Energy Use and Thermostat Location Help

Sam0207

Hi Everyone,

In a bit of a pickle. We recently bought a 6 unit building (2 floors) and moved a thermostat out of a tenants unit into the boiler room downstairs. Now, the problem upstairs was that it was 1) in the tenants unit and 2) they would have their own little electric heater on that would mess with the sensor of the thermostat, thus making the entire building cold. The best place to move it was downstairs near the boiler room (we went over other areas and they made less sense). Now of course, because it's in the boiler room, it's going to be reading warm all the time...same issue, but it's out of the tenants unit. Now it's the reverse...the downstair units are warm, but the unit upstairs are cold. So I have two questions:

1) The system we have is radiators in each unit, so it's all steam. If I set the thermostat on 78 degrees to get the units to 69-70 degrees upstairs, does that drive my water and gas bill up cause it's a higher temperature? Or does temperature not matter, just the fact if it's on all the time matters?

2) If a higher temperature does affect my water and gas bill, I was thinking of keeping the thermostat in the boiler room, but installing a remote sensor thermostat like this one. Would this work?

I appreciate any help, thanks!

-Sam

Jamie Hall

The fuel used is mostly related to how long the boiler runs, not the temperature.

And 2, the remote sensor is a very good idea in a tenant occupied building! Saves the super a lot of headaches...

You may also want to pay some attention to the main venting and balancing the venting in the various units, to get the heat a little more even

ratio

A thermostat is a light switch, not a gas pedal. Your boiler only uses gas when it's firing, not when it's off. It shouldn't be using much water at all—a few gallons a season is acceptable, a few gallons a week is a red light.

Did you purchase a new thermostat, or just relocate the old one? The device you linked to isn't a remote sensor, it's more like a remote control that you can carry around. You probably want one of these, a Honeywell TH8110 can use up to 6 IIRC sensors for averaging.

SWEI

The new TH6220U also supports remote sensors and costs ~40% less.

Sam0207

Thank you all for your help! Much appreciated