I need a thermostat (simple mercury switch style) that goes down to 32F or so, so I can heat a space only just enough to keep it from freezing.
So far, no luck.
Plan B is to just mount a regular thermostat, tilted, so as to skew the temperature range. Just need the right night to calibrate it...
Dave
line or low voltage?
Freezing starts above 32 F when I needed freeze protection I chose 40F, small safety margin.
Careful there Dave. Setting a thermostat to 32º will not assure the room and it's contents will be above freezing. A 10º spread from in interior wall to an exterior will would not be uncommon and could be much more. I have seem pipes freeze under a sink when the interior room temperature was in the mid 50's.
yeah, I'm looking for something that actually goes a little lower, because if the lowest setting was 35 or so, the error tends to be worse near the ends, so to speak.
I find myself intrigued by this unit:
Wiring in a relay is no biggie, or I maybe I could actually use it to switch the 120V for the 24v transformer, depending on how the unit is actually wired.
Wouldn't want to wire the furnace in directly, as it wouldn't run the blower after the thermostat shuts off.
Dave
Oh, I have some experience with things freezing, I know. See my prev. reply, and also, I'm tracking down the coldest spot along the pipe run, and I'll put tjhe thermostat there.
Dave
I have some experience with it also. You don't want a 32 degree T'stat no matter where you think the cold spot is. I won't go below 40.
You may want to consider other methods. I know of one setup that will not turn on the heat unless the outdoor temperature is below 33 degrees. I have one building where the heaters are on timers. During very cold spells I can have the thermostats do the work, but in milder times, it will only go on for two one hour periods.
If I want to set a thermostat for 40, I'd like some settings below that, since errors tend to be much worse near the edges of a thermostats range, and less near the middle.
I know that this garage stays a fair bit warmer than the outside, so I'm hoping to control it via thermostat vs timer or other means. I just filled up that oil tank, and it hurt!
Dave
Why can't you use a refrigerator thermostat (the one for the fresh food compartment)? They are available at supply houses for refrigeration components.
Well you seem to be pretty much set in your ways, even after you were given some very good advice. What the heck, use a 32 degree stat if you can find one. Then you'll be posting back here for information on how to fix all the mess that the frozen pipes caused. Best of luck!
This is Turtle.
there is a defrost terminator used as to stop the defrosting of refrigerator coil and to reactivate the power to the timer and element. this device will cut in at 32 degrees f and cut out at 60 degrees f. Anytime it hit 32 degree it will cut in and bring the room up to 60 degrees F . the fall back is it's long run time to get to 60 degrees F befotre cutting off.
They can be bought at appliance parts store and is called a defrost terminator on a refrigerator. One kind is a General Electric WR50X60 which would be the one above that I\\was talking about. there is different ones with different temperature and you could talk to them and see about a better temperature on it like in cut in and cut out.
TURTLE
You have two reasonable choices if you haven't found a thermostat that specifically goes that low. First, I've used a thermostat from an electric water heater. The one I used turned on at about 40 degrees at the lowest setting, so you might have to bend something or move a stop to get the screw to lower the range. Second, most small heaters in the 1500 watt range have a thermostat that can be moved down below 40 degrees. Again, a tiny amount of bending of the structure to open the gap might be necessary. The bimetal part (don't bend that part) should function reliably at 40 to 30 degrees. Anything other than an electronic thermostat or a fairly expensive mechanical thermostat will probably have a range of 5-6 degrees between turn on and turn off, so be aware of that.
He might enjoy a $10 Thermocube:
Wow, seems very few here actually have the ability to read the damn post.
I said that if I want a setpoint of 40, I don't want that to be the very lowest setting on the thermostat because the errors are going to be worse at the edges of the setting range. Capische?
If the thermostat goes down to 30, and I set it for 40, it'll probably work better than a thermostat that goes down to 40, and is set for 40.
Smartass. Thanks for contributing something useful.
DThat's pretty nifty, moreso because its cheap!
Thanks.
D
What is?
Check this with a thermometer known to be good.
I'm sure it cools off more slowly than does the outside, but after some length of time, it may feel warmer only because there isn't the slightest wind, or the humidity is different.
High humidity makes you feel warmer, but won't keep liquids from freezing.
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
So he misread your post, or didn't fully get all you were intending. So what?
How much are you paying him to read carefully?
He was mildly sarcastic, but he wasn't insulting like you are. You're the jerk here. An ungrateful jerk.
Even his sarcasm was meant to help you, while this is just to be nasty. You're a jackass.
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.
What an interesting device! Thanks for posting the URL, Nick.
How do I caliber my thermostat that go down to 32
This is not twitter. You can give some details. What kind of thermostat is it? What's it intended for? How do you use it? What's the brand and model number?
If it's a heating/cooling thermostat, I'd fill the house with ice and try different temperatures until I found the highest one that didn't make the ice melt much.
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