I have a manual dial thermostat that I want to change to a Honeywell dt90e the wiring is as follows red to No1 yellow/green to no3 blue to no4 is it possible they have used the earth wire as the switched live as the blue is the neutral
From your description it does sound like it. Are you sure it is yellow / green not just yellow? If it is the earth core, it is dangerous and should be corrected.
Definitely green and yellow it does look like it's sleeved. on the dt90e you do not need a neutral if I marked it appropriately could I use the blue wire as the switched live
So long as the earth is used for its correct purpose, any of the other cores can be used for any purpose so long as they are tagged / marked at both ends.