I think that most people's response to yesterday's thread about an external stat to control a pond heater was "I wouldn't start from here!"
- and no-one identified any suitable stats.
I have another application for one - but Google hasn't come up with anything sensible.
The insurers for my holiday flat are tightening up the cover for damage due to water escape - and require either that all water is drained when the flat is unoccupied between November and March, or that the heating is left on all the time in order to maintain a temperature of at least
13 degrees. We use the flat for about one week in four - even in the winter - and it would be totally impractical to drain the sealed CH system and unvented HW cylinder after each period of occupancy. The heating is controlled by a wireless room stat with a frost setting which I *could* set to 13 degrees - but that would cost a fortune in gas. [Our practice so far has been to turn off the water and gas, and to rely on the fact that the flats below and above are permanently occupied and heated - thus reducing the risk of out flat getting cold enough for the pipes to freeze and burst].If I go down the road of leaving the heating on, I can't see any point in running it unless it is freezing outside. It seems to me that what I need is an external thermostat - switching on at (say) 1 degC - wired in series with the roomstat. It would, of course, need a by-pass switch for when the flat is occupied - but this could be separate and not part of the stat itself.
I think that what I actually want is a manual stat with an operating range of a few degrees either side of zero, and with an external sensor. [The stat itself doesn't need to be weather-proof as long as the remote sensor is.]
Any idea where I might find such a beast?
TIA.