Thermostats. Please proof this new inspection article.

[Nick Gromicko]

Thermostats.

[Matthew K. Klein]

Nick, a couple of comments:

One of the things that I find most people do not understand is the difference between the FAN and AUTO settings on the thermostat. I believe that would be good information to include.

Placement of the thermostat is not so much to get a representative reading of the room in which they are placed. They are supposed to get a representative reading of the ZONE, which for most homes is the entire home. When homes used to have only a single return, the thermostat was usually placed in the vicinity--the theory being that they would then see an average temperature of the air in the home.

Thermostats should pretty much never be installed on an outside wall. Not only can the air seen by the thermostat affect its accuracy, the temperature of the surface on which it is mounted can affect it.

A thermostats should also not be placed where the supply air blows directly on it.

The air flow around the thermostat should not be restricted or blocked. Therefore, furniture or other furnishings should not be installed so that air can not readily flow over it.

Digital thermostats require batteries that need periodic changing.

When the furnace kicks out, such as my oil furnace this past week, it can also reset a programmable thermostat. BTW, digital thermostats can be both programmable and non-programmable.

Canned air can also be used to blow the dust off of the thermostat.

If the home has a central humidification system, the humidistat is sometimes placed near the thermostat, and some of these look very similar to the thermostat.

During remodeling, the air patterns formerly seen by the thermostat might change affecting its accurate control. This problem occurs mostly in offices where walls might be moved putting the thermostat in a completely different zone than that where the system's air is flowing. A good example is where I give blood where the thermostat that controls about half of the building is inside one small office. Half of the building is too hot or too cold because the thermostat is not seeing representative air.

I think that is all I had. I thought the article was otherwise well put together. Good job.

[Marcel Gratton]

*Thermostats should pretty much never be installed on an outside wall. Not only can the air seen by the thermostat affect its accuracy, the temperature of the surface on which it is mounted can affect it.*

Even though it would be hard for an inspector to see, a thermostat should not be installed on a wall that has a supply or return inside. This would result in inconsistent temperature in the house.

Being from Canada, programming your digital thermostat in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius would result in a more comfortable environment.

[Rob London]

cheers fellas, made some adjustments

[Marcel Gratton]

How about mentioning the different types of thermostat and their advantages (e.g. analog versus electronic).