Programmable or standard thermostat ?

[mm]

No ;), it was my father and mother who had the coal furnace.(and central heat).

But it was all gone and gas installed by the time I remember her turning dow a thermostat before bed.

BTW I realize I don't know how a coal furnace works or how it might work with a thermostat.

However once my father had the automatic stoker installed, I'm pretty sure that could be controlled by a thermostat. He filled it 2 (or

3?) times a day so my mother didn't have to shovel coal herself, and the stoker automatically fed the coal into the fire. I'm pretty sure a thermostat would work with that.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.

[Christian Fox]

Except, of course, that you'll have to deal with a cold house first thing in the morning when you wake up, and right after you get home after work/school. A programmable thermostat lets you turn up the heat _before_ you need the warmth, so that by the time you wake up or get home, the house is comfortable.

[Steve IA]

/mumble/ years ago I grew up in a house with a manual load coal central furnace. I was too young to load it, but remember dreading the saturday morning chore of cleaning out the ash pit and disposing of the ashes. Ours had a thermostat that opened/closed the draft door below the fire box and at the same time closed/opened a door on the flue pipe leading to the chimney to control the air flow to the fire. Dad would bank(several corn scoop shovels full) the furnace with big chunks of coal in the morning and at night and the furnace would fire away. If the house got cold the thermostat called for heat, the draft door would be opened mechanically by means of a small elect. motor and a chain and pulley set-up and the flue door would close via the same mechanics and the fire would flair up heating the house more. IIRC,if the electricity went out, the doors could be operated manually to keep heat going as desired. The heat ducts were big (12"?) round and each room had it's own register which could be dampered if desired. The furnace was dirty and noisey when being loaded, but I don't remember ever being cold.

Steve

41N

[Bob G.]

I would think that a programmable one would save you a few bucks or so...BUT I just replaced the programmable one in my shop with a simple non programable one... on/off and a temp setting... Just so much more simpiler to use... Price was a non issue since both were free from my son ...a HVAC guy.. !

KISS works just fine... (..keep it simple stupid.)

Just my opinion....

Bob G..

[Commodore Joe Redcloud©]

If you turn the thermostat down when the house does not need to be warm, you lower the overall average difference between the temperature outside and the temperature inside. That directly affects energy consumption. Yes, it's just that simple.

I have programmed mine so that it starts warming the house an hour before I get up. To maximize the benefits, I program it to stop heating an hour before I leave for the day. That last hour of coasting isn't nearly enough time for my well insulated house to get uncomfortably cool. I also have it set to shut down an hour before I normally go to bed.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©