thermostat problem

[mn54]

woke up this morning, looked at the thermostat and it said it was 99 degrees in the house! temp outside was 45 and the heat was not on. tried resetting it a couple times and took out batteries and put back in. each time it would go back to 72 and slowly go up to 99. It appears I need a new thermostat. this one was only 6 or 7 years old. Anyone else have a problem like this? brand name of thermostat was white rodgers.

 

[Walt34]

I'd try replacing the batteries but you probably need a new thermostat. It's an easy repair and any of the big box or even small hardware stores will have one. Pay attention to the wiring though.

 

[braumeister]

White Rodgers is probably the most common brand name of thermostat. I would agree with Walt34 that it's fairly easy to get a new one at Home Depot and replace it yourself.

But since you have to replace it anyway, you might want to consider the Nest.
I've been using Nest for about 2.5 years and I absolutely love it. Saves a noticeable amount of energy/money, too.

 

[Car-Guy]

Pay attention to the wiring though.

Been there, done that.

 

[bld999]

White Rodgers is probably the most common brand name of thermostat. I would agree with Walt34 that it's fairly easy to get a new one at Home Depot and replace it yourself.

But since you have to replace it anyway, you might want to consider the Nest.
I've been using Nest for about 2.5 years and I absolutely love it. Saves a noticeable amount of energy/money, too.

How does nest save money?

 

[aaronc879]

Looks like they've had some recalls. You may be able to get a free one.
White-Rodgers recalls Home Heating and Cooling Thermostats - Recalls & alerts - Healthy Canadians Website

 

[RunningBum]

How does nest save money?

Pretty sure it learns your schedule of when you leave, come home, go to bed, get up, by setting a schedule based on when you manually change it, but that assumes you actually remember to change it, and also assumes you have a fairly set schedule. As a retiree, I come and go on a more random schedule. I have my programmable set up on a best guess schedule.

I do like the wifi feature where you can login with your smart phone and turn the heat up as you are coming home, or turn it down if you've forgotten to when you've left.

 

[athena53]

But since you have to replace it anyway, you might want to consider the Nest.

I've been using Nest for about 2.5 years and I absolutely love it. Saves a noticeable amount of energy/money, too.

We're getting something similar next week; our electric company is bribing us with a high-tech Honeywell thermostat in return for the right to cycle our central air on and off in 15-minute segments for up to 4 hours during peak demand periods. They say this should happen no more than 3 or 4 times per season. I'm a bit annoyed that there's no actual reduction in rates for being in the program; I know darn well that this means they have to buy less power from the grid at premium prices during times of high demand.

I'm excited about the smartphone app, though. The thermostat in our last house was so complicated that sometimes we had to get a technician out to straighten it out. There were only a few buttons and you had to have a manual of secret codes and push just the right combination in the right order. I figure the smartphone app will be user-friendly because they WANT you to do it right.

 

[ERD50]

How does nest save money?

Pretty sure it learns your schedule of when you leave, come home, go to bed, get up, by setting a schedule based on when you manually change it, but that assumes you actually remember to change it, and also assumes you have a fairly set schedule. As a retiree, I come and go on a more random schedule. I have my programmable set up on a best guess schedule.

I do like the wifi feature where you can login with your smart phone and turn the heat up as you are coming home, or turn it down if you've forgotten to when you've left.

Rather than a guess, I just do it myself with the original old-school Honeywell dial thermostat. Can't get any more accurate than that with my random schedule.

I so rarely forget to change it when I leave (good mental exercise!), the payback might be 10,000 years. Maybe others are in a different situation, or just feel differently, but the wait for the house to warm/cool after we get home just does not strike us as an inconvenience worth doing anything about.

I've also trained myself to not focus on 'the number', but rather to focus on my comfort. I'm surprised sometimes to find that, since I was active on some project right after I got up, that I never raised the heat. Hey, if I don't feel cold, why turn it up? IMO, that likely provides more savings than any attempt at trying to guess at my timing/needs.

For people away from home for long periods that need to monitor things, it could make a lot of sense. As a money saver for most, I think there are far simpler, more effective methods that just require a tiny bit of attention.

