Best thermostat I've found

[Nofossil]

I'm curious about what thermostats people are using. I also though I'd share the best one that I've found in my own research - the Carrier Debonair 33cs071. I got mine off of eBay. It's a commercial thermostat with a bunch of great features:

1) It runs off of the 24Vac supplied by the furnace controller, so it doesn't need batteries.
2) The deadband - the difference between turn-on and turn-off - is programmable.
3) It has the ability to be externally set back. I use that to set all the the thermostats back when I'm heating with oil.
4) It has two-stage outputs - think of it as 'need heat' and 'really need heat'. I use that to control changeover to backup oil heat.
5) To limit cycling of the boiler, valves, and pump, they are programmable to limit the number of cycles per hour.
6) You can easily request a temporary override of the set temperature, after which it goes back to normal.

For the gadget minded, I don't think it gets much better.

 

[titan]

These are my favourite-they'll operate just about any hvac equipment.Also more user-friendly than most.

 

[velvetfoot]

"It has the ability to be externally set back."
How does that work? Another controller that interfaces with a phone line? Web?

 

[Nofossil]

"It has the ability to be externally set back."
How does that work? Another controller that interfaces with a phone line? Web?

It has a pair of contacts that cause it to go into setback if the contacts are closed. If you had a bunch of these, you could connect them all to a single switch, aquastat, timer, or (as in my case) a relay that controls all of them together.

Higher end thermostats designed for residential use often have a time-based setback mode. I didn't want that because I want to heat the house to a higher temperature if I have a fire going, regardless of the time of day. My relay causes them to go off of setback any time the wood boiler or heat storage tank is hot.

 

[Nofossil]

These are my favourite-they'll operate just about any hvac equipment.Also more user-friendly than most.

Thanks. I'm checking out the spec PDFs right now. I like the touch screen.

 

[begreen]

I like White-Rodgers also. I also like the LUX line. They are affordable, easy to use and seem to stand up well. They do use batteries (AA), but last a long time. I don't like the current generation of Honeywell thermostats like on our heatpump. It's full featured but not user friendly.


http://www.luxproducts.com/thermostats/hp2110.htm - heatpump (2 stage heat)
http://www.luxproducts.com/instructionmanuals.htm