ReplyNot worth the headache.
Have you tried using the fan circ feature to even out the room temps.
You could have the sensors added, to use averaging.
Professional Member
I have an dual fuel system (American Standard Heritage 16 HP, Freedom 80 furnace) and an Honeywell IAQ thermostat.
What I would like to do is have a thermostat or sensor on the 2nd floor so that I can heat or cool the bedroom area to specific temperature at night.
I have looked at having a Honeywell sensor added to the 2nd floor. That seems like the easiest solution. However, the tstat allows either the tstat, the sensor or an average to dictate the temp. But that is part of the setup and not the program, so I would manually have to change the setup each night and I ain't doing that!
So I was wondering if a 2nd IAQ could be added and if either called for heat or cool, the system would respond. Is that possible? And would I have the 2 tstats wired to to 1 EIM or would I need to have 2 IAQ's and 2 EIM's and have both EIM's wired to the furnace?
Or could I have a zone controller installed, but with nothing connected other than the tstats?
Or is there some sort of timed switch I could have installed to switch between the 2 tstats?
Of course this type of set-up would cause cooling in unoccupied areas and is certainly not efficient and a zone system would be the perfect solution. However, comparing the cost of a zone system to this option, the break even is a long, long time!
Thanks,
Mark
God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
Not worth the headache.
Have you tried using the fan circ feature to even out the room temps.
You could have the sensors added, to use averaging.
Professional Member
beenthere:
I actually leave the fan on all the time and it does a decent job of averaging out the room temps. It does much better at night than during the daytime. And doing what you suggest is most likely the best easy solution.
BTW, what would the headaches be in having 2 tstats? Curious minds and all that stuff!
Thanks,
Mark
Professional Member*
Be like having two brains in different locations telling you how to act. It didn't work for Steve Martin and it won't work for youOriginally Posted by markf57
beenthere:
I actually leave the fan on all the time and it does a decent job of averaging out the room temps. It does much better at night than during the daytime. And doing what you suggest is most likely the best easy solution.
BTW, what would the headaches be in having 2 tstats? Curious minds and all that stuff!
Training is important!
Practical Training is a must!
Professional Member*
To make this work you would need to install zoneing dampers and tie them into the second thermostat.
Banned
this is the most correct answer to his problem!
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God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
Isolation and lock out relays, so both stats can't call at the same time for different modes. Or back feed each otherbeenthere:
BTW, what would the headaches be in having 2 tstats? Curious minds and all that stuff!
Short cycling because one stat restarts the system 10 minutes later.
Temp over and under shooting temps because the stats can't calculate an accurate run time because the other stat keeps the HVAC running when it thinks its off.
Finding a tech that doesn't pull his hair out when you have a sevrice problem with it.
Professional Member*
A while back I was involved with a job like this. Boss installed a huge toggle switch the HO threw to select which stat (up or down) to control the system.
Goodman has an aftermarket zone system that looks easy to cut in. I don't remember the brand.
I thought Carrier had a programmable zoning kit. It's been a long time since I've looked at one. I would think a guy could install the controllers without the dampers
Beware of advice given by some guy on the Internet.
Professional Member*
In fact April air makes a zone kit that uses regular stats. Just install the panel without the dampers if you want to cut the costs.
You would have to overcome the dual fuel challenges. Maybe Goodman's dual fuel kit might work.
Beware of advice given by some guy on the Internet.
Professional Member*
Lennox had a zone kit that uses regular stats also. I've never set one up. But I think it's my turn next.
Beware of advice given by some guy on the Internet.
God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
Most zoning companies have panels that could be used with out the dampers.
The zone panel would act as the isolation lock out relay.
Very expensive solution to over cool or heat one area to make teh other comfortable.
Cheaper to just set the stat higher or lower to make the other area of the house the temp you want.
Regular Guest
I've actually looked for such a switch, without sucess.
Any idea where I might find one?
I used to have some pretty weird stuff I'd concocted in homes I owned.
Since I always had to de-weirdify them when I sold, I strongly resist
the tempation.
And I've thought of home building a thermostat switchover device with
a bunch of relays or even a solid state version with analog switches.
But just a big honking toggle switch would be a cleaner solution.
God Speed, Jim. We'll miss you - 2-26-23
Averaging sensors.
You wouldn't have to remove them when you sell.
Regular Guest
BT can these sensors be used in conjunction with a Infinity controller and Infinity furnace ? I have my kitchen that is always alittle colder than the rest of the house on the coldest days in the winter and would like to know how this would work if it is possible to have installed with one sensors in my kitchen and one in the main part of the home with 1 up stairs. Could you explain how these work ?
Professional Member*
I've done this before twice. Each of them differently. One time was on a 4 zone Honeywell zone board with 8 thermostats hooked up to it. I simply used a toggle switch to go back and forth to where the load would be. It was on an engineer's house and he wanted to switch the thermostat back and forth depending on the season. The other time, I bought 2 wireless thermostats with one receiving station. Whichever thermostat was adjusted last had control of the system. So as long as you don't change the upstairs then the downstairs 10 minutes later, you were fine. It still had the 5 minute waiting period, so you couldn't short cycle it. Its application was the guy had an office he used during the day and wanted it set for his comfort and he rented an apt. out beside him on the same system and when the guy that lived there got home at night, he wanted control and neither one of them wanted the other guy going into their space to control temp while the other one wasn't there. Or you could just buy a zone board and don't put any dampers on it.
Banned
how many poles did your toggle switch have on it?
.
Professional Member*
I believe it was a 3 way toggle switch from Radio Shack. It was about 5 years ago, it gives me a headache to think about it and what a pain in the arse it was to do. Everytime I go to the guys house for service and I see this beast, it makes me shudder and I hope it never breaks, it will take me an hour of staring at it to remember how everything works.
Banned
ya i been there and done that!
imagine what another tech will think when he sees that
.
Professional Member
And that is another problem with my system. My setup has 4 heat / 2 cool and I'm only aware of one zone board that can be used and it doesn't work with dual fuel. And I read on another thread that zoning the Trane XL16i is not recommended and I'm fairly sure that the AS Heritage 16 is the same as the Trane XL16i. Is that correct?
Thanks,
Mark
Professional Member*
We do a fair amount of strange and off the wall sort of stuff. Lots of high end customers with somewhat odd needs. It's my job to figure out how to make it all work. We've gotten a few calls from customers who have called another company out for service and it confused the hell out of the other tech. Pretty much guaranteed us a customer for life as well as referrals. It makes the job more interesting.
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