Programmable Thermostat Set Points

You have set points for heat, set points for cool. Most people have day and night settings, maybe weekend settings.

Typical heat is about 68 to 70 when occupied, 62 to 65 at night or when not home. I have the heat come back up in the morning about 15 minutes before I get up.

Set the cool for 80 or whatever you choose for comfort.

Different brands have different procedures so check the manual for yours.

I don't understand the set-points on my programmable thermostat

My thermostat has "Heat" and "Cool" settings.

I want the thermostat to COOL the house when the temperature is above 80? ?.

I want the thermostat to HEAT the house when the temperature is below 70? ?.

What should the "COOL" and the "HEAT" set-points be?

Hi Ed,

I deleted this post and posted a new (clearer) one

Thanks. I had them backwards; I had "COOL" set at 80 and "HEAT" set at 90.

GARYWC brought next idea :

Well, the furnace wants to heat if you're below a certain temperature and the AC wants to cool if you're above a certain temperature. In between those two extremes you don't want them fighting each other.

Why would you want either of them set to 90? :)

From therafters:

Instead of "Why would you want either of them set to 90?", do you mean to say "Why don't you set them both of them to 90?"

You did not delete this post... it is here forever.

GARYWC explained on 9/25/2016 :

No. My themostat has a switch for either heat, off, or cool and cannot be set for both heat and cool at the same time. If your system *can* do that, having them set close enough to overlap could cause them to fight each other so having them both set to 90 (always overlap) would not be a good idea either.

There is usually some small range (+ or - 2) where, for instance, it will heat until it gets to 72 degrees and shut off - then when it gets to 68 degrees turn on again. If the AC does the same thing on the cooling side you could waste a lot of power and get no benefit if they're both set to the same temperature.

My comment was because you first stated 70 minimum and 80 maximum which seems a good comfort zone to me. 90, not so much.

Heat 68F, AC 78F

Uhh, no, you didn't. You don't 'delete' usenet posts. You can issue a cancel command, but, it's been abused so much, most (nearly all) usenet servers no longer honour it.

My thermostat won't allow the COOL setpoint to be lower than about 4 degrees above the HEAT setpoint.

Which is about what I have during the day. I like the heat lower and the AC higher at night.

What a loon. Forget about comfort, there was only 70 and 80 mentioned in the original post. So, where did 90 suddenly come from? And who typically has 90 as a set point? I smell a troll.

My TOTALINE 5 + 2 Day Programmable Thermostat Model #P474-1035 has two switches:

The MODE switch has three positions: HEAT, OFF, COOL The FAN switch has two positions: FAN ON, FAN OFF

These seem to be for manual operation.

If I want the thermostat to run automatically, which positions do I select?

No AUTO position for the MODE switch?

I found that mine (Honeywell touch screen, I don't know the model number now) had one, but it was hidden behind a setting you had to read the manual to find. AUTO selects either heat or cool as needed (separate setpoints). That's often appropriate here in late fall or early spring.

Set it to heat when you want the heat to work. Set it to cool when you want the AC to work. Some thermostats have an auto mode where it will switch between the two by itself, but I've never had the need for it personally. Set the fan on if you want the fan to turn on and run by itself, without heat or AC.

Here's the link for the owner's manual (see page 4 for the controls):

trader_4 pretended :

I think he mistyped 70 as 90 when he wrote about having them set backwards.

Message ID :

"Thanks. I had them backwards; I had "COOL" set at 80 and "HEAT" set at 90."

No need to call anyone names, but thanks for not using 'village idiot' again - variety is the spice of life.