is there a thermostat on the market that can be programed to only cycle the fan on the furnace? we use a gas fireplace in the basement and have a return in the basement to draw air into the system to cycle through the house. if there isn't a programable thremostat on the market that will do this, is there a way to put a switch in the basement to just turn on the fan wehn i need to? i haven't called in a service person yet because they want a $50.00 service fee for their time and i cannot get an answer over the phone.
It's trivial job for someone who knows what they are doing, especially if you are not asking to have the switch located several rooms away from the furnace and demand concealed wiring. And if you DO want the switch located remotely anywhere in the house you can always buy the right chunks of "X10" control exuipment which will switch things remotely by radio signals piggybacked on the household line voltage wiring. The X10 stuff isn't that expensive.
Write down the model number of the furnace so you can properly describe it and keep calling service places until you get someone who is willing to treat you respectfully and discuss the matter on the phone. Expect to pay for maybe an hour's time and perhaps $25 worth of materials.
And yes, there are thermostats with separate fan switches on them, usually labled "Auto" (fan runs only when the furnace is making heat) and "On" (fan runs continuously). The hitch may be that the wiring from your furnace location to where your present thermostat is may not have enough conductors in it to handle a separately controlled fan, so you couldn't easily swap over to a new thermostat.
thanks for getting back. i have open ceiling in the basement, i haven't gotten that far in finishing it off yet and the openess of the ceiling allows the heat from t he fireplace to warm the floor upstairs, so anywhere thy can run a switch is open for discussion.
i know about the seperate switches on the thermostats, for *auto* and *fan* but, i'm looking for a thermostat that can be programmed to just engage the fan for a certain period of time just to cycle the air outta the basement and through the house so i don't have to run upstairs and shut it off or remember to turn it off if we leave the house.
i'll make a note of the info. you gave me and try some pros. after Christmas and the New Year holiday. thanks.......
There is about 10 different ways to wire up such of a set up and maybe 80 something thermostats that would fit the bill to use in this application. It would not be a problem of doing it but it would only be deciding on which way and type thermostat you wanted to do it with.
Now here would be a very cheap way to do this with a cheap heating only thermostat from a hardware store and jump out the fan 24 volt control wire and the red control wire coming to the theromstat. You could just tie on to the G terminal of the thermostat and the other wire to the R terminal of the thermostat. When the straight heating thermostat call for heat because of a low tempertature in the room. The thermostat would close the R and the G terminals of the main thermostat and the fan would start running. Then when the temperature of the house got to what you set it on . The straight heating thermostat would cut the fan off by breaking the jump of the R and G terminal of the main thermostat. Now do get a cheap heating thermostat that has a off switch on it to have it not work when you run the cooling mode of the system.
This is just too simple and we need to do it a harder way here.
i was hoping for something as simple as an on off switch and i've been to Lowes and HomeDepot and there is nothing in a programmable thermo. that has a seperate automatic programable function to run only the fan. i'll keep your idea of a heat only thermo. on hand though, if you have a link or know of a company that makes a thremostat like i'm asking about please let me know, thanks....
I know you would have to picture this in your mine to catch it but here goes.
Get a two stage gas heat thermostat and wire the first stage to the green wire for the fan running on the furnace and them wire in the white or W terminal on the furnace to turn on the heat. When there was a small drop 1 or 2ºf in the temp from the room temp. to call for the heat to come on the fan only would come on. then if there was a 3 degree drop in the set point of the heat setting of the thermostat the heat from the furnace would come on. This would fill your system needs. It would turn on the fan for a little drop in temp. then if it got more than 3 degrees lower than set point the regular heat would come on.
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