Trouble with some simple thermostats ...

[gjbuilder]

I have a 24x12 foot room with a sloped ceiling - starts at 7' and rises to about 11.5' across the narrow (12 foot) width of the room.

I installed a simple "panel" heater of this type:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00865K0BA/?tag=atomicindus08-20

(600 watt / 2000 BTU convective heater)

And I am controlling it with a very "dumb", non-programmable thermostat:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z7EBBU/?tag=atomicindus08-20

... and for the most part, it all works. I am not sure how effective a panel heater is, and I don't have any fans in the room so I suspect all the heat goes up to the peak of the room and I would have to run the heater for a while to heat up the room at chest height, etc.

But again, it does work ... except for one weird thing ...

I would *think* that a thermostat would have some "slack" in it - if you set it to 70 degrees, it will stop at 70, but it's not going to kick back on again right at 69.9 degrees because, if it did, you would just be flapping the heater on and off and on and off forever.

But that is exactly what I am seeing - I see the room brought up to temp and then I see the power indicator on the heater turning on and off every 30 seconds or so. I *think* that what is happening is that the thermostat notices a drop below temp and immediately powers the heat back on.

Isn't that a bad way of operating ? SHouldn't there be some band between shut off temp and powering back on ? I don't think it is healthy for the heater to be flapping on and off every 30 seconds ...

Do thermostats work in a band the way I thought they did, or is this one just really primitive ?

 

[BillK]

Do you have the instructions ? Most thermostats have some type of "anticipator" setting for exactly that reason.

 

[The Cobbler]

newer thermostats have a closer on/off set than the older mercury and bi-metal ones did.
supposed to make for a more comfortable heat .
is your thermostat under the heat panel or off somewhere else?

 

[Jim greengo]

Is there a switch on back of stat for switching between gas and electric heat?

 

[fitter30]

Page 5 of the install manual it has a 15 second heating cycle which isn't adjustable. Couldn't find a tech manual for this stat.

 

[rlitman]

...Isn't that a bad way of operating ? SHouldn't there be some band between shut off temp and powering back on ? I don't think it is healthy for the heater to be flapping on and off every 30 seconds ...

That's perfectly normal for electric resistive heating. In fact, it's about ideal, so long as you're not wearing out a relay. And if you are, a solid state relay will fix that issue.

Short cycling is something you want to avoid on other heating systems, but pulsing is exactly where electric resistive heat works best.