Problem: they’ve been painted around, never painted behind, so when removed I can see all the layers of paint and wallpaper this house has had over the past 50 years. Honestly, the previous owners had good taste, I have liked all the random wallpaper bits I’ve found hidden around this house while fixing it up.
I bought the retail Nest Trim Plate kit that’s supposed to cover this up, but it’s not big enough. No matter where I put it, some of the unpainted wall is exposed.
Solution: Cut my own, larger trim plate with the Glowforge!
I measured the width of the thermostat backer and used that to design this. It has a recessed groove for the thermostat to sit in, like the official kit has. I got that by engraving a ring into the white acrylic at 850/full/225.
And up on the wall it goes. The thermostat’s backer plate that the wires go into is what gets screwed into the wall. Since that sits in the lip in the trim plate I made, it also holds the plate to the wall without additional screws.
When I have the time, I’d like to jazz the plate up with some kind of design sublimated on it, rather than the plain white. For now, this lets me get them installed!
Love it! And I agree with @evansd2 - you could engrave your acrylic and fill it in. Cover it with wood glue first, which will peel off from the acrylic really easy, do your engraving, spray paint it with your chosen color (easier than trying to fill it in with pens or acrylic paint), let the paint dry, then peel the glue off. You could engrave any design or wording you want.
I have a dumb digital thermostat and it keeps the house warmer when I am awake, and cooler when I am sleeping. If I want a temporary temperature change, it is easily done. I cannot even imagine how an algorithm would be an improvement over the simple timers I am used to.
I’m not trying to pick a fight here, I sincerely don’t understand how smart thermostats are better. I love gadgets, so… Someone, sell me on it.
I don’t use any kind of algorithmic feature. It is entirely for voice control. From any room in the house I can say “Alexa/Google, set the temperature to #” to make it warmer or colder. Most everything in our house is voice controlled, from lights to garage doors to even preheating the oven. Nest was the cheapest remote controllable thermostat I could get, between $0 and $49 at various times via my utility company’s discount store for energy efficient thermostats, lights and small appliances.
I can control mine (not Nest, significantly cheaper than current prices when I bought them in 2016) by voice also, but I primarily use them to be able to set/fix the temp when I won’t be home for a while (travel/hospital stays), or reset to normal program on returning home. They also have an auto mode which can automatically switch to heat or cool, which is often handy during our crazy spring and fall.
Set it & forget it. Easier then changing it to make it change temps.
Mine will automatically switch between cooling & heating so I don’t have to change it seasonally or for those days when it’s suddenly unseasonably warm & we want A/C during otherwise cold seasons. It auto-updates for DST so I don’t have to change its clock twice a year.
It’s also automated through my Home Assistant setup so if the sliders (I have a wall of quad sliders going out to the deck plus several others in various rooms) are open for more than 10 minutes, it switches off so I’m not heating/cooling the outside. Then when they’re closed for 5 minutes (after being open more than 10), the thermostat turns back on because it means we’re no longer leaving the sliders open for fresh air. I don’t have to remember to turn them off or on.
First world problems I know, but it makes it easier to save electricity (& money) than doing the same things manually.
Don’t use nest but ecobee 3, same difference in this case…
As it learns your routine around a schedule or not, it’ll figure out when you’re away, when someone is likely home, or it’ll take into account the temp outside and turn on earlier or later to get to target temps by the schedule/away/home change.
It’ll also take into account smart electric/gas monitors and adjust for more expensive time rates. Ie turn on ac earlier on a to be hot day so the house is precooled before the mid-day extreme demand rates kick in. It’ll also self adjust goal temps up or down to try and minimize usage during those peak rate increase times.
My ecobee claims I’ve saved 2600$ since installing it in…2015 or 16…between my setting being set wider than 72(68 for heat, 82 for ac) for everything and it fiddling about with timers.
For me, it is to override my children! The kids (well child now) live on the second floor and although I don’t mind her setting the temperature how she wants when she is home, I don’t want to have to walk upstairs to verify she turned that unit off when she isn’t home for hours at a time or has left for the week or semester.
Same with the basement after my husband has been down there LOL
I don’t even know why we have a thermostat… My wife keeps it set at a constant 60 degrees year round, I swear sometimes I can see frost forming on the furniture.
I was forced to give up figuring my ex out. Winter needed to be high 70s, she could drink iced almond milk while under a blanket with a hair dryer. Summer needed to be kept in the mid 60s…and still with the blanket, iced almond milk, and a hair dryer.
For posterity, as I’ll likely delete/lose this file in the near future, here it is in case anyone else finds this thread and wants to print their own some day:
Blue is cut, red is engrave. On 1/8" acrylic I engraved the ring at 850 speed, full power, 225 LPI to get a deeper groove than the Proofgrade default.
