Puzzled by Thermostat
Sometimes our house is freezing and our analog dial thermostat says the temperature is two ticks below the setting, but the heat doesn’t come on. Sometimes the house is boiling and the temperature and setting match exactly, but the heat doesn’t turn off. Anyone know why?

cate
in About Brooklyn 11 years and 9 months ago
9
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BobMarvin | 11 years and 9 months ago
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“I wonder if this is a characteristic of analog thermostats?” I’m pretty sure it is, but it should be mitigated with heating systems like yours that use radiators. It was very noticeable in my house with forced hot air heat, since the registers are either on or off without retaining any heat and the old thermostat lagged in turning on the furnace.

cate | 11 years and 9 months ago
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Bob, that’s very interesting, I wonder if this is a characteristic of analog thermostats? Four years ago when we moved in the heat maintained a remarkable even temperature, and I’ve wondered if the difference is caused by tuning the boiler in a different way (which our oil company did do later for unrelated reasons too boring to go into now). Ed, the thermostat is in one of the warmer rooms but the thermometer is in that same room, on the thermostat. It’s not so much we have a problem with heat being uneven in different rooms, more like the temperature keeps fluctuating in general and the thermostat doesn’t seem to respond well.

agdipierro
in About Brooklyn 11 years and 9 months ago
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Are the thermostat located remotely from the rooms that are too cold/hot?

BobMarvin | 11 years and 9 months ago
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Whoops–”shut” not “sh*t” off!

daveinbedstuy | 11 years and 9 months ago
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Sorry, I missed that. I guess I glossed over and assumed everyone used programmables nowadays.

BobMarvin | 11 years and 9 months ago
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Dave, I think old analog/electro–mechanical thermostats are hard wired (with low voltage wires); at least mine was.

daveinbedstuy | 11 years and 9 months ago
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Try changing the batteries first.

BobMarvin | 11 years and 9 months ago
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A few years ago the company that services our furnace under contract replaced our old analog, electro-mechanical thermostat in error, trying to fix a problem that was actually caused by a sticking flue damper (which they eventually also replaced). I’m very happy to have the newer digital thermostat (and not just because I got it for free, although that helps). With the old thermostat the temperature would have to drop a few degrees below the setting before the furnace went on and it wouldn’t shit off until it was a few degrees above our setting. With the new thermostat, the temperature is remarkably even, considering the inherent unevenness of forced hot air heat). I’d suggest a new thermostat even if your old mechanical one still works.

GreenThinker | 11 years and 9 months ago
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No clue why, but it sounds like you need a new thermostat.