Just about any of the "universal" thermostats will probably work. Do *NOT* rely on the color of the those letters that the wires are connected (C, R, G, O, W, W2, etc...). THOSE are the ones that matter. Do not disconnect them until you match those up with the colors of the wires (in an ideal world, they will be the same...i.e. white to W, Red to red, etc... but stranger things have happened).

You'll probably get better answers over in the Heating/AC forum here.

That looks like a heat pump thermostat. Your new one is probably not a heat pump thermostat.

It would help to know the manufacturer and model of your old thermostat.

Well the thing is the letters on the new thermostat except for the g/r/y doesn't seem to be the same

The house was converted from Oil to electricity which may explain some of the wiring but as for the model number I don't know it

It looks exactly like this one and it is a Rodgers. Pretty old one I may say so

http://www.drillspot.com/products/149329/White_Rodgers_1F83-261_Digital_Thermostat

That model White Rodgers is a non-heatpump version and has 3 terminals on the top row. You have 4 terminals, the extra being 'E' which usually designates Heat Pump Emergency mode. The System switch (the thing with the vertical line) should have 4 positions: Cool, Off, Heat and Emer.

The one that looks like a better fit is the 1F82-261.

This one uses R, C, E (shorted to W2), G, Y, and O/B.

From looking at your picture a lot closer, this is what I see:

C = Black (common)
L = not used.
W2 = White (red jumper to white on E) (most likely Aux Heat)
E= White (Emergency Heat)
R= Red (24v+)
G= Green (Fan)
O/B= Orange (Reversing Valve)
Y= Yellow (compressor on)

So you need a heat pump thermostat, probably single stage.

BTW: this IS a programmable thermostat, a 5/1/1 version.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1f82-261

thanks that info will help lots

I was thinking of getting the nest 2 thermostat

Should it work with this config?

If your old one has the 4 buttons on the bottom left front, it is programmable. If it doesn't, then it isn't.

But isnt the on and off and programing stuff done by the thermostat and not the wiring?

My old thermostat has nothing in the bottom left so that means my home setup can never be programmable?

The next supports pretty much 95% of stuff out there

http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/10/01/35179222-11_1_610x435.jpg

sorry pic of nest wiring here

http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/10/01/35179222-11_1_610x435.jpg

Must have said the wrong thing. From your picture, there are button spots at the bottom left, those round areas with the squiggles in them. If the front does not have buttons in those positions, then the thermostat is not programmable.

The model I pointed to (-261) is programmable. Yours is not, but it is still a heat pump version. WR usually makes several versions in the same model each with different features.

I'm not familiar with the Nest, but it should work fine if it is HP compatible.