Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I asked my plumber and he told me to ask an electrician...

My central heating controller works fine but is old and yellow and looks terrible in my new kitchen - it's a Honeywell thing with an LCD display and was fitted in 1985 - it doesn't have a built-in thermostat.

From reading the Screwfix catalogue, I'm under the impression that modern timers use a standard six-wire connection to the boiler. Is my 1985-vintage timer likely to be compatible with this?

In short - can I easily replace my timer?

Thanks
Dave

what model is your existing programmer

If you take the front off the programmer (power off ) it will have on the inside model number and wiring diagram - ID the existing cables and mark them then connect to your new programmer

If whatever you buy is just a timer, then OK, but if your new device has any thermostatic funtion then you absolutely do not want it in the kitchen...

If you're replacing one I'd strongly recommend replacing both with an all-in-one wireless programmer, e.g. the Drayton Digistat RF3i

http://www.invensyscontrolseurope.com/lwwcm/connect/Invensys+Controls+Europe/Hom...

I must admit, the wireless ones look pretty cool, but based purely and simply on my wireless doorbell (which stops working daily for reasons best known to itself), I wouldn't use them.
I think there must be a satellite above my house!  

There's going to be one heck of a ruckus once these 2.4 Ghz things become really popular. You get huge contention issues which overload the individual components. They can reject non-authorised or incompatible signals on the same frequency ok, but that takes processing and send & recieve data from each device to establish comms. Not too long before you can't actually use the bandwidth as it's being used just for 'management' of the bandwidth.

Had an office network problem like this which had to be resolved by just getting the base stations to 'kill' any response demands by non-authorised IP addresses. So I set up one base station to deal with the other, then they individually only would deal with ip addresses on their respective floors. the base stations had to be instructed not to respond to any other signals, otherwise they just died randomly as they tried to process all the handshake requests.

Office internet sharing over 3 floors in Old Tudor building in Truro. Can't even fart loudly or open the windows to let it out without planning permission. Can't fix wiring to anything internally either. I dread to think what would have happened If I'd actually visited the place! I'd have had to look at the electrical side of things then. Fixed this one by phone with his IT bod.