And paying attention to things is good in other ways. Many times, I'll notice a change in the sound of the dishwasher, wash machine, or that the furnace or well is running longer or shorter than normal. If you don't pay attention, you might end up with a big repair bill, rather than nipping it in the bud.


-ERD50

 

[ERD50]

...

I'm excited about the smartphone app, though. The thermostat in our last house was so complicated that sometimes we had to get a technician out to straighten it out. There were only a few buttons and you had to have a manual of secret codes and push just the right combination in the right order. ...

I'm a big Keep It Simple Stanley fan:

What button?


-ERD50

 

[omni550]

I'm a big Keep It Simple Stanley fan:

What button?


-ERD50

Wow...your U.S. thermostat is in centigrade?

omni

 

[ERD50]

Wow...your U.S. thermostat is in centigrade?

omni

Hah-hah - just trying to give equal time to our metric forum members!

Seriously, it was the first image that caught my eye from a google search, and after I posted I saw it was in C. Thought about changing it, but then I figured, ahhhh, good enough! Though it would be good to get me thinking in C, I only have a few points committed to memory.

Mine looks like that, but in F, and with a HEAT/OFF/COOL switch, and a FAN ON/AUTO switch.

-ERD50

 

[RunningBum]

Yeah, the simple dial is probably best if you can remember to turn it down every time you should. I say "probably" because I actually keep it a bit cooler at night now since I have it starting to go back on before I get out of bed so I don't have to get up with it quite that cold.

 

[jim584672]

woke up this morning, looked at the thermostat and it said it was 99 degrees in the house! temp outside was 45 and the heat was not on. tried resetting it a couple times and took out batteries and put back in. each time it would go back to 72 and slowly go up to 99. It appears I need a new thermostat. this one was only 6 or 7 years old. Anyone else have a problem like this? brand name of thermostat was white rodgers.

My thermostat was showing a high temp. Changed the batteries and now it is working as it should.

 

[rodi]

This whole thread reminds me of a thermostat story from my single days.

I'd bought an old house with little insulation and a huge oil furnace in the basement. It had a simple dial honeywell thermostat. This was also just after moving from the balmy west coast to Philly. I kept forgetting to turn down the thermostat when leaving for work. My dad advised me to go to home depot and get a programmable one. I was proud of my comparison shopping, installation, etc. I was bragging about it to the guy I was dating - how it would automatically go to a cooler temp at night, then warm up 20 minutes before my alarm would go off... then turn down when I went to work, back up when I was due home... yada yada yada...

He asked me why I turned it down at night. I explained the $$ impacts.

The lightbulb went off for me- it occurred to me he'd NEVER paid his own utility bill - he'd lived with his folks in college, and after. (He was about 30). That was my clue that we were not going to be compatible longterm. Similar age - VERY different stage in life.

I saved myself a lot of time and heartache with that programmable thermostat.

 

[athena53]

I do miss the thermostat we had in one house in NJ. It was a simple dial thermostat but it had 4 pegs you could insert on a clock dial to determine when the temperature would change and a way to adjust the "setback" degrees. In our case it went down 10 degrees and we set the pegs so that it went down about an hour after we were usually asleep and started warming up again about an hour before we usually woke up. SO easy to program and to see what it was doing.

 

[Animorph]

I'd check to make sure there is good air flow past the temperature sensor. It's acting like the air flow is blocked and the thermostat is just heating itself up. Works OK when first turned on, but drifts up in temperature as it runs and heats itself up. No need for the heat to turn on if it's "99" inside.

 

[Koolau]

We're getting something similar next week; our electric company is bribing us with a high-tech Honeywell thermostat in return for the right to cycle our central air on and off in 15-minute segments for up to 4 hours during peak demand periods. They say this should happen no more than 3 or 4 times per season. I'm a bit annoyed that there's no actual reduction in rates for being in the program; I know darn well that this means they have to buy less power from the grid at premium prices during times of high demand.

I'm excited about the smartphone app, though. The thermostat in our last house was so complicated that sometimes we had to get a technician out to straighten it out. There were only a few buttons and you had to have a manual of secret codes and push just the right combination in the right order. I figure the smartphone app will be user-friendly because they WANT you to do it right.

