Currently more and more people are looking for the programmable thermostat that can do the work properly – which stands for enhancing the comfort level at home or office, and also providing the most savings on the monthly energy bills. And at the same time, people are looking for the beauty on the devices. With the information below you will understand why Venstar T5800 
The current programmable thermostats try to give you more control over your heating/cooling whether you’re at home or away and help you monitor the amount of money you’re burning with energy bills.
Venstar T5800 Installation and Setup
Installing the thermostat is pretty straight forward. If you are a little handy, you can do the installation yourself easily. However, if you are not really sure about the process, you can definitely call one of your handy friends to help (:-) ) or your HVAC contractor for help. The process shouldn’t be longer than half an hour.
I want to mention an important point for the installation; the Venstar T5800 requires a 24-volt “common” wire to its C terminal because the thermostat needs a constant supply. You may not know if you have C wire or not at the beginning. That’s why, pay close attention to the wiring when you are removing the old thermostat. When you remove the old one, put labels to each wire so you will not get confused with the new ones installation. If you don’t have a C wire; there are couple options : Either to run an additional wire, or you can purchase the optional Add-A-Wire accessory from Venstar to complete the installation.
Even though I don’t read the documentation usually, I always appreciate good one… If I need to read, it is much better to have a detailed documentation. Venstar provides an illustrated, 57-page booklet with both a table of contents and an index. Venstar gets a big plus from me for this 
If you want to have a quick look of the Venstar T5800 user manual / installation instructions, here it is : Venstar_T5800_owners_manual_and_installation_instructions
Venstar T5800 Features
I will divide the Venstar T5800 feature list into 2 parts:
- first part covers the usual features that you expect from a programmable thermostat
- and the second part of this list covers the special features
Features
You can program the Venstar T5800 with four events for each day of the week, which is good enough for almost all the cases. I believe, the only programmable thermostat that gives more flexibility is Nest Learning Thermostat – 2nd Generation.
The Venstar T5800 thermostat has a 7 inch color touchscreen, which handles all the operations (for the comparison, the latest iPhone 5s has 4.0 inch screen). The touchscreen is responsive and quick enough to handle thermostat operations. If you don’t have the Skyport Wi-Fi Key, you will need to operate the thermostat by using the touchscreen. However, if you go a step ahead and buy the Wi-Fi key (which costs 55 US dollars currently), the real fun starts : you can use / program your thermostat from another room in your home, or from another country in another continent.
Venstar has apps for iOS, Android or Blackberry; however you don’t need a smart phone, you can control your thermostat through a web browser as well. You can change temperature and mode, get alerts when you need to have your HVAC system serviced, and turn on and off vacation mode.
– If you have the wi–fi key -, the SkyPort’s Web browser based dashboard allows you to track your heating and cooling usage over time (it reports how many hours of heating you used in a specific month, and also how many hours of cooling you used). The system also breaks down the hours for each system for the entire last week. The data that Venstar T5800 delivers is invaluable for someone trying to keep HVAC costs in budget.
You can see a great deal of information through the Venstar T5800’s seven-inch display. At a glance, you’ll see the name of the thermostat (you can manage several thermostats from Venstar’s web portal – if you have rental properties, this is a great feature); the date, day of the week, and current time; the current room temperature and target temperature; and the status of the fan (an icon spins when the fan is running)
The daylight Savings mode automatically adjusts ColorTouch clock when necessary; so you will not need to change the time 2 times a year.
The Venstar T5800 has built in battery; so you will not need to worry about changing the battery. When the power goes off, the built in battery kicks in.
The system can be used in three languages; English, Spanish and French.
TIP : The Venstar T5800 thermostat won’t kick on the heat or the AC to adjust the temperature unless it gets 2 degrees away from the temperature you set (called threshold) . This is built in as an energy-saving feature. If you don’t like this option, you can change the threshold to 1 degree on the thermostat’s preferences menu.
Click here for more details, price reviews and ratings of Venstar T5800 thermostat
Special Features
You have the ability to enforce temperature set point limits so that the Venstar T5800 system runs within set temperature parameters. No one can run the air conditioning too low or the heat too high, unless you share the pass code with them. This feature eliminates kids or guests from changing the thermostat settings. For me this is a great feature, because usually guests and kids don’t care about your energy bill!
The Venstar T5800 is a programmable thermostat with built in digital photo frame! (or a digital frame which can be used as a programmable thermostat ). It comes with several pre-installed backgrounds (Built-in Nature and Holiday Themes), but you can add your own photos to use as background (Customizable Wallpapers). You can install up to 100 photos to the thermostat and display them as a slideshow when the thermostat is in screen saver mode (Digital Picture Frame). This feature definitely puts the Venstar 5800 a step ahead in the competition.
The screen is also dimmable, but I’ve actually found the default brightness to be the ideal level for both day and night. The Venstar T5800 can become a small night light in your hallway / bedroom or living room.
You can customize the look of Venstar T5800 with a faceplate which matches to your home decor. Options include white(supplied), black, silver and wood grain.
I am not really sure why you would want to use this feature; but you can even send a text message to the thermostat itself (if you have Skyport Wi-Fi Key). A message would be a small surprise to your significant other or kids (if they ever check the thermostat screen at all…).
Cons
I believe Venstar T5800 and the Skyport Wi-Fi Key should be bundled together. Without the wi-fi features, you cannot feel the real power of the thermostat. I’m hoping to see an internal wi-fi functionality in the future versions of the thermostat. The key isn’t a large accessory, but it ruins the sleek look of the thermostat and must also be removed when inserting an SD card into the Venstar T5800 (for transferring the photos or thermostat settings from a PC).
Unfortunately, you can’t transfer digital photos to the thermostat over your wireless network. To do that, you must use the SD card. I would be happier to be able to transfer the photos over wi-fi.
Video Overview
Conclusion
The Venstar T5800