Weird T-Stat Problem

jim_14

1 pipe steam gas fired furnace small private house.

Weird T-stat problem, it just doesnt feel right. Lets say the house is at 64 and I raise temp to 66, the boiler will fire and run but it doesnt seem to run long enough to get steam rising. (I dont have a main vent but thats another story). What I usually do is raise it 4 to 6 degrees (lets say from 64 to 70) and then it runs long enough to get the heat rising, then it gets hot, usually too hot and then we turn it back down.

Basically Im using the t-stat as on/off switch rather then a t-stat! Which is fine most of the time, except in the morning when its cold. I think it will fire up when it hits that certain temp, but then shut down before the heat actually rises.

I think its the t-stat or something, Im actually thinking of getting a digital t-stat just so it can turn on in the morning at a preset time, the rest of the time Id rather manually control it.It usually takes about 45 mins of boiler running until heat comes out of the radiator from a cold start.

Anybody have an explanation of why this is happening? BTW my t-stat is one of those round honeywells, nothing fancy, heat only, run by 2 wires. The t-stat cable has some spare wires in it, Im wondering what they could be for.

ed wallace

tstat

could be a no. of things is the tstat near a heat source? the extra wire is nothing they ran a 4 wire cable instead of 2 wire thats all try changing the tstat and see what happens

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John Ruhnke1

Stop playing with the t stat!!!!

Leave the tstat alone. Set it to your desired comfort level and then don't touch it. Leave it at that setting permanentlly. Don't play with it. This is not a hot air system. Steam does not respond fast to the thermostat. If you want a colder temp at night then get a day/night thermostat. Set the thermostat to come on an hour before you want it be hotter.

JR

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jim_14

well thats the thing, we usually turn it up when we are cold, it just doesnt run long enough when it hits the temp its set at. Besides too much steam heat dries us out at night so we lower the t-stat to like 62/64. Thats after weve run it at night before bed and its hot in the house. But the mornings are always cold, I would really like to get a stat that I can program to turn on at 6am every morning and off at 7am so its not so cold in the house. Im not sure which t-stat would be the best for that purpose. Im not really interested in anything else other than the AM startups, the rest of the day we usually lower the temp when go out and raise it upo when we come home. It almost never runs when we are out ,at least to the point where heat is coming out of the raidators.

Glenn_3

Whats

the anticipator set at?

Take the "ring" off your therm and at the 5 o'clock position is a pointer, see what its set at. It will be something like .4 .

Glenn