Is there any such thing?

[cac4]

I'm sure my new pellet stove will heat the first floor of my house without any problem...but what about the second floor? (bedrooms). The main heating plant in the house is an oil fired forced hot air furnace. There is only one "zone". I heat "everything", or "nothing". So, when its really cold, and maybe the pellet stove isn't quite keeping the upstairs warm enough, I can "supplement" with the furnace...but I don't want it pumping hot air to the first floor. Ok...well, there are dampers in the ducts; I can shut down the air flow to the first floor registers, and let it all (or mostly) go up to the bedrooms, where its needed. But: the thermostat for the whole house is on the first floor. running a new wire to the second floor would be difficult. So I'm wondering...is there such a thing as a wireless-remote thermostat that can be put upstairs, that would call back to some sort of switch module that would replace the existing thermostat, attached to the existing wire?
I've seen people talk about "remotes" for their stoves, but I'm not sure that would do the same sort of thing...

 

[kinsmanstoves]

To save you money I would shut the down stairs vents and turn the thermostat up a few more degrees and cycle this a few times a day. You can also run the blower in the furnace on "fan only". This will cycle air into the cold air returns and push it through the house. I would let the furnace run like this a few hours a day to cycle the air. You would be surprised at the difference in the upstairs temp as this is going on. Let it run for a while and not just 5-10 minutes at a cycle. Let the duct heat up. This also uses your filter system in the furnace and cleans the air.

Eric

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

There are wireless thermostats.

Running wires is not all that hard, though. Just for one example, there's usually a chase next to the chimney, allowing the wire to get up from the basement to the attic, which then allows you to run it down into the second-floor wall, from above. There are many other techniques, depending upon the particular house.

Having the two thermostats also opens up the possibility of actually zoning the system with electric or pneumatic dampers, so you don't have to manually open/close them all the time.

Joe

 

[cac4]

what chimney?

:cheese:

actually, I did put a 2" pvc pipe in, from the basement to the attic, for such situations. but its still a PITA.

I don't think it was crazy for the builder to cheap-out on the lack of zoning, as the house is small...(1800 by outside dimensions, but if you measure the actual interior space, its more like 1600), we were both working all day at the time, etc, etc. I don't see ever adding it in the future, either. I was just thinkin...it "might" be a little chilly upstairs in the coldest weather, although, others with similarly sized, well-insulated houses say its not a problem. (I like it cool at night...in the winter, I turn it down to 62 for sleeping, and its always been a little bit cooler in my bedroom than the rest of the house, anyway, as its the furthest away from the furnace.).

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

I don't think it was crazy for the builder to cheap-out on the lack of zoning, as the house is small...(1800 by outside dimensions, but if you measure the actual interior space, its more like 1600), we were both working all day at the time, etc, etc. I don't see ever adding it in the future, either. I was just thinkin...it "might" be a little chilly upstairs in the coldest weather, although, others with similarly sized, well-insulated houses say its not a problem. (I like it cool at night...in the winter, I turn it down to 62 for sleeping, and its always been a little bit cooler in my bedroom than the rest of the house, anyway, as its the furthest away from the furnace.).

Zoning saves fuel, by letting you turn down areas that you are not using.

Just an option, anyway.

Joe