What is a thermostat? (Sorry, bad and annoying Hawaiian joke.) But seriously, regarding the electric company messing with your central air: Hawaiian Electric has a plan in which they will install (at their expense) a device which allows them to turn off your electric hot water heater when ever they want to - but assured only a "few times" a year and only for an hour IIRC. For this privilege, they give a $3 rebate on EACH and EVERY month's bill. I jumped on that big time.

I look for much more of this kind of "shifting" in the future. It can give very significant savings to the electric company. Even a "captive" system such as exists on Oahu - no real "grid", just base power plus peak-use power generation - will benefit from shifting. If one of the gas turbines does not have to be turned on, that is huge. YMMV

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

I'm 100% with ERD50 on posts 9 & 10. Had a new furnace installed in the 1990's with a fancy programmable thermostat. Being the hoarder that I am, I watched the installer, wrote down where each wire from the old Honeywell went, and kept it. About a year later, the new one literally burned up (big black burned spot on the wall). Dug out the old Honeywell, installed it, and still using it today. It gets quite a workout in the winter--everytime the wife walks by it she turns it up, and everytime I walk by it I turn it down!

 

[meierlde]

Since I retired and spend most of my time at home a timer thermostat makes little sense. So do think if you ER how you will be spending your time. In addition since they are heat pumps timed thermostats need to be for heat pumps since if you push the stat up by more than 4 degrees you turn on the electric heat. However there are nice thermostats that will switch automatically from cool to heat in the spring and fall. (they have set points for heat and cool).

 

[athena53]

It gets quite a workout in the winter--everytime the wife walks by it she turns it up, and everytime I walk by it I turn it down!

DH has never wanted a smartphone so the app for controlling the new thermostat will be on my phone (although, presumably, it will have a wall panel, too). He'll never know when I tinker with the settings.

 

[Nodak]

Another vote for the Nest thermostat

 

[ERD50]

Another little story that puts me in the KISS camp when it makes sense:

Someone was saying that they have a heated garage, but they only heat it very occasionally, like when they are doing work out there. Well, one day, the temp in the garage had dropped to about 28F, and he wanted the heat on. But his fancy new digital thermostat wouldn't function. After a lot of troubleshooting, the manufacturer points out that the operating range of the thermostat is 32F to XXXF. Hmmm.

So this means that if you had a power outage, and the temp dropped below 32F , when the power comes back on, the heat would stay off! It takes time for water pipes to freeze, esp just near freezing, so if the heat came back on in time, it could have saved the pipes, but by not coming back on, a lot of damage could occur.

That makes me wonder about the 'smart circuits' in a furnace now - are those spec'd well below freezing?

-ERD50

 

[meierlde]

Another little story that puts me in the KISS camp when it makes sense:

Someone was saying that they have a heated garage, but they only heat it very occasionally, like when they are doing work out there. Well, one day, the temp in the garage had dropped to about 28F, and he wanted the heat on. But his fancy new digital thermostat wouldn't function. After a lot of troubleshooting, the manufacturer points out that the operating range of the thermostat is 32F to XXXF. Hmmm.

So this means that if you had a power outage, and the temp dropped below 32F , when the power comes back on, the heat would stay off! It takes time for water pipes to freeze, esp just near freezing, so if the heat came back on in time, it could have saved the pipes, but by not coming back on, a lot of damage could occur.

That makes me wonder about the 'smart circuits' in a furnace now - are those spec'd well below freezing?

-ERD50

Actually if you know which wires to jump, just jump the correct wires at the thermostat (as hvac techs do). Or it is an excuse to call in the HVAC guy who will do this until the temp gets into the thermostat operating range.

 

[ERD50]

Actually if you know which wires to jump, just jump the correct wires at the thermostat (as hvac techs do). Or it is an excuse to call in the HVAC guy who will do this until the temp gets into the thermostat operating range.

You and I know that. But how many average homeowners would? And how do you do that remotely?

The point is a KISS thermostat is not subject to these issues.

-ERD50