The voting was close in many categories but perhaps none more so than in the Residential Controls Including Zoning category of The News second annual Dealer Design Awards. Honeywell Enviromental & Combustion Division took first place honors with the Focus PROTM 5000 nonprogrammable thermostat. Second place went to Nordic Electronics Ltd. for the FAST-STAT model 5000. Honeywell Environmental & Combustion Division also picked up a third place award from the dealer judges for VisionPROTM 8000 programmable thermostat.

Gold Winner
The FocusPRO 5000 nonprogrammable thermostat from Honeywell was recognized by one judge as, “A very useful product, easy to read and operate”. The FocusPRO 5000 features a large, backlit display that prominently shows both room temperature and set temperature.

Silver Winner
The Nordic Electronics Ltd. FAST-STAT Model 5000 allows for the installation of a twostage furnace and air conditioner without having to repull the thermostat cable. It provides six-wire control over a two-wire cable or eight-wire control over a four-wire cable. It can also be used for heat pump conversions.
Ken Wiklund, president of Nordic Electronics Ltd., said “You can’t be in the HVAC business for long before you come across the dreaded next-toimpossible- to-repull thermostat cable. When this happens, the estimated labor costs for the job goes over budget, the crew gets behind schedule, and the customer’s house may have a few extra holes in it that they aren’t too happy about.

The FAST-STAT receiver is installed at the furnace or fan coil. The Sender wires are connected to the thermostat and the thermostat cable. The control wiring takes one technician about 10 to 15 minutes to complete as opposed to as much as an hour for some repull jobs, according to Wiklund.

“This product is very innovative and looks like it would save a tremendous amount of time on some jobs”, commented one contractor judge.

FAST-STAT comes with industry standard colorcoded leads wires that are 10 inches long for easy connections. The receiver also comes with adhesive tape for fast mounting and also has screw mounting tabs. There are no batteries to install or replace.

Bronze Winner
Honeywell picked up third place with their VisionPRO 8000 Thermostat that features a touch screen that is as easy for the contractors to install as it is for homeowners to use.