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From: smh@mhuxl.UUCP (henning)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Thermostats & Oil Filled heaters
Message-ID: <447@mhuxl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Jan-86 12:23:28 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxl.447
Posted: Sat Jan 11 12:23:28 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jan-86 00:36:08 EST
References: <326@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 36

****                                                                 ****
From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA mhuxl!smh

> > QUESTION FOR THE NET:  Does a typical house thermostat switch 110 VAC or
> > can it be made to do so?
> 
> 	No. Typical home thermostats are designed for 24 Volts AC.  You
> 	could get a 24 volt transformer and 24 VAC relay from Radio Shack
> 
> 	You might try an electrical supply store for a thermostat
> 	used in electric baseboard heating. 

The electric baseboard wall-thermostats are readily available at any
good electric heat supply house and are much cheaper than your "typical
house thermostat", and don't require the added expense of the transformer
and relay, which by the way must have 120 Volt, 15 Amp contacts beside
having the 24 VAC coil.

Flame: If you want good control, don't use an oil-filled heater.  The
oil is just there to add inertia to the system.  Inertia means that
when the heater says it is warm enough, the heater just keeps putting
out heat until the oil cools down, and when the heater says that you
need heat, the heater just stay cold until the oil gets hot again.
I know because my house is heated by oil-fired, hot-water gravity system
which has all the same characteristics.  The key to such a system is
to never change the thermostat suddenly and to have an anticipator
on your thermostat which anticipates the over-shoot.  You still have
to live with the delay when heat is demanded.  You also need a very 
sensitive thermostat.  A sensative thermostat with an anticipator is
almost as good as electic baseboard and an electric heat thermostat.

To get around the set-back problem, I leave the oil heat turned down to 62
and have "time-or-day" (cheap) electric base board heat in the rooms that
we use in the evening and on weekends.  We turn the room we are in up to
a nice temperature.  The electric baseboard is very responsive and 
controls very well with the wall-thermostats designed for electic heat.