Inside programmable thermostat for owb?

[troy3300]

Has anyone tried a programmable thermostat inside to increase burn times?
My thought was to lower the inside temps at night when sleeping and when we are all at work/school. Decrease heat demand=incraese burn time. In theory it sounds good. Just wanted to know if anyone has tried it and how much it helped?.
Thanks

 

[beerman6]

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=79348

One of these guys might be able to help you?

 

[iCreek]

Hi Troy... Yes that sounds like it makes sense. I have two thermostats, and decided to use the programable one for my AC/Propane Heat, then used the older digital (non-programable) for the Wood OWB heat. Your theory sounds like it would work, sometimes I turn mine OWB heat down in the evening and while we are away.

Welcome to AS Forums.

 

[troy3300]

Thanks
It sounded like they were trying to use only 1 thermostat for both a owb and conventional furnance/heat pump. I was just going to use it for the owb. I have an extra thermostat.

 

[beerman6]

If my wife had a set schedule,I would look into it.Right now my OWB keeps the house at @70...the deeper into winter we get,it gets turned up to 75.

 

[troy3300]

We have very set scheduals and may only spend a short time in the house. The kid keeps us going alot

 

[coostv]

Hi Troy... Yes that sounds like it makes sense. I have two thermostats, and decided to use the programable one for my AC/Propane Heat, then used the older digital (non-programable) for the Wood OWB heat. Your theory sounds like it would work, sometimes I turn mine OWB heat down in the evening and while we are away.

Two thermostats? One furnace, correct? How does this work? Do you turn off the main thermostat (programmable) and the other one is connected to the fan terminal on your furnace board?

I have one programmable thermostat for the propane furnace. I use propane for a short time in the fall and early spring. I then unhook the call for heat wire (green I think) from the furnace board and connect it to the fan only terminal (white fan wire disconnected for the winter) on the board. When the boiler gets shut down for the season, I put the green back where it is supposed to go and hook the white back up. A hassle, but cheap.

To answer the OP's question. Yes, it will help, same premise as setting back when using propane. I have mine set back to 64 at 9:30 PM, and kick up to 68 at 4:30AM, set back to 60 at 6:30 AM, and then back up to 68 at 2:00 PM. I can not answer if it saves wood as this is how I have had it since day one, but it has to help.

Chris

 

[troy3300]

One thermostat for your propane heat and the other will control the fan on your forced air furnace(owb heat control). The owb tstat would be set higher then the other propane backup. With two if your fire in your owb goes out then the propane will kick on. Both mine and my wifes families live aways away. So we may be gone for a few days at a time. When this happens the owb will go out and I will need the regular furnace to heat the house. When I get back I start the owb back up to take over again. The one problem I have read about this set up is that the furnace fan will run all the time when the owb goes out.

 

[beerman6]

The way mine is wired the funace fan will stay on when the owb goes cold,dont know anyway around that yet.

 

[coostv]

One thermostat for your propane heat and the other will control the fan on your forced air furnace(owb heat control). The owb tstat would be set higher then the other propane backup. With two if your fire in your owb goes out then the propane will kick on. Both mine and my wifes families live aways away. So we may be gone for a few days at a time. When this happens the owb will go out and I will need the regular furnace to heat the house. When I get back I start the owb back up to take over again. The one problem I have read about this set up is that the furnace fan will run all the time when the owb goes out.

Makes perfect sense now. I do not think you can get around the fan running all the time unless you have the OWB thermostat set lower than the the other one. If my fire went out the same would happen for me, except I would have no heat at all.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I think your fan running all the time after the fire in the OWB goes out is actually a good thing. In weather below freezing your furnace heat will be transferred to the OWB heat exchanger and keep your OWB from freezing.

 

[Butch(OH)]

The way mine is wired the funace fan will stay on when the owb goes cold,dont know anyway around that yet.

That is the way mine is wired also. The way around it is a probe in the boiler loop that sences the temp and breaks the fan run circuit at X temp. Since there has been no problem with mine as is I have never further investigated the probe deal.

To the original question I am runing a programable thermostat but can't tell you how much it helps because we have had it since day one with the OWB. I would think that the percentage of savings in energy would be the same, gas, 'lectric or wood? We dont set ours down too much at night, maybe 4 degrees, I am old and my feet get cold:jawdrop:

 

[iCreek]

Two thermostats? One furnace, correct? How does this work? Do you turn off the main thermostat (programmable) and the other one is connected to the fan terminal on your furnace board?

Chris

Chris, no I have two thermostats, one controlling the propane furnance, and the other controlling the fan on the furnance and the OWB heat. The reason I did that was that I could not control the variance of temp degrees (stages) with having one thermostat. I just opted to use the programmable one for my AC which is the same one for my propane heat. I figured with my wood heat being 'free', I was not worried about the programmable feature.

 

[bowtechmadman]

Yes it helps...hot water system here (baseboard heat). I have 4 zones and when we are gone for the weekend i kick them all down to 65 and pack the OWB full...have always came home to a fire.
I need to do the program for daily changes.

 

[Mister Twister]

I have one programmable thermostat for my house OWB, Gas Furnace & Central air. It all works automatically thanks to an $8 lower heater element controller for an electric hot water heater and a couple of relays from Grainger $25. The hot water element controller is attached to my heat exchanger in the furnace plenum. When the heat exchanger is 100 degrees or greater (boiler set at 180). The hot water heater element control energizes one relay to jump around my fan limit control and my second relay inhibits the gas control. When the heat exchanger is less then 100 degrees the furnace works as it did normally which will send air through my heat exchanger and prevent and freeze ups. System seems to be working well. So when I am at work the house temp drops to 55 deg and it is a cozy 70 when I get home.

 

[iCreek]

Mister Twister - with having one thermostat, do you have the ability to set a variable temp setting? Like between the Gas and OWB setting? Just curious as I was told you can't have more than a few degrees between the stages? At least with a White Rodgers thermostat.

 

[Mister Twister]

iCreek,

No they both operate at the same temperature. I don't know why anyone would want them to be different. 70 deg. with gas is the same as 70 deg. with wood isn't it?

:monkey:

 

[oneoldbanjo]

Mister Twister:

The idea is to have the OWB supply heat first....and then if it cannot keep up then the regular furnace will come one. The idea is to save money by burning wood...not fossil fuel.

My OWB thermostat is set at 68, my Heat Pump Thermostat is set at 66. The OWB thermostat calls for heat first and keeps the house above 68 unless the fire goes out....then if the temperature drops down to 66 before I can make a new fire....the Heat Pump comes on to supply heat (and my electric meter spins faster).

 

[troy3300]

Interesting Mister Twister
1 Relay for the fan, one for the gas control and one tstat.
I may have to try that.

 

[Mister Twister]

Mister Twister:

The idea is to have the OWB supply heat first....and then if it cannot keep up then the regular furnace will come one. The idea is to save money by burning wood...not fossil fuel.

My OWB thermostat is set at 68, my Heat Pump Thermostat is set at 66. The OWB thermostat calls for heat first and keeps the house above 68 unless the fire goes out....then if the temperature drops down to 66 before I can make a new fire....the Heat Pump comes on to supply heat (and my electric meter spins faster).

I see what your saying. We all have such different systems it all gets complicated. I do not use any gas unless for some odd reason the OWB gets below 100 deg. I like watching the gas trucks go by my driveway ! ! !