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September 18, 2007
Themostat Sensor Placement and Wireless Thermostats/Sensors: Avoiding Those Wide Open Windows in Winter?
Last year when I was just renting, I didn't care so much that in the dead of winter, with my steam radiator valves turned completely off, I was still compelled to open my windows a good deal because the heat from the floors was more than heating my apartment (I live on the third of four floors...) This winter, now owning the same apartment, wanting to keep our little coop’s maintenance/fuel bill as low as possible, I thus:
--in a four story building such as this one, where should the thermostat/sensor be that "decides" when it is cold enough for the furnace to switch on?
--has anyone had experiences with wireless thermostat/sensors that might make it possible to use the ideal thermostat location to set the building’s temperature, and minimize the aforementioned “radiator-off-windows-open” situation?
Comments
As lifestyles and usage differ greatly from residence to residence, there's no right answer here.
But if your heating system is controlled by a single indoor thermostat, it should be located in a *representative* area.
In most cases, that is in the core of the building.
Wireless thermostats have not proven reliable yet and are expensive.
Look into Honeywell.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at September 18, 2007 8:15 AM
I purchased one...it was only about $150 or so, and it worked as advertised. You can put it on the very top floor, so that the whole house heats up. Of course, that could cause the lower floors to be too hot, and then you'll need to explore using smaller valves in the lower radiators and other such adjustments.
I don't recall the make of the one I bought, I have since moved.
Posted by: oe at September 18, 2007 4:18 PM
Did you install it yourself? The last one I bought (about 2 years ago) was a nightmare to wire at the boiler and an electrician wanted $400 to install it.
We tried it before we installed it and it turned out the signal from the t'stat didn't reach the boiler in the cellar anyway.
Posted by: Master Plvmber at September 18, 2007 5:02 PM
I installed it myself. It was as easy as replacing a thermostat. The base unit is where your existing thermostat is. That is just like 2 or three low-voltage wires.. very easy to do yourself. The wireless unit just communicates with that unit, so that's all there is to do.
this looks like a newer version of the one I got:
http://www.smarthome.com/30403-wireless-thermostat.html
Posted by: oe at September 18, 2007 7:50 PM
What worked in our four-unit coop: a programmable thermostat installed in the 2nd floor (of four) apartment - in the middle of the floor-through apartment (away from the radiators which were only at the front and back, by the windows.) Communicate about when settings in the program need to be changed. In our building, if the top floor was warm, 3rd was hotter yet, 2nd was hotter yet, etc.
In some older buildings that were rentals, the thermostat is in the stairwell/hall, outside the apartments. This makes the apartments too hot, as the thermostat is measuring the temperature in the stairway, which has cold air coming in every time the entry door is opened, has a radiator only on the ground floor, and loses heat through skylight and hatch at top, as the heat keeps rising, as it will, through the four story stairwell.
In our place, the old thermostat was left in the hall, and could be turned up temporarily by anyone to override the programmable one on a really cold night when more heat was needed. (The only problem was getting people to remember to turn it back down before going to bed - the programmable one was set to reduce heat after 11 p.m. or so, which was far more comfortable for everyone then when it was accidentally left turned up by the hall thermostat all night.) The second floor apartment cannot leave a window cracked open at night, however, or the effect will be the same - the heat will be coming on too much all night.
Of course, we still spent thousands more on fuel each year because the coop couldn't agree to replace the ancient, inefficient boiler, but that's coop living, where people aren't necessarily reasonable or rational, and can be penny-wise and pound-foolish, but at least we were comfortable, heat-wise.
And it certainly made a lot more sense than another coop I know that put a locked box over the thermostat in the hallway to keep people from turning it up, but never put in a programmable thermostat in an apartment. And I know a coop that has a programmable thermostat in the hallway, but this doesn't work so well, because everybody is always changing it (you turn it up, I turn it down), and the amount of heat is determined in part by how often the entry door is opened on a given day.
Posted by: guest at September 20, 2007 8:30 PM
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