Installed programmable Honeywell thermostat of baseboard heaters

Hello, I just joined this forum in hopes of finding some answers to some questions I have regarding thermostats for baseboard heaters. To get straight to it, I removed the old dial thermostat and I noticed 3 wires connected to it. Red, black, and green. The red and black wires were going into the thermostat itself. But the green one was connected to the side of the thermostat by a screw. I looked on the old thermostat and it clearly said red goes to the load and black goes to the line. I installed a Honeywell programmable thermostat of electric heat (model RLV430A http://yourhome.honeywell.com/Consum...ge/Default.htm)

My questions are:
1. What is the green wire for?
2. After disconnecting the green wire I didn't know what it was for so I just used an extra solderless connector I had and capped the wire so its not exposing any metal. Is this ok to do?
3. Since the two wires on my new Honeywell thermostat are not polarized, I went ahead and connected one to the line and one to the load and it seems to be working just fine. Is this ok?
4. And lastly, why is the temperature reading on the thermostat hot by 4-5 degrees to the actual temperature in the room when turned on?

 

A green wire should be a ground wire to ground . You shoud be ok

 

Thanks, that is what I figured. So what should I do with it? There's no where to connect it to on the new thermostat.

 

The green wire is a ground wire. If the box is metal then the ground wire needs to be connected to the metal box. If the box is plastic and there is no ground connection on the new thermostat then the wire is capped.

 

1. I capped it by using a solderless connector. Is that the right way to cap it?
2. Why is the temperature reading on the thermostat hot by 4-5 degrees to the actual temperature in the room when turned on?

 

You use a wire nut to cap the wire.

The thermostat is out of adjustment.

 

How do I adjust the thermostat?

 

I don't know. You have the directions. What do they say?

 

The directions (at least the English portion) only show how to install it and connect the wires. There's no mention of adjusting the thermostat.

 

Then you aren't looking in the right place. Have you tried the web site?

 

Yes, there's nothing there about why the temperature would be off. For the most part, the new thermostat works and adjusts the heater properly. It just thinks it is about 4-5 degrees hotter than it really is.