra for them.
Q: What temperature should a thermostat be set at?
A: A temperature between 18 and 21 is largely accepted as the best temperature to keep your home set at. When it’s cold outside, you don’t need to turn the heating up to account for that as the temperature rating is taken from inside the home where your thermostat is.
Q: Where should you put your thermostat?
A: The best place to affix your thermostat is in the centre of your home, in a frequently used room and is fixed onto an interior wall five foot from the floor.
That is defined as the best place to position your thermostat, but of course, it may not be possible to meet all of those parameters, so do your best to pick a room that meets as many as possible.
Q: How often should I have my central heating system serviced?
A: In the interest of ensuring your central heating system is kept working at the optimal standard, you should have it serviced every twelve months. It shouldn’t cost more than £120, and it’s worth having to ensure that your system is working as well as it can be and is completely safe.
Q: Can you programme your central heating to come on through the night?
A: If you find that your home cools down very quickly during the night, you can programme your smart thermostat or programmable thermostat to activate the heating when the temperature drops below a certain temperature.
Of course, with the addition of covers and blankets in bed, we don’t need the home to be as warm as we do during the day, but you can set it to whatever temperature you feel comfortable in.
