Patent ID: 8671702

Claim:
A recessed thermostat assembly, comprising: a thermostat housing comprising a face plate and a circular side wall extending from a rear surface of the face plate, the thermostat housing at least partially enclosing one or more thermostat components; a moveable brace responsive to a brace actuator, the brace actuator accessible through the face plate and operatively associated with the moveable brace such that movement of the brace actuator in a first direction responsively causes the moveable brace to move linearly toward the face plate and impinge a building wall structure between the moveable brace and the rear surface of the face plate when the circular side wall is mounted within a circular mounting hole opening on the building wall structure, and movement of the brace actuator in a second direction responsively causes the moveable brace to move away from the face plate; and a cutting tool for cutting the circular mounting hole opening in the building wall structure, the opening being sized to receive the circular side wall but not the face plate of the thermostat housing, the cutting tool including a manual gripping handle coupled across a diameter of a cylindrically arranged plurality of cutting blades; and a shaft extending along a center axis of the cylindrically arranged plurality of cutting blades, the shaft being partially hollow to receive wires when cutting the circular mounting hole opening.