Sonyphil

I am annoyed with my ecobee digital thermostat as it needs 5 degrees F between heat and cool, when the thermostat is set to do both automatically. I know some separation is required, but 5 degrees? Anyone have a better thermostat. Thanks!

waldron7 Loc: State of Confusion

Honeywell thermostats do not require a 5 degree separation. However, a lesser degree if separation would result in very frequent transitions from the heat/cool cycles.

clickety

Yes it was free, and now they are able to remotely program the temperature of your home (without your knowledge or input) to what they deem is the “appropriate” setting to accommodate their capacity vs demand needs.
Thank you for ‘taking one’ for the greens.

clickety

👍

TreborLow

The house I grew up in had a thermostat with mercury in the glass thermometer!! As did the thermometer my mom used on me!!!! Twenty years later, in a lab where I was doing some research, we had some mercury in a bottle and I put a lable on it.....Tuna Free Mercury!!

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Here is an urban legend for you. Years and years ago I had a good friend who worked as a relator. Approached by the Federal Government to handle the huge back log of Government Reposed Houses in the greater San Antonio area. Bob De Palo Real estate took on the task.

Now the curve ball, Bob began checking the thermostats in the homes. Seems all the mercury switches had been removed from everyone of the buildings. Bob reported this (all of these had to be replaced), and for a response he found a visit from the FBI at his office. The FBI field agents told Bob that it was not just reposed houses that were missing the mercury switches, but every single house and building that was abandon or left unattended for a few days, all over the US! Finger tips were dusted for the covers (the abandon building/houses had all the covers replaced. Weird, not a single finger print was found on covers or on the interior of the units!

Bob took to dusting for finger prints on all locations of the repossessed houses and checked for illegal entries to these houses (Bob had been with Bear County Sheriffs Dept. , so he knew what to do). Nothing, no clues.

Several years later Bob died of cancer and before he passed I asked him what had the FBI come up with. Only that multiple US Government Agencies were looking into the loss of the Mercury switches, non had a clue as to what was going on.

Just plain weird!

clickety

Mercury. The same element that we put into a dish to turn our pennies into ‘nickels’ in early elementary school very quickly became a ‘taboo’ and illegal substance. Of course, I feel so much safer now🥱.

Jack B Loc: Mount Pleasant, SC

Hg is used in many ways. One way is in armaments: ammo and explosives. Any estimate of the time frame when this happened?

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Vary late 90's.

clickety

My Honeywell IAQ’s an not be be set much less than 5 degrees in auto mode. For the very reasons you stated.

clickety

5 degrees is not unreasonable for auto switch over in an occupied space. If you manually switch between dedicated heating only control and dedicated cooling only modes you should be able to control within a degree or so in either mode.

Sonyphil

Thanks for your response, but if I could control within degree or so, why couldn't the auto mode do it too? I feel a out 3 degrees would be achievable without the unit having to shift between modes frequently.

clickety

The variables of an occupied space are many (doors are opened/closed with random frequency and variable duration creating a unpredictable air exchange with the unconditioned outside air plus stoves, ovens, refrigerators, and people all contribute to this random and changing ‘cooling load’). Most a/c systems require a time delay to relieve the head pressure of the condensing unit before restarting. On the heating side, all the aforementioned variables still exist plus the fan continues to run for a period after the burners turn off thus creating another delay. I failed to mention that every home is different,(window count, placement, exposure to the sun, insulation, sizing and efficiency of HVAC units, size of the house itself, speed of heat/cooling loss and recovery all need to be considered, yet the thermostat is engineered to work in all of them).
Then there is the matter of costs and manufacturing tolerances(both additive and subtractive) coupled with efforts to maximize the energy efficiency of the units, all packaged at a price the public will pay. And a reasonable compromise is reached by the manufacturer.

In the end it’s really like the auto racer’s mantra, “speed equates to dollars, how fast do you want to go”