The thermostat is the brain behind your furnace operating properly, and these little guys come in a variety of different types. Some have mercury switches inside, some use mechanical switches, some are digital, and programmable electronic models will do everything except wake you up in the morning!With Anatomy of the Furnace Thermostat you'll learn the differences between these thermostat types, how they work and see if you want to upgrade. And learn how to troubleshoot and fix a faulty thermostat too!
And if you want to replace your old thermostat or decide to get an electronic model to save energy and money this heating season, then go ahead and do it because installing a thermostat is easy and I'll show you how.
Comments
I took the covers off a couple of the forced hot water baseboard registers in the rental house where we’re living (new construction) and found the copper pipes to be covered with construction debris. Can that hurt the system? If so, how?
I also noticed on one of the registers the copper pipe is above the metal fins. On the others, the pipe is below the fins. Does that matter?
Also in order to get the registers to really warm up the house, we have to turn the thermostat up to 70. Otherwise, it stays around 58 to 60 degrees. Is that normal?
And is it normal for the registers to pop constantly as the heat goes on and off?
Hi Louisiana,
You have some problems there, eh?
OK, let’s walk through them:
1. You should NOT have any construction debris in the baseboard units at all, much less on the fins. If you do it will seriously and adversely affect the performance of the heater. These units work by hot air convection so anything that prevents free air flow will be a problem.
2. Pipes should be though the fins to transfer heat from the hot water pipe to the fins where they radiate heat. Not sure what you’re describing, but pipes on top of the fins are useless as you’re not even getting hot air convection to warm the fins.
3. Turning the Tstat to 70 in order to get 58 degrees is no surprise with the junk they left in your baseboard units. The baseboard heater cannot work with debris. CLEAN THEM OUT and vacuum the fins clean.
4. Some minor popping can happen as pipes heat and cool. You may be experiencing a worse problem as the pipes are not being heated consistently due to the debris.
Hope this helps.
Bob
the air is still blowing even when the switch is off.
I have a question. In order to keep warmth in our house with this baseboard water heating, what should the temperature remain set at? It is always so cold in our house, and the water baseboard heat takes so long to warm the house up that we resort to electric heaters to help. And if keeping the temperature at a certain setting, will that use more gas or less?
Hey Colorado,
Think of your home’s thermal mass as a flywheel. Just as a flywheel takes more energy to get going than it does to spin freely, your home will take more energy to come up from a cold temperature to a warm temperature. The amount of “free spinning flywheel” time (no furnace running) is based on how well your home is insulated and drafts are plugged. If you live in a “birdcage” or real drafty home, the furnace will always seem to be running.
Best solution is to block all drafts where cold air comes in and find the lowest temperature you are comfortable with while wearing slippers and sweaters or long sleeve clothing and keep it there. That way the furnace runs most efficiently for your body comfort.
If you have an area of the home that is just poorly heated such as a distant bedroom or other space then supplemental electrical area heating may make sense.
Hope this helps,
Bob
Thank you Bob, for your response. Another question. We have 2 different zones in our house with 2 separate thermostats. Would it be wiser to set both of them at the same temperature? If our boiler runs too much, it turns itself off until someone resets it which is usually in the morning and once the house has dipped to 60*.