Move my upstairs thermostat?

[jpcjguy]

Hi all,

So we have a wood burning insert now and keeps the downstairs nice and toasty and the warm air goes up the nearby staircase to a landing where all the bedrooms branch off. We are keeping the bedroom doors open at night but the heat will not make it to the master bathroom which is on the opposite end of the house from the wood stove and above the unheated garage.
Our upstairs thermostat is located on the landing so the wood stove heat is making the upstairs HVAC think that it is plenty warm.
My thinking is to move the thermostat to the hallway from the master bedroom to the master bath. This way we can shut bedroom doors at night and the upstairs will not be affected by insert.
Thoughts on this?

Thanks!

 

[TractorJeff]

Yes, Move it!
I have a similar situation when I run the downstairs Stove.
I moved mine and it made the Upstairs more comfortable!

 

[Jackfre]

There are some passive things you can do to improve temp balance in the space. Cut a register through the ceiling to the M Br. That creates a path for the air to move, which it wants to do. You can do the same room to room. Tammarack Technologies make thru the wall registers with baffles to diminish sound and light travel. Tjernlund make the Airshare, either room to room or thru the floor fans. They are very good, simple to install and I generally ran them off a switched outlet

 

[jlv03]

What kind of thermostat do you have? Some of the newer ones (Nest, ecobee, Wyze, some Honeywell models) allow you to have a remote sensor. Put a remote sensor in the master bedroom and schedule the thermostat to look at it during bedtime hours.

 

[jpcjguy]

What kind of thermostat do you have? Some of the newer ones (Nest, ecobee, Wyze, some Honeywell models) allow you to have a remote sensor. Put a remote sensor in the master bedroom and schedule the thermostat to look at it during bedtime hours.

Brilliant! I can't believe I did not think of that! I have an ecobee downstairs and I just called them to confirm that I can run completely off the remote sensor. That is the route I will go.

 

[johnnyradiant]

Maybe you can temp. place the sensor (or tstat if you went that route) just to make sure you are picking a good place for the balance you need. No sense putting it in an area that turns out to bump heat too hot elsewhere, or not hot enough. Chances are if you're observant you'll have a pretty good idea right off the bat but if you could not commit to a spot till you're sure, it may take some guess work out of the equation.

 

[nadogail]

We are using the VENSTAR Wireless Tstats. We have three, located in the Bedroom, Home Office, and the Family Room. The HVAC system responds to the unit last adjusted, so we can bump up or down of shift from heating to cooling from any of those locations.

They work very well for us.

 

[jpcjguy]

Maybe you can temp. place the sensor (or tstat if you went that route) just to make sure you are picking a good place for the balance you need. No sense putting it in an area that turns out to bump heat too hot elsewhere, or not hot enough. Chances are if you're observant you'll have a pretty good idea right off the bat but if you could not commit to a spot till you're sure, it may take some guess work out of the equation.

Exactly - that is what the remote sensor will allow me to do. Move it around until I find the "sweet spot" where I am not cooking some of the rooms and freezing the others.

 

[dave*99]

A side thought - do you have forced air heat? My Honeywell thermostat has a circulate mode. It runs the fan periodically and circulates the air in the house. That balances the temperature throughout the house when the system is not calling for heat.

I use it a lot in the summer. The house is still and the bedrooms are occupied. Temperature rises in the bedroom's and circulating the air makes those rooms more comfortable. It will balance the temperatures in your house when using the fireplace.

 

[ripperd]

A side thought - do you have forced air heat? My Honeywell thermostat has a circulate mode. It runs the fan periodically and circulates the air in the house. That balances the temperature throughout the house when the system is not calling for heat.

I use it a lot in the summer. The house is still and the bedrooms are occupied. Temperature rises in the bedroom's and circulating the air makes those rooms more comfortable. It will balance the temperatures in your house when using the fireplace.

This is my suggestion as well.

 

[jpcjguy]

I tried running the fan for the upstairs - the return is on the landing but unfortunately the temp of the air it is pulling in is not hot enough so by the time it goes through the ductwork and back out the bedroom registers, it is cold.