The thermostat in our house is located in a bad place, the warmest part of the house. What this means is that the rest of the house will be chilly while the thermo is reading 69 and the heater is not kicking in. My wife is already talking about putting space heaters in several rooms and I’m having nightmares of astronomical electrical bills due to 1,200 watt heatings running for hours on end (of course, try explaining that to her… no really, please try cuz I’m not getting through to her!).
I could move the thermostat into the center hallway, which would be an improvement but would entail all the work of actually moving it.
I think a better solution would be a wireless thermostat so any recomendations you might have are much appreciated. An even better solution would be a conventional thermostat with one or more wireless remote sensors. With that I could replace the existing hardwired thermostat and add sensor(s) in the cooler part of the house.
Any suggestions/advice is appreciated.
Replies
Having your t'stat in the warmest place in not a problem, just raise the temp until it is comfortable in the colder rooms.
What is a problem is placing the t'stat over the radiator or supply duct, then the t'stat does not measure room temp but supply air temp and short cycles.
Thanks, but manually adjusting the thermostat defeats the purpose of having a programmed unit that does it automatically, not too mention coming on to a warmer program before we get up in the morning.
Jeff
Have you considered re-wiring the thermostat to a different location, even simply around the corner? Even if you had to hire someone, it might be worth it to you.
yeah, rewiring the thermostat is option A, but I'd rather not go through the work of doing it (after replacing all the knob-and-tube wiring in the house already, I am not relishing more wiring work) and I guarantee that spending $200 on a wireless unit, which is what I did this week, is cheaper than hiring an electrician to do it.
thanks
You can check on homesmart.com (or it might be smarthome.com). they have all kinds of remote control and wireless stuff and that would be a good place to start.
Jeff,
Just want to expand on what Rick said in case you dont understand the concept. If the room that the thermostat is in is 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, it will always be 5 degrees warmer ... no matter where you put the thermostat. So just set the thermostat to whatever level will make you comfortable in the rooms that are used most often. That will be a lot less expensive than running the small heaters. I have the exact opposite situation. My thermostat is in the coolest area of the house so I do not have to set it very high to make the rest of the house comfortable.
The point is that no matter where you place the thermostat, there will be differences in temperature throughout the house.
One thing I would highly suggest is a programmable one that will turn the heat down a notch when you are not at home, or at night if you like it cooler then.
Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md
I understand the concept just fine, but as I said in my original post, I would rather heat the house to the coldest room in the house, not the warmest (heat being more tolerable than cold). This is why the thermo being in the warmest room in the house is bad.
I could set the thermo to be 5-10-whatever degrees warmer than the room the thermo is in, but that strikes me as a kludge that is neither reliable nor efficient.
thanks for all the responses. I bought a Totaline thermostat with a wireless remote sensor. I can put the sensor in whatever room I want to, or add additional sensors for more coverage. The wireless unit operates on 418mhz bandwidth meaning it won't interfere with other devices and the low duty cycle means that the batteries should last for at least 6 months, if not more. $220, cheap and easy.
http://www.theenergyalternative.com/energy_efficient_products/?item=411
Is it a forced air system? If so, you can balance the dampers better. I'd start with making sure the dampers to all the cold rooms are wide open, and the damper to the hot room is fully shut or nearly so. Then tweak it from there.
thanks, that's good advice.
I have done that, as well as removing some registers from rooms (the warm ones) that had more than 1 when I replaced the hardwood floors. I also replaced a bunch of ductwork as well in an effort to more evenly distribute the forced air.
It really just comes down to the room where the thermostat is located being a lot warmer than the rest of the house. The wireless remote sensing thermostat will do the trick.