Make the Call for Comfort

It’s a sweltering summer afternoon and you head to your thermostat to fire up your air conditioner. However, you get there only to find out that the screen is completely blank, and no amount of button pushing or switch maneuvering can get your system to respond. It's probably one of these 5 common reasons, the circuit breaker tripped, the batteries are dead, a safety switch was triggered, loose connections or your thermostat just needs to be replaced. Below we expound more on why your thermostat may be blank.

Tripped Breaker or Blown Fuse

Summer is particularly harsh on your electrical systems, and it’s not uncommon for the immense electrical loads on your home to cause circuit breakers to trip or fuses to blow from simply drawing too much current. If your thermostat is run off in-wall electricity, it will also shut off and go completely blank when the breaker trips or fuse blows out. This is not all that uncommon for many modern or smart thermostats that are equipped with features like Wi-Fi connectivity, which require more energy to operate and thus make batteries fairly useless.

Simply open up your fuse box or circuit breaker panel and look for the circuit which supports your HVAC system. If your fuse is blown, replace it with a new one, or simply reset your circuit breaker switch by flipping it on again. This should turn your thermostat back on, as well as your heater or air conditioner. However, if your circuit breaks or fuse blows again quickly, call a professional for repairs as soon as possible. You may have a much deeper-rooted problem that could be quite serious.

Dead Batteries

Did you know your thermostat may actually run on batteries? Many people mistakenly believe that their thermostat runs on a standard electrical connection simply because it’s attached to the wall. Sometimes this isn’t wrong, but believe it or not the overwhelming majority of older-style thermostats actually have a battery installed in them. Whether it’s a nine-volt cell, AA, or AAA, swapping out that old battery with a new one may bring your entire system back to life in a flash.

To change your battery, pop open your thermostat and look for the battery on the inside. If you’re not sure how to open your thermostat, simply run a quick internet search for your particular make and model of thermostat and find the user’s manual. There are simply far too many different types of thermostats to list here. Once you replace the battery, simply put your thermostat back on the wall correctly and you should have control of your system back again!

Safety Switch Triggered

With some homes, your AC unit or furnace will trigger a safety switch that will turn off the thermostat completely if it notices any damage has been detected. If it's in the Summer your air conditioner can shut off the thermostat due to and overflow of the condensate pan. For Winter, the safety switch is triggered when your unit becomes too hot. Not matter the reason, call our expert HVAC team to inspect your unit immediately.

Loose connections

Your thermostat has a lot of connections that all serve a various purpose. These wires either help showcase the display or even how the thermostat communicates with the HVAC system. If any of these wires are loose or incorrectly placed, it can cause problems, like the thermostat showing a blank screen.

Broken Thermostat

Finally, the problem may actually be with your thermostat itself. Like any other electronic device, your thermostat could eventually grow old, wear out, and finally die. When this is the case, you’ll need to replace it, and this could be a great opportunity to make a pretty small but extremely cost-effective investment in your home’s energy efficiency. Most modern thermostats are designed with all sorts of energy-saving features such as automatic timers, Wi-Fi connectivity for easy control, and even energy consumption monitoring.