Thermostat placement

[m151dave]

I have a 2 bedroom house, stone wrapped. The master bedroom and kitchen are on one side of the house and a guest room with in suite bath and a laundry room on the other end. There is a great room in the middle with a 12 foot vaulted ceiling.

The thermostat is in the laundry room next to the doorway leading into the great room. I think the thermostat is being effected by the heat in the laundry room and is causing the house to feel uneven in temperature. I opened all the floor vents to be sure distribution is equal. The house was built by the original owner and he did much of the work himself, a neighbor told me that included the HV/AC system.

I am thinking of putting the thermostat on the other side of the wall, in the great room where the larger mass of air is. It would be a simple task of turning the wire through a hole on the other side of exactly where it is now.

My question is would it serve the house better if the thermostat is in the great room? I should mention that there are also two ceiling fans in the great room, evenly spaced and at the peal of the vaulted ceiling. One thing I am concerned about is if this would impact the bedrooms, possibly causing them to be hotter than they are now?

I know zip about such things but am not afraid to ask for help and opinions! Thanks to all who might provide constructive comments.

 

[nehog]

Generally a thermostat should be in the main (living) area that it affects, mounted on an interior wall if at all possible.

In a laundry room? Not my idea of a good location!

 

[7th Kahuna]

I don't really understand the laundry room. I would suggest that your idea of flipping it around to the other side would be an improvement, if not the best solution, and easily reversible if you didn't like the result. In my very limited experience there have been two trains of thought on such things. Either the t-stat goes in the room where you spend the most time, or it goes to the point most distant from the main distribution unit. In my estimation however, there are a lot of other factors to be considered. Are you more concerned with heating or cooling? Where I live heating is the bigger issue and I have my t-stat in the master bedroom. If I keep the bedroom a little cool, the living areas are perfect. What are your exposures? If the house is faced with real stone, and your main living area has a southern exposure, then from a cooling stand point, that main living area may be where you want the t-stat in order to deal with the radiant heat from that wall. I really don't think there is a one-size-fits-all answer.

 

[ford33]

Make sure sunlight does not shine directly on the thermostat. I moved mine to the other side of the wall because the afternoon sun shined directly on it. It kept the rest of the house too cool.

 

[Trey T]

The quick answer is NO. Your main concern here is comfort throughout the home and it's the trouble for many homeowners out there. There's no easy fix to it.

a thermostat is simply a tool to measure and set temp in a location WITH ARBITRARY VALUE. By moving it to another location, like a living room, doesn't change anything other than the numerical value on the thermostat.

Your solution is to balance the air flow due to heat changes in each area of your home.

 

[TEXACMAN]

-Sounds easy enough to move... Thermostats need to be on inside wall , need to be pretty near return vent or flow , living room areas are usual places. Kitchen or laundry bad idea. I installed a wireless tstat with two zone sensors in my upstairs area recently and that helped a lot.

 

[Cyberbear]

Poking wires through a wall is easy, or just run some temporary wire to the large main room and put the thermostat where you want and try it out before making it permanent.

 

[mburrus]

when i installed my central AC, the guys doing the duct work told me that the Tstat should be mounted close to the AC's return grille... if you have a ducted/distributed return system, i would put it in the great room for sure. putting it in a sealable room with heat generating appliances sounds like trouble.

 

[vision8]

I have to agree with 'Trey T' that you have to balance the air flow through out the house to have even heat though the living area.

 

[DangerousDan55]

You can balance all the flow you want. But having the Tstat by your cloths drier? Yea, that will keep the other end of the house warm now wont it! The Tstat will pick up the heat from the drier & shut down your central heat for the rest of the house.
And even if your not doing laundry, & if you use the door to the garage a lot, well, that's what the Tstat will read also, cycling the HVAC more often.
Move the Tstat to a more temperature stable area.
Otherwise. You'll continue to yell that same old saying.
CLOSE THE DAME DOOR. ARE YOU TRYING TO AIR CONDITION THE NEIGHORHOOD! !!!!

 

[no2tracks]

+1 Move it!

 

[DangerousDan55]

Oh, after you do move the Tstat, you will need to re-evaluate the air flow balance. most likely the previous owner tried to make adjustments to the ducting because of the erratic temps in the laundry room.
You'll go just fine!

