Thermostat for On/Off WITHOUT Temperature?

[jcleary47]

Hello,

I have a Regency Greenfire GF55 and I wanted to hook up a thermostat to it to have it turn on at a certain time and turn off at a certain time during the day.

I picked up a compatible thermostat, but stupidly, I assumed I could use the thermostat to turn the stove on/off based on time alone without a temperature setting.

Is there any way I can either use the thermostat this way, or is there something else I can get to get it to function this way?

The reason being is I don't want to run thermostat wiring across the hearth pad into the wall or into the basement up into the wall. I was planning on just having the thermostat rest inside somewhere and act as a timer...

 

[jcleary47]

Also, I called the place I bought it and he thought a millivolt electrical timer might work...I just want to make sure that's the case before I go hooking something up to it...

 

[CTguy9230]

why not just get a plug in timer

 

[Thomas Anderson]

Just set the "off" time to as cold as the thermostat goes and set the "on" time to as hot as it goes. Most likely, neither temp will ever be reached, so it will go on and off by time alone.

 

[DexterDay]

Just set the "off" time to as cold as the thermostat goes and set the "on" time to as hot as it goes. Most likely, neither temp will ever be reached, so it will go on and off by time alone.

Yep... Thats exactly what I was thinking. Or get a multi point that does temp and time at several points?

Or (kinda the same). Set the On time to desired temp (at desired time) and the off temp (coolest) to a set time

My Hunter "Touch Screen" t-stat has 4 different temps and times. I set it to 70° at 10pm, 73° at 5am, 68° at 9am, and 73° at 3pm.

But for your application, you could have it kick on and off with Hi/Low temps. (Your times will vary) On at 6am (90° set point wont be reached) and then at 8am (set to 45°) at 2pm it kicks on (90° set point) then you can control when your home by setting temp on t-stat, then at 11pm its programmed for 45° again (or off) . So on from 6am-8am and off till 2pm, then it turns on and you can manully take over, then at 11pm its programmed to kick off (or a really cold set point).

Again, I dont know how many or what times you want, but you can get close with a good progremmable stat

 

[jcleary47]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to hook up the thermostat today and play around with it to see if I can get it working.

 

[jtakeman]

You can control the thermostat contacts with a common switch. You might be able to rig a relay into the thermostat circuit and power the relay with a timer.

I have used a relay in the thermostat circuit to break it when power is lost on a battery backup(UPS). I know that part works, So it should be possible. But the thermostat is a cheaper solution IMHO!

 

[smwilliamson]

Any millivolt programmable tstat ought to work

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I had the GF-55's cousin the Enviro Meridian. Same stove just different color and grillwork. The control panel will operate on a T-Stat in Auto-On/Off mode for the shoulder seasons so the stove will completely shut down on warm days. In this mode setting to prevent short cycling, the stove will run for 30 mins on low fire when the T-Stat is satisfied before shutting down. The other T-Stat mode is Auto-Hi/Lo for the cold winter months so the stove will run on the lowest heat setting when it is a little warmer during the day. Yes, any millivolt T-Stat will work but I prefer the LUX LTS1500U that can be purchased from Lowes. This T-Stat is a milli-volt T-Stat that will run in all manual mode or Programmable mode so you can set the on/off times. It also has the Swing Settings of 1-9 for a pellet stove to prevent short cycling. The only drawback is that with the swing setting combined with the 30 min lo fire in Auto-On/Off mode may raise the room temp more than you like. However the good news is you can adjust the T-Stat settings. I called Enviro to see if the 30 min lo fire before shutdown could be eliminated. They said no but keep your eyes peeled for their new re-designed control panel with built-in WiFi currently in the design stage!