Wire 2 garage heaters like a 2 stage system?

[rsenechal]

I'm thinking of trying to install 2 5kw electric garage heaters in my garage but wiring them to a thermostat using the w1 and w2 wires so they would act like a multi stage furnace (both would run when demand is high, and one would run when demand is low). I'm wondering if anybody here has done something similar. Btw, this is my first post here but I've been reading this site for a while. There's a lot of useful information here.

Ryan

 

[nehog]

I don't know of any line-voltage two stage thermostats, so the heaters would either have to be setup for low voltage thermostats, or you'd have to build a controller with contactors to allow it to work.

Certainly doable, but more info on the heaters you have may be helpful.

 

[nadogail]

I have wired heaters for plating tanks so that an extra heater was in the circuit for quick warm ups, but once the tank came up to temp, the extra heater turned off. The extra heater stayed off until the "Quick Warm Up" button was pushed during the Call For Heat.

The Aux heat contacter coil was in parallel to the main heat contacter.
There was a SPST push button wired in series with the Aux heater contacter.

It was almost 20 years ago, the details are a little hazy.

 

[rsenechal]

I was planning on wiring a 24v thermostat to 2 relays for the 240v heaters

 

[dreasoner]

That sounds like an easy sledge hammer simple approach.

 

[Ainsley]

I was planning on wiring a 24v thermostat to 2 relays for the 240v heaters

That should work. I did something similar for my 240V heater. You'd just need two 24V coil contactors, a t-stat with dual stage heating, and a 24V control transformer.