Charles (in GA)
Well-known member
As some of you may recall, in January and February of 2011 I installed My Lanair 200K BTU Used Oil furnace .
The Furnace was provided with a simple White Rodgers thermostat, that was adequate for the job. Its low range is 50°F which is what Lanair recommends as a minimum operating temperature for the heater, apparently to keep the oil from thickening in the tank. I have found the heater seems to operate just fine at lower temperatures however.
The issue I had with this thermostat was that there was no separate on/off switch. You had to take the temp slider and move it all the way to the left thru the detent and to the off position. Thus, every time you turned it on, you had to attempt to get the temp slider set in the same place to get the same temperature, which given the lack of good markings on the thermostat, was difficult to do.
Searching around, I found that Honeywell made a "garage thermostat" that had a low range of about 35°F and had a separate on/off switch. I bought one, and installed it.
The thermostats were installed on a section of finished plywood mounted on conduit clamps on the front post of the heater. It was convenient and worked well. I later moved the thermostat to a point near the door of the shop to make it easier to operate it. I documented this near the end of my heater thread.
The Honeywell thermostat, as you can see from the pics, it not the best thing Honeywell ever made. It has no reference for the temp slider, its all a guessing game and I ended up making pencil marks to mark the desired location should it get disturbed. The room temperature thermometer is a piece of junk, as you can easily rotate it to wherever you want. I'm not real sure why they installed it at all.
Recently the Habitat ReStore near me got a bunch of White Rodgers digital thermostats in, I think from a hardware store that closed up. They are simple non-programmable digital units that will work on almost any heat only or air only or heat and air system, with the exception of some of the more complex ones. The instructions show an installation for a three wire heater only, and has a note that if you have a two wire like mine to hook it up to white and Red-heat terminals. (no fan control, its a thermostatic switch on the heater itself). The specs also say that the unit will control down to 45°F and operate down to 32°F room temp (I would hope it will come on below that!!!!!!!)
Well, I installed the thermostat and test fired the heater, it seems to work well and for $8.56 including tax, it was a bargain. ($10 and a 20% discount for time on the shelf). We'll see how it operates this winter. The only maintenance is to keep two good AAA batteries installed in it.
Charles
The Furnace was provided with a simple White Rodgers thermostat, that was adequate for the job. Its low range is 50°F which is what Lanair recommends as a minimum operating temperature for the heater, apparently to keep the oil from thickening in the tank. I have found the heater seems to operate just fine at lower temperatures however.
The issue I had with this thermostat was that there was no separate on/off switch. You had to take the temp slider and move it all the way to the left thru the detent and to the off position. Thus, every time you turned it on, you had to attempt to get the temp slider set in the same place to get the same temperature, which given the lack of good markings on the thermostat, was difficult to do.
Searching around, I found that Honeywell made a "garage thermostat" that had a low range of about 35°F and had a separate on/off switch. I bought one, and installed it.
The thermostats were installed on a section of finished plywood mounted on conduit clamps on the front post of the heater. It was convenient and worked well. I later moved the thermostat to a point near the door of the shop to make it easier to operate it. I documented this near the end of my heater thread.
The Honeywell thermostat, as you can see from the pics, it not the best thing Honeywell ever made. It has no reference for the temp slider, its all a guessing game and I ended up making pencil marks to mark the desired location should it get disturbed. The room temperature thermometer is a piece of junk, as you can easily rotate it to wherever you want. I'm not real sure why they installed it at all.
Recently the Habitat ReStore near me got a bunch of White Rodgers digital thermostats in, I think from a hardware store that closed up. They are simple non-programmable digital units that will work on almost any heat only or air only or heat and air system, with the exception of some of the more complex ones. The instructions show an installation for a three wire heater only, and has a note that if you have a two wire like mine to hook it up to white and Red-heat terminals. (no fan control, its a thermostatic switch on the heater itself). The specs also say that the unit will control down to 45°F and operate down to 32°F room temp (I would hope it will come on below that!!!!!!!)
Well, I installed the thermostat and test fired the heater, it seems to work well and for $8.56 including tax, it was a bargain. ($10 and a 20% discount for time on the shelf). We'll see how it operates this winter. The only maintenance is to keep two good AAA batteries installed in it.
Charles
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