Two thermostats - Upstairs / Downstairs for night/day comfort?

The easiest way to resolve this problem would be to turn the thermostat down at night. Next, put some weatherstripping around the door so it doesn't leak cold air anymore.

Yeah -- it's called "weatherstripping".

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Or, relocate the thermostat. If you don't want to go that far, a simple programmable would do it. You would need to fine tune the night setting to reach the results you want upstairs, but there has to be a number below 60 downstairs that will yield ~60 upstairs.

Geez, Tom, that's just ridiculous, even for you. The *first* thing to do is

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

I had similar problem. Fortunately the stairway has a wall on each side so I installed a drape at the bottom to minimize upstairs draft. Grumpy

Consider fixing the air leak around the door and install a storm door. Keep the area near the thermostat clear of objects.

Have you considered a wireless thermostat? You could relocate it upstairs/downstairs. Little or no installation cost if it is a drop-in replacement for original stat.

George Elkins

Ditto on fixing the leak.

You didn't mention your setup, but if it was my problem with my system and I didn't have the money to do it right, I'd just stick a couple of identical cheap programmable thermostats in parallel (without the cooling wire Y connected upstairs) and give that a try.

The programming would take care of your timing and temperature problems.

PJ

I once went to radio shack and got a 4 pole double throw relay (1 pole for each thermostat wire) and appropriate power supply . Then a simple wall timer activated the relay at night and switched the furnace to the upstairs thermostat. Don't think this will work with programmable thermostats that get their power from the wire.

Thanks George-

Do you have any recommendations as to a wireless thermostat?

I've actually dragged out an IR camera and photographed the heat loss to the door that leaks like a sieve. I didn't think I needed to explain all 100 reasons as to why I would want to regulate the upstairs temperature at the expense of the downstairs in order to get a useful direction; apparently I was wrong.

Perhaps the biggest reason? It's an old house and, even with all of the areas patched, insulated, thermostripped, there still exists a cold sink in that area. Thus, regardless of most of the groups helpful suggestions, they all have been done. Moving the thermostat to any other wall requires moving the ductwork off the base of that wall, otherwise hot air would immediately shut the furnace off after 5 seconds (tested by moving the thermostat with electrical wires).

Thanks again George for the suggestion- I'll try looking at a pair of them and seeing if I can't devise a shutoff system for them.

Sorry, I can't recommend anything. I have very little knowledge other than what I found via a search engine.

I'd call the manufacturer's 800 number to ensure compatibility with your heating/cooling system and try to order through your local HVAC people.

George Elkins