OT: Home Thermostat Recommendations?

--
Yes.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Yes, I know Trane has a thermostat that can have the cool and heat programs turned on at the same time. A dog to setup, I'm sure Honeywell has something that will work better. The IP thermostats are neat, John could use one of those his cabin in the boondocks. Cheers

I DO need recommendations for thermostats. I was just expounding on the quality of Luxpro thermostats and why I was in Tucson putting them to a test ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I made my own. The tricky part is STOPPING it from doing that :-)

I added hysteresis and some rules about outside temperature being "good enough" to neither need heating nor cooling. It does fetch the weather forecast, but doesn't yet use it to alter its heat/cool rules.

Co-o-o-ol! Or heat, or something ;-)

I've always thought that a smart thermostat would check the outdoor ambient as well... anticipating needs.

You're a clever fellow, DJ! ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I presently have two 5-ton Trane heat pumps, 15-years old, but will likely replace with another Trane in a year or two. Maintenance minimal, but want to have a better efficiency rating, given the Obamateur crap and trade is coming :-( ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Oh then it might be easily adapted. It is rather complicated, until you figure out how to scroll the menus.

But he heat and cool programs can be run both ON.

The manuals are here, this is commercial stuff, there maybe something better for the residential folk.

Cheers

Hi, Jim -

The Honeywell I had before my Trane was quite good. However, I changed to the Trane because it would also work on my wireless network along with the Schlage front and back door locks. One of the features I really like is that it keeps track of the running hours for filter change. That's better than just changing filters once a month.

However, please note! For any thermostat which changes from heat to cool automatically, you may need an additional wire in the bundle to your thermostat. In the case of my Trane, I learned that I could power it from a wall-wart without the extra wire. The Honeywell could do it without the extra wire. Some thermostats require the wire, some don't.

All I'm saying is look carefully at the thermostat's requirements before you buy. Try to find the installation instructions online and read them.

Cheers and good luck.

John

You must be so proud, teaching her to cheat.

She's definitely headed for politics!

Good Luck! Rich

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

[snip] [snip]

Global warming AND freezing rain in Tucson? Hmmm. That dog don't hunt.

Bob

--
== All google group posts are automatically deleted due to spam ==

The problems I was trying to solve were:

1. Force air conditioner off for a minimum time after running.

1. Don't heat/cool if it would be better to just open a window.

Neither of these were practical with dumb thermostats.

there is no such thing as global warming....biggest load of crap ever.

some how you can make as MUCH POLLUTION AS YOU WANT as long as you buy carbon credits.......

weird..

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Jim, I have a Honeywell Totaline thermostat on my 2-stage heat pump. It's an automatic changeover thermostat, and it is capable of working with 1- or

2-stage heat pumps, electric cool/gas heat combos, etc. It also has adjustable set points for turn-on and shut-off, so it's quite flexible. Mine isn't programmable, but there are programmable models in the line. Mine is about 9 years old, and it's been working perfectly all that time. The only issue that I have with it is the electroluminescent backlight on the display. After about 5 years, it went dark, but with the room lights on, it's perfectly visible. Don't know the model#, since it's on the back of the unit. I did a quick Google and found the line at prothermostats.com.

--
David
dgminala at mediacombb dot net

Facetious, Bob, facetious ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Thanks, David! I'll check those out. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Some years ago I started to ponder this subject, then I fell asleep ;-)

Seems you would need to know a rough estimate of house' thermal time constant/thermal resistance, and also some estimate of rate of fall/rise of the ambient temperature.

Opening a window requires a doobee. I was going to turn on an exhaust fan (and have one of those solenoid-controlled flapper vents inserted somewhere in an outside wall... shady in summer, in the sun in winter :-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Some, not many, learn the PID and go from there. Some also hae some kind of Fuzzy logic which changes the program over time. Most inexpensive ones don't but have a switch for hot water heat, etc. I have had problems with some going faulty over time. I like ones that have a high heat shutdown failsafe. My current thermostat became intermittant after I drilled a hole thrugh the wall near it. I found the crystall connection intermittant which I had to resolder !! I find the manual brain control method works pretty good when i'm around.

greg

The time constant of my house is on the order of an hour. PID is not needed. However, I can control the hysteresis of each zone independently to give them all about the same time constant, and the algorithm tends to sync the zones so they all call for heat/cool at the same time, which reduces the number of on/off cycles.

The only fuzzy logic I have is that I let the air conditioner cool to below the setpoint if the humidity is too high. Makes a huge difference in confort, and we can set the thermostat a few degrees hotter in the summer.

I learned the hard way to NEVER let the fuzzy logic let the temp be higher than the setpoint in the summer, or lower in the winter. My wife still tells people about that day...

Mine has a switch to keep the hot water heater from calling for oil when the furnace is calling for oil. They run more reliably when they don't have to share that oil feed tube, if I forget to have the systems cleaned regularly.

I have both too-hot and too-cold failsafes, both in software and in hardware.

My furnace brain is mounted to the furnace itself. The furnace includes an electrostatic filter and spark igniters. I.e. I bolted six MCUs to an EMI generator. It was designed for that, and runs very reliably.

What? You have to get high before you can open a window? ;-)

Thanks, Rich