Get to Know Your Thermostat and How to Fix It
Sunday November 16, 2008
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