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My thermostat lost its control!! Help!

IanAK
IanAK Member Posts: 4
Hi there,

My house is a triplex that is heated with baseboard heaters and each unit has a thermostat. A few weeks ago, my thermostat stopped working. I mean, the heaters in my unit works but it's not under my thermostat's control. The boiler room is in another unit and the thermostat in the another unit controls heaters in my unit as well. My thermostat does nothing.

Even though i set up the temperature higher than the current temp in my unit, the boiler doesn't turn on if the boiler is off. And although i set up the temperature lower than the current temp, the boiler doesn't turn off if the boiler is on.

So i replaced the analog thermostat to digital one and still doesn't work. I have no idea what to do!
Please help!!

Comments

  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
    It sounds like the thermostat in your unit may be a dummy and the thermostat in the other unit controls the boiler. Is the system zoned for each unit or just a single zone?
    rick in AlaskaIntplm.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    So what happened a couple of weeks ago? If the thermostat worked up to a couple of weeks ago, and then suddenly stopped, I'd start by trying to find out if any work was done on the system at that time, since it would appear that your thermostat worked -- or at least seemed to -- up to that point.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    ratio
  • IanAK
    IanAK Member Posts: 4
    Thank you for the answers. Until 2 weeks ago, everything worked perfectly and suddenly it stopped working and any work hasn't been done in that period. Just, i woke up in the morning and felt it's too cold and found the thermostat didn't work. Have no idea what is wrong with it.. Is there any possibility that the circuit breaker is out and it caused this issue? The digital thermostat works but it also has a AA size battery in it..
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    We need to know more about how the system is set up. Zone valves? Individual pumps?
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • IanAK
    IanAK Member Posts: 4
    Jamie, Thank you for asking! but honestly i'm ignorant about it and not sure what it is. So i took pictures of my boiler unit (below) and the pipe in the red box goes to my unit. We installed its own pump when i was extending the heating pipe in my unit a year ago.




  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    Zone valves -- though I also see what looks like a pump, up at the ceiling, on your line. What should happen is that when your thermostat calls for heat, the zone valve on your line should open, and that should tell the boiler that heat is wanted and, if the boiler isn't hot enough, the boiler should fire up. However... that isn't happening. The zone valve be all the way open, as that would keep the boiler running all the time. On the other hand, it can't be fully closed, as then you would get not heat at all. The zone valve may be stuck.

    Unless you are really comfortable playing with these things, your best move is going to be to find a good heating contractor who knows hot water heat to come out and diagnose this thing and fix what needs fixing. Where are you located? Have you tried the "Find a Contractor" tab on this site? Or just say where you are, and perhaps we know someone who services your area.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 5,803
    I'm not gonna ask why there's an additional circulator on your zone because that's probably another thread entirely.
    Your zone valve control (the silver box attached to the pipe you highlighted in the pic with the red and yellow wires) has a lever on the bottom to manually open it if needed. Make sure someone didn't lock the lever in the open position. The actuator is spring loaded so the lever should swing closed if it was locked open. There should be tension on the lever if it's not locked open. Manually move the lever open without locking it and see if it springs back smoothly.
  • rick in Alaska
    rick in Alaska Member Posts: 1,457
    If the zone valve is stuck open, you can get ghost flow in that line whenever someone else is getting heat, assuming your unit is above the boiler. That is where I would start looking.
    Rick
  • Solid_Fuel_Man
    Solid_Fuel_Man Member Posts: 2,646
    Sounds like a bad end switch. T-stat calling, but not turning on circulator.

    That said you have a circulator and a valve on the same zone..... Someone's got some 'splainen to do!
    Serving Northern Maine HVAC & Controls. I burn wood, it smells good!
    delta TCanucker