The fan in my attic is on a temperature sensor, what's a good way to test it? I was thinking perhaps a hair dryer? Not sureif that would get it hot enough. There is no intermediatry switch between the power and the sensor, just breaker box -> sensor -> fan. Not even sure if the fan works!
this is Turtle.
A hair drier will be fine to bring it up to about 125ºF to 140ºf setting and will cut off at about 100ºF to 110ºF but I like to set mine on cut off at
100ºF and turn on at 125ºF . Now look on the thermostat nailed to the rafters in the electric circuit and you may see a over ride switch which will say over ride or manual. Flip it to see the fan run. If not hair dry it up to turn it on. Set the hair drier on low speed fan and hot temperature setting and it will be hot enough.TURTLE.
Best deal is to wire it up so that you can turn in on manually from your garage. I put two switches on the ceiling of my garage. One is power on and off, and the other is manual and automatic. The thermostat for the fan is in the original line with only the breaker for a switch. That stupid thermostat has at least a 15 degree difference between on and off. I set mine to come on at about 120. How do I know? Because I waited until the air temp was at
120 F and then turned it till it came on. But, after the dumb thing comes on, it won't turn off until the temp decreases to 105. Switches in the garage mean you can operate it however you want.
temperature
This is Turtle.
Running one on Manual is ok but I don't have time to be watching it all day as to when or what time to cut it off and would have to depend on a thermostat to do it for me.
Now if you really wanted to you can take the thermostat apart and clip the seperator pins and make it cut off and on down as close as 3 degree if you wanted it too. Just a thought.
TURTLE
Thanks, Turtle, it was a good thought. I never attempted to take the thermostat apart to see how it works, just thought there wasn't much I could do with it. Anyway I was always busy trying to keep the damn motor running until I finally said to hell with it and threw away all those damn black spacers that disintegrate and bind up the shaft. Once I got it working, I didn't want to see it again, and I haven't in at least 8 or 9 years.
I wanted manual control because most of the time in the summer it cools off at night but the attic will stay warm enough to keep running long after the house is cooled by opening windows. And some times we want to start it running earlier than it would with just the thermostat. We don't mess with it throughout the day. It just adds a level of options and the on/off switch is more convenient that turning the breaker on and off.
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