 

[m151dave]

I don't really understand the laundry room. I would suggest that your idea of flipping it around to the other side would be an improvement, if not the best solution, and easily reversible if you didn't like the result. In my very limited experience there have been two trains of thought on such things. Either the t-stat goes in the room where you spend the most time, or it goes to the point most distant from the main distribution unit. In my estimation however, there are a lot of other factors to be considered. Are you more concerned with heating or cooling? Where I live heating is the bigger issue and I have my t-stat in the master bedroom. If I keep the bedroom a little cool, the living areas are perfect. What are your exposures? If the house is faced with real stone, and your main living area has a southern exposure, then from a cooling stand point, that main living area may be where you want the t-stat in order to deal with the radiant heat from that wall. I really don't think there is a one-size-fits-all answer.

The stone part of the walls are about 7" thick. It is all hand fit river rock, very closely fit with very small joints between the stone. The long sides of the house face east and west and I have 25 trees on the property, much of the house is in shade except for noon time.

Return for the air is split between both ends of the house and the hv/ac unit is accessible from the great room. We tend to keep the house cool in the winter, not to be cheap, the wife has asthma and breaths easier in cool temperatures.

 

[m151dave]

Make sure sunlight does not shine directly on the thermostat. I moved mine to the other side of the wall because the afternoon sun shined directly on it. It kept the rest of the house too cool.

Good point, but not an issue in this case. Thanks though, I would not have thought of that

 

[m151dave]

Thanks everybody! The feedback is great. As was mentioned, it is a small hole in the other side of the wall, so if it does not work out, then it can always go back to the way it was.

It is 25 here right now, so I may wait to see if it warms up a bit before I take the thermostat down for the move. I will report back on how this works out!

 

[DC73]

A thermostat should not be located near sources of heat or cold including windows, exterior doors, fireplaces and appliances.

Don't locate it where air from a supply vent can blow on it.

It's best to locate it within 15' of a return air duct - closer is better.

Interior hallways tend to be good options.

Get the thermostat located properly first, then tackle any unbalanced temperature issues.

There are ways to run more than one thermostat on a system but you have to be careful that they don't fight each other.

Good luck,

DC

 

[m151dave]

A thermostat should not be located near sources of heat or cold including windows, exterior doors, fireplaces and appliances.

Don't locate it where air from a supply vent can blow on it.

It's best to locate it within 15' of a return air duct - closer is better.

Interior hallways tend to be good options.

Get the thermostat located properly first, then tackle any unbalanced temperature issues.

There are ways to run more than one thermostat on a system but you have to be careful that they don't fight each other.

Good luck,

DC

Thank you for your reply

 

[Trey T]

...

The thermostat is in the laundry room next to the doorway leading into the great room. I think the thermostat is being effected by the heat in the laundry room and is causing the house to feel uneven in temperature. I opened all the floor vents to be sure distribution is equal. The house was built by the original owner and he did much of the work himself, a neighbor told me that included the HV/AC system.

...

Dave: by moving it, you're not solving your issue. The house has uneven temperature is caused by several things but primarily the duct size (length and diameter) resulting different air flow rate. The only way to fix it is dampen the duct and they sell those at HD or Lowe's.

BTW, a perfect air system design is not to have "equal distribution" of air, but a "balance distribution". If you equally distribute the air flow rate from room to room, you'll have uneven temperature home because of the different heat loss per room (windows & doors). If you balance the air flow rate in accordance w/ the heat loss per room, you'll have a comforting home throughout.

I'm not saying that by moving it won't change anything, it just won't change to what you're asking.

 

[DC73]

Dave: by moving it, you're not solving your issue. . . . I'm not saying that by moving it won't change anything, it just won't change to what you're asking.

Hey Trey. He has to move it first. It's in the wrong spot. The laundry room temperature is definitely impacting the thermostat causing it to shut down the furnace prematurely which leaves the rest of the house cold. The laundry room and possibly immediately adjacent areas are currently warmer than the rest of the house. Once he gets it moved, he can evaluate the temperature differences throughout the house and re-balance as needed.

DC