Radiant Ceiling Heat and Automatic Thermostates

[psal2]

I have radiant ceiling heat (nice and toasty and love it). Okay, got my first two winter electric bills (still nice and toasty but not loving it as much...ouch, my wallet hurts).

All the rooms have knob mechanical controls (and old at that). We barely are turning them on and some rooms get very warm and others not so warm.

I am looking to replace the knobs with automatic programmable thermostates to adjust temp when not home. Any suggestion that won't kill the wallet...remember, it is still hurting from the bills)?

Also, is there a proper way to set temp and do you leave it alone, program it to adjust or does this cause it to use more energy? As I am new to this type of heat and switching to heat pump is not an option at this time, I am trying to find the most economical way of heating the house (approx 1750sf).

Thanks,
Pete

[dougm]

Pete, There are many "line voltage" setback thermostats available and, guessing that these heaters are all set up on line voltage, any one will work. Don't know what you consider cheap, but I'm seeing prices upwards of $60 each. This type of heat is designed to respond fairly quickly to temperature changes and be turned up and down as needed. Set unused rooms low and used rooms at a comfortable setting. Its sounds like you have an old system that might benefit from a good going over by a pro. if you can find one that won't kill your already hurting wallet. In some of the rooms it also sounds like the thermostats aren't functioning properly. Even replacing these with properly functioning manual thermostats may help with the next bill.

Doug M.

[scottg]

Line voltage thermostats and radiant heat are not fast acting and I question the possibility of doing a setback. I normally set these and come back in a couple of hours to see if I need to re adjust. I guess you could try to manually set back each thermostat and ckeck it out over the weekend. But just been my experience that they take too long to get the room warm and too long to get the room cool.

[Ed Imeduc]

That radiant ceiling is about the same that we tell people with the heat pumps . Set it and let it alone. Also think about it. If you set one room down low and are in the other room with it set high in there. The walls of that room dont have any insulation in them .Like the outside walls do. So now you are trying to heat a room that has very cold walls around it. Have found over the years that it dont save anything trying to close down a room in the home to save heat $$$$.

ED ;)

[psal2]

Probably true. We are still learning the system and hopefully will learn it before it breaks the bank.