Secure (tamper proof) thermostat?

[Phil Yarbrough]

How about a thermostat with a remote sensor? Lock the stat up in a secure area and place remote sensor in area to be conditioned.

[Bob Vaughan]

What exactly does the law say?

I suspect it says something along the lines of "must be capable of sustaining a temprature of XX degrees", not that you must force your tenants to live at a temprature of XX degrees..

I know that If I was renting a property, and the landlord tried restricting what temprature I could set the unit to, I would be complaining very loudly until the issue was resolved. I would forcibly remove the security cover if necessary. If I am comfortable at 60 degrees, I am going to set the thermostat to

60 degrees.. ditto for 75 degrees..

I can see not wanting the temprature to drop below freezing, which can be acomplished with a second thermostat set for a low limit, like 50 degrees, in parallel with the first, but I can see no valid reason to restrict the tenants choice of the temprature of their environment.

[krinshaw876]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

The actual intent of the thermostat is to benefit my grandfather's health. They have central air conditioning and he does not understand that if he turns the system off, it takes all day to cool the house again. He is suffering from a few health problems that go along with his age (90), and we would like to keep the house climate as controlled as possible since the heat definitely causes him problems.

I've searched a little more and will be checking the link or 2 posted above. I've seen a few secure thermostats that range from about ~$80 to ~$300 so without a little more research, I'm not sure what we'll decide on just yet.

P.S. it's not a *drastic* problem, it's just that when he messes with the thermostat letting the house get up to 90, he's more or less jeopardizing his health.

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

well that white-rodgers is all digital. Has a backlight and beeps when you push the buttons. And it was ~$100. I think I got the top of the line model of the residential versions. Good luck.

[FDR]

It's been a while so I don't recall the exact temp., but it's to the effect that the temperature can't be lower than 60 degrees. So the thermostat get's set to xx degrees.

Well, this is the reason we don't rent anynore. You aren't the one paying the heating bill. We are. If you think that you can set it to 90 and we should lose money then you're mistaken.

Money is one reason.

[Jim Yanik]

"Phil Yarbrough" wrote in news:7i9Pe.1484$ [e-mail]:

That makes sense. After all,it's just a tiny 2-wire thermistor that can be easily hidden.Most are the size of a small seed.

[Bob Vaughan]

My concern is being able to set the thermostat to a temperature that is comfortable to me. If you are paying for utilities, and try locking the thermostat, we are going to have problems.

If the temperature is too high, You are going to end up heating the outdoors as I open windows to cool off. If it is too low (and we are not talking 75+), you are going to be paying for the power to run the space heaters necessary to keep the environment at a comfortable temperature. Either way, you are going to be paying more than if you simply allowed me to control my own environment.

For what it's worth, I tend to set my thermostat slightly lower than a lot of people, and I like to turn it down when I go to bed. I have been in a number of places where the temperature was set too high, and where it was uncomfortably warm as a result. Paying to live in an environment that is uncomfortable to me because the landlord won't allow me to control the temperature is simply unacceptable, and grounds for complaint, and possible legal action.

No, I don't like frost on the floor when I wake up, but nor do I like sweating in bed because the room is too warm.

For the record, I do rent, and I pay the utility bill, and for most of the year, we simply turn the furnace off, as it is not necessary. We don't have A/C, so we open windows if it gets too warm.

It sounds like you do not have good relations with your tenants, and are acting like a control freak as a result. I would suggest that good communications might work better. If you implement draconian measures without proper communication, do not be surprised when the tenants defeat those measures, especially if they are unreasonable in the first place.

Note that there are ways of adding additional thermostats to act as limit switches to limit minimum and maximum temperature, but those limits need to be set to reasonable settings sufficient to prevent property damage, or excessive energy use, without excessively limiting the tenants control of their environment.

If you are offering to pay utilities as part of the rental contract, you need to be willing to accept that some people like to live in different environments than others, which means that some people are going to want to set the thermostat higher than others. Setting the thermostat to the absolute minumum is not what I consider to be a friendly action. If you have problems with people heating the space to 95 degrees, install a limiting sensor to restrict it to 75, or renegotiate the rental contract, and have the tenant pay for their own utilities.

[Stormin Mormon]

Earl Proulx the handyman had a solution for that. He put a second therm on the baseboard behind the couch, set it, and left the other one unwired. You, too, can do the same.

[FDR]

And if I don't set it to the right minimum temp I get in trouble with the law.

It'setup that each apartment pays their own electricity. But there's only one furnace, so you would pay us to supply thr hrat.

There's a setting for day and night.

You'd lose in my jurisdiction.

Actually, wen we rented we were on the low side of the rent scale. But tenants like to take advantage of you...late payment, no payment, bringing in extra apartment dwellers, ruining walls, carpets, being loud, skipping out, you name it. And that's before the whole lock situation. Maybe you live in tenant eutopia, but this was in a bad neighborhood and no daily oversight.

That's a good one. If you could find them after they left without paying the rent.

The law demands it.