Setting a programmable thermostat

[gary]

How do I set my Totaline Programmable 5-2 Day Digital Thermostat so:

a) the air conditioning comes on when the temperature exceeds 90 degrees b) the heat comes on when the temperature is below 65 degrees.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Are you talking inside or outdoor temperatures? If indoors, just set it to the desired temperature you want to achieve.

[Home Guy]

I might be wrong, but I haven't seen a digital thermostat that switches between heat and cool mode automatically. You usually have to switch them from heating mode into cooling mode (or vice-versa) manually.

[mike]

You may be right that you haven't seen one. But you're wrong if you think they don't exist. heat, cool, auto

[IGot2P]

Please point me to one like you describe.

Don

[Tony Hwang]

Or some has auto mode. No beed to switch between heat and cool mode.

[hrhofmann]

Have yuou tried reading the instruction manual? If you don't have one, contact the manufacturer or find a local representative.

[Home Guy]

If this is your thermostat:

Then according to the manual, it has no "auto" mode where it will turn on the AC or the furnace as desired.

mike wrote:

You'll notice that it's an expensive thermostat ($140 - $200).

The problem with these is that your HEAT and COOL programs can conflict with each other if you program it incorrectly. I don't know if the "auto" setting has it's own program, of if it checks your HEAT and COOL settings as you enter them to warn you of a conflict.

The solution is to buy another cheap thermostat and connect it to your AC unit and set that thermostat to COOL, and program it the way you want (turn on when temp goes above 90) and keep your furnace connected to the existing thermostat and set it to HEAT mode and program it to turn on if the temp goes below 65.

[gcotterl]

I have this thermostat:

Doesn't this thermostat AUTOMATICALLY begin heating and cooling based on the "set-points"?

[dpb]

On 11/1/2011 9:15 AM, gcotterl wrote: ...

...

No, it _stores_ a set of (possibly different) setpoints for each mode, but the mode (heat/off/cool) is manually selected by the left of the two control levers. But it won't switch modes automagically.

--

[Home Guy]

It will automatically begin heating *OR* cooling based on your set points.

Not heating AND cooling.

When the mode switch is in the HEAT mode, that's all it will do. Turn the furnace on or off. It won't do anything with the AC. The converse is true when its set to COOL mode.

If you want to switch automatically between heating and cooling, you're going to fork over $150 or more for a different thermostat -> one that has an AUTO mode in addition to HEAT/COOL/OFF.

Or you can get a cheaper $50 thermostat (that doesn't have AUTO mode) and wire the A/C separately to that t-stat. The fan would also have to be wired to that t-stat as well I'm thinking (disconnected completely from the existing t-stat).

[dpb]

...

Precisely...the mode switch can't change position w/o you changing it.

Ask the firmware programmer, but whatever it is, it isn't auto-mode switching.

See para. 1 above...

[gcotterl]

The manual is at:

.