I had this thermostat installed by my utility company several weeks ago. It's the kind where they can cut back the air conditioner during peak demand. I get money off my utility cost and a free installed thermostat. Let me mention here that I have no ability to install anything electric, so buying one and installing it myself wasn't an option.
I used it on the A/C mode for about a week, and then it became cool enough that it wasn't necessary. Last night I turned it to the heat setting. It ran fine for a while, although I noticed that on several occasions it said "hold" which according to the manual has something to do with protecting the compressor by not restarting it too soon. I have a forced hot air oil furnace. Do they have compressors? I thought those were found on A/Cs. (See - non technical here). Anyhow as I was looking at the display, it suddenly went completely dark. I don't mean the back light dimmed, I mean it was black with no on screen menu. That freaked me because if the thermostat isn't working, how would the furnace know to turn off. I walked to the other end of the house to see if it was still running, and yes at least the fan part was. When I got back, the back light and menu were back on again. I was concerned and took that opportunity to turn the heating system back off.
Any thoughts? I've called the utility company and they can't look at it until Tuesday. I'm afraid to turn it back on in case something is wrong with either the thermostat or wiring.(Local newspaper blog had a comment from someone who claimed the utility had mis-wired her thermostat and it damaged her A/C). The guy who installed it didn't seem to know much about the unit; when I asked how it worked, he handed me the guide and said it's all in here. AFAIK, the furnace itself was functioning properly - the oil company did its annual PM 3-4 weeks ago (actually an hour or so after the thermostat was installed) and it was OK.
Any thoughts on what I should look for or ask? I'm starting to wish I had the original thermostat back.