Programable Thermostat?

NCGirl · #1 09/07/06, 08:39 AM

My little old farmhouse has baseboard heating in each room.

The den/kitchen is L-Shaped and probably 450sf. It has 2 heaters in there which keep it nice and warm.

My Bedroom is probably 150sf and also has 2 heaters, I just barely have to turn them on or they heat up too much. The other rooms I keep the heat off as I rarely go into them.

I am thinking about getting on of those programable thermostats to save energy.

I leave the house at 6:30pm and get home about 5:30 pm.

Anyone want to make a suggestion as to which product to buy? And how best to use it? I like it about 70 degrees in the living room at night and maybe 62 at night. How low should I cut it when I am gone? Should I cut the bedroom off completely in the AM? Or would this just make it more difficult to heat up at night? What about the living room while I am gone during the day?

Bearfootfarm · #2 09/07/06, 09:42 AM

"Electric resistance systems, such as electric baseboard heating, require thermostats capable of directly controlling 120-volt or 240-volt circuits. Only a few companies manufacture line-voltage setback thermostats."

http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/.../mytopic=12720

According to this your choices are limited anyway

hunter63 · #3 09/08/06, 03:39 PM

Are your baseboards elect, or hot water?

critter · #4 09/08/06, 06:07 PM

Actually, Bearfootfarm, that is not entirely true. It all depends on the type of system and how it is wired. Electric resistance systems usually use a relay for control on most modern systems.

Quote:

Are your baseboards elect, or hot water?

That is important, as well as if you currently use a single thermostat in each room or for each heater. A model # and make of the current thermostat or heater would help a lot.

As for the amount of 'setback', it depends on how long you want the unit to run. Generally no more than 10 degrees, or less for about a 30 minute warmup (before you arrive home).Turning the heat off will usually negate any savings by requiring more energy to heat back up to desired temps.

NCGirl · #5 09/08/06, 06:31 PM

Electric.... These heaters must be 30-40 years old (maybe more?) no name that I can see just old metal brown baseboard heaters. This house is 100+ years old built by my great grandpa for one of his spinster sisters

My Dad told me today that as quick as they heat up the rooms that I would be better to just turn the heat down 10 degrees or so when I leave in the morning and then turn it back up when I get home. It does heat up within 15 minutes or so, so maybe I will just do that.

Thanks for the advice.

Macybaby · #6 09/08/06, 06:52 PM

We have electric baseboard heat. We have thermostats in each room. Setback for line voltage are available, but not that easy to find. However you can also get a relay setup and use a regular thermostat to control them. I don't really now how that works, but our bedroom is on that system. However, for it to work, each room should be on it's own circut. If that is not the case, I don't think you can't control them individually with a wall thermostat. We have two 220amp panels in our house because we have so many dedicated 220 circuts for the heaters. All the heat circuts (including water heater) are now in a seperate panel.

When you say "turn them on" what do you mean? Do you have wall thermostats or is the thermostat part of the heater (you turn a knob on the heater). You may need new thermostats. I keep a thermometer in each room to monitor temps (well, actually I collect thermometer/baramoter units). We've had a thermostat not work properly.

Also currently have a problem with one thermostat being on a wall that gets cold if the wind is blowing from the north. Room will be nice and warm but the thermostat shows about 40 deg, and the wall is cold. We'll have to deal with that this fall.

Cathy

arabian knight · #7 09/08/06, 07:07 PM

I have a rather new baseboard electric ones. Lees then 7 years old now. And yes the 220 line voltage programmable is pretty hard to find for sure.. Because most of those set back type that you see in the home improvement centers are for the Low voltage, of a regular furnace and or wall propane type furnaces and wall heaters.

NCGirl · #8 09/08/06, 07:14 PM

OK here is a picture. There are controls in each room.

Programable Thermostat? - Homesteading Questions

agmantoo · #9 09/08/06, 07:24 PM

The pic is of a line voltage control. The setback thermostats that as so common will not substitute for the one in the picture.

hunter63 · #10 09/08/06, 08:15 PM

I use Cadet base board heaters as a "middle of the nite, wood stove burns down and nobody wants to get up, get cold to stoke the fire", back up.
http://www.cadetco.com/links.php
Don't know about line voltage Set-back T-stats, but then again never really looked for them

Each has it's own T-stat, line voltage 220v. Set @ about 60 degrees.
So far the only problem is that they are on the floor (on the unit), so take a little "shooting ducks, gotta lead them" to get it right.
Thinking about a relay and standard t-stat in the future.