Considering ThermGuard, but not sure I need it...?

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abrucerd

abrucerd

Member
Aug 22, 2007
221
Central MA
The last 3 years, I've had my pellet stove heating my house 90% of the time, and using my oil furnace/water base-board heaters if needed. Never had an issue with frozen pipes (thank god), even though my pipes are in in my cold basement (pipes themselves are insulated), close to external walls.

During this time, I also had an oil-fired hot water heater... so my furnace was keeping my showers nice and warm for me. But in August, I replaced the oil fed hot water heater, with an electric (actually, I went with the GE GeoSpring Hybrid... which is very cool if anyone wants info on it).

My question is has my situation changed enough that I should consider taking preventative measures for my pipes such as the ThermGuard?

And admittedly, this comes from not fully understanding how these appliances work, so be kind in your answers :)

I guess I'm wondering if the oil furnace previously kicking on periodically to heat the hot water had any effect on the baseboard heaters... did that circulate the water for the baseboards while it was heating the water, and do I need to compensate for that now that my furnace won't be in use on a regular basis?


Thanks!
 
Guess it depends on how cold your basement gets without the oil burner going.
Seems unlikely that a full basement would get that cold. I'd be more
concerned with any pipes that run up to the second floor through an exterior wall.

I'd be interested in hearing about the GeoSpring.
 
So the boiler does not heat any of your hot water, correct?

How deep is the basement( is it a full or a little higher than a crawl space?) and how close are the heating pipes to the outside walls?


If "no" is the answer in the first question, and you have a shallow basement, then I would use a Them-Guard.

Even if you have a deeper basement, and don't usually visit it; i.e. laundry down there, I would also invest in a Them-Guard - just for a piece of mind.
 
Years ago we had a Wood stove in our living room and one cold snowy December we decided to fire It up. We were watching TV that night and heard a loud CRACK. I thought It was a tree limb breaking and didn't pay It much thought. In the morning my young son woke me to say there wasn't any heat in the kitchen or bathroom. I went to the cellar and you guessed It A frozen pipe. The wind was blowing from the west and found a spot where the house foundation had settled and the pipe behind It had a joint that I missed insulating. A $500.00 Lesson. We now burn pellets and Our first year I would manually turn the thermostat up a few times to circulate the water. Last year I put In the
Thermoguard and I will tell you In my opinion It Is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I run 2 zones and have one on each.My son Is installing a pellet stove and I plan to give him one also
 
I was one of the first on the forum to install a ThermGuard in my house, and I agree w/ N.H. Jim....great product that works exactly as advertised. If you have ANY concern that a pipe might freeze (while at work, or away on vacation, etc, etc), put one in. They have a shut off switch so you can turn it off if you know it won't be needed for a while. As soon as you turn it back on, the original settings you program in it are still there.
 
The change from the oil fired hot water to the electric shouldn't make a real difference in your situation. The Thermguard is a great idea and a perfect solution if you're worried about the pipes freezing.
Mike -

p.s. I think he may still offer a discount if you tell him you're a member here?
 
Dr_Drum said:
The change from the oil fired hot water to the electric shouldn't make a real difference in your situation. The Thermguard is a great idea and a perfect solution if you're worried about the pipes freezing.
Mike -

p.s. I think he may still offer a discount if you tell him you're a member here?
Click to expand...

Yes. 10% I think. www.bearmountaindesign.com

Just enter 101657512 in the voucher/discount code field to receive your discount. There is FREE shipping to within the USA.
 
I like the idea of the ThermGuard but have 3 baseboard hot water heating zones, 2 on the first floor and 1 on the second floor. Reading the instructions on the ThermGuard you need, they recommend, one for each thermostat/zone. Has any one used just one ThermGuard on multiple zones and hooked it up using a relay or diodes to prevent the different zones from back feeding each other. I have the Taco 6 Zone Switching Relay w/Priority & 3 Powerports, SR506EXP, and have 3 of the zones for heating and 1 for the indirect hot water heater.
I could use the Taco Universal Timer/Pump Exercise Plug-In Card PC610 which will run all the circulates and just plugs into the EXP relays. The down side to the Taco card is you can't turn it off and the adjustment range is limited. The ThermGuard has more run time adjustments, better control of the off cycle times and you can turn it off when not needed.
 
FordMastertech said:
I like the idea of the ThermGuard but have 3 baseboard hot water heating zones, 2 on the first floor and 1 on the second floor. Reading the instructions on the ThermGuard you need, they recommend, one for each thermostat/zone. Has any one used just one ThermGuard on multiple zones and hooked it up using a relay or diodes to prevent the different zones from back feeding each other. I have the Taco 6 Zone Switching Relay w/Priority & 3 Powerports, SR506EXP, and have 3 of the zones for heating and 1 for the indirect hot water heater.
I could use the Taco Universal Timer/Pump Exercise Plug-In Card PC610 which will run all the circulates and just plugs into the EXP relays. The down side to the Taco card is you can't turn it off and the adjustment range is limited. The ThermGuard has more run time adjustments, better control of the off cycle times and you can turn it off when not needed.
Click to expand...

Contact the designer/seller of the ThermGuard by PM....he is a member on the forum (John....forum name "bridgerman"). I'm sure he can tell you if you can do what you're suggesting or not, or maybe has another way to do it w/ 1 unit.
 
imacman said:
FordMastertech said:
I like the idea of the ThermGuard but have 3 baseboard hot water heating zones, 2 on the first floor and 1 on the second floor. Reading the instructions on the ThermGuard you need, they recommend, one for each thermostat/zone. Has any one used just one ThermGuard on multiple zones and hooked it up using a relay or diodes to prevent the different zones from back feeding each other. I have the Taco 6 Zone Switching Relay w/Priority & 3 Powerports, SR506EXP, and have 3 of the zones for heating and 1 for the indirect hot water heater.
I could use the Taco Universal Timer/Pump Exercise Plug-In Card PC610 which will run all the circulates and just plugs into the EXP relays. The down side to the Taco card is you can't turn it off and the adjustment range is limited. The ThermGuard has more run time adjustments, better control of the off cycle times and you can turn it off when not needed.
Click to expand...

Contact the designer/seller of the ThermGuard by PM....he is a member on the forum (John....forum name "bridgerman"). I'm sure he can tell you if you can do what you're suggesting or not, or maybe has another way to do it w/ 1 unit.
Click to expand...

I found this post about multiple zones using the ThermGuard.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37058/#398835
 
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