ThermGuard wins prestigious award at the hearth show

[bridgerman]

Hey folks,

I just wanted to say thanks to all the folks who have purchased ThermGuards this season and to let you know that ThermGuard won an award at the Hearth show for the most innovative hearth accessory of the year in 2009.

This is a Vesta award given by Hearth and Home magazine. They work in conjuction with the Hearth, Patio and Barbeque show that was just held in Reno.

The Problem: Homes with pellet or wood stoves/inserts can have their heating pipes freeze since the house is kept warm by the stove; the boiler seldom circulates hot water. Homes can also have the heat trapped in the room with the stove and the back reaches of the house are cold.

How ThermGuard can help: ThermGuard is a programmable timer that attaches to the home’s thermostat. It is used to circulate water through the heating pipes periodically to keep them from freezing. ThermGuard also increases the efficiency of these stoves in homes with forced air heating by periodically turning on just the furnace fan to even out the temperature in the whole house.

For those interested, please check out the web site: www.bearmountaindesign.com

Cheers,
John

 

[Jags]

Congrats to ThermGuard. Sounds like a neat and useful product.

 

[BrotherBart]

Congrats. And thanks for being a hearth.com sponsor.

 

[bridgerman]

ok so does gizmo fire up the whole system or does it turn the blower or circulator pump on ? as per programmed

ThermGuard attaches to the fan switch on the thermostat. Sooo....in that case, it just fires up the blower, not the whole system. If you attach the ThermGuard to the thermostat in a system with a boiler, the only two leads available turn on both the circulator pump and the boiler. There is not much energy usage with the boiler since is would only be a couple of minutes every few hours.

I did have some discussions regarding just running the circulator pump, but the boiler would have to be turned off to prevent the use of heating oil or gas. I also submitted a schematic that would allow the circulator to run without the boiler, but you would have to splice into the 110V AC signal powering the circulator. In that design, either the boiler or ThermGuard could run the circulator pump.

I think it is best to not mess with the system and just attach the ThermGuard to the thermostat and have it run the boiler for a couple of minutes every few hours.

Cheers,
John

 

[johnn]

bridgerman: Didnt you give advice to someone interested in moving to Montana, recently? This product is your new line of work? I remember reading up on bearmountain site. Congrats on the reward. I put a footnote in my DIY folder on the product,,, contact you someday when I get to that stage.

 

[bridgerman]

bridgerman: Didnt you give advice to someone interested in moving to Montana, recently? This product is your new line of work? I remember reading up on bearmountain site. Congrats on the reward. I put a footnote in my DIY folder on the product,,, contact you someday when I get to that stage.

I did give some advice on moving to Montana. I love it here. I heat my house with wood that I harvest from my property. We had a foot of snow yesterday and I have a cracklin' fire going right now. ThermGuard is one of the products I make. You have to have a couple of irons in the fire at all times. Check out: (broken link removed)

It is a line of hand-crafted products my wife and I design and make. We are in over 450 galleries and museums throughout the country. We are also in Sundance catalog....Robert Redfords catalog of hand-made products.

Cheers,
John

 

[firefighterjake]

Congratulations on the award.

 

[PeteD]

It seems that one of these could be used to protect multiple baseboard zones by wiring each zone through the unit in parallel in the mechanical room, right? It must just complete the circuit based on the program. The FAQs on the website seem to suggest one unit per zone...but each zone could be fired up on the same program.

From website FAQs:
"I have more than one temperature zone in my hot-water heated home, how many ThermGuard units do I need?

One ThermGuard unit should be used for each zone which has heating pipes which extend to the outside walls of your home. Certainly, one should be used for any heating pipes that run through garages or attics."

Pete

 

[webbie]

I saw the thermguard booth at the show - I have a pic somewhere....It was funny because it had in large print all the quotes from Hearth.com members....
:lol:

 

[webbie]

To those of you whose posts were used. Please send John your address so he can send you a check.
We have already sicked our copyright attorney on him and won an award for 10% of future sales.

Now I can sit back and get ready for the summer.
:cheese:

 

[bridgerman]

To those of you whose posts were used. Please send John your address so he can send you a check.
We have already sicked our copyright attorney on him and won an award for 10% of future sales.

Now I can sit back and get ready for the summer.
:cheese:

Yikes!

I guess I better lay low for a while. I'll hole up somewhere the attorneys will never find me. Not too hard in Montana.

Thanks to all for your great comments and observations. I love this forum.

It was nice to meet you at the show Craig. I hope your booth brought you some business.

Cheers,
John

 

[bridgerman]

It seems that one of these could be used to protect multiple baseboard zones by wiring each zone through the unit in parallel in the mechanical room, right? It must just complete the circuit based on the program. The FAQs on the website seem to suggest one unit per zone...but each zone could be fired up on the same program.

From website FAQs:
"I have more than one temperature zone in my hot-water heated home, how many ThermGuard units do I need?

One ThermGuard unit should be used for each zone which has heating pipes which extend to the outside walls of your home. Certainly, one should be used for any heating pipes that run through garages or attics."

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your question.

You really can't tie the heat zones in parallel since doing so, would turn on all the zones when one thermostat called for heat. Usually you have separate zones for a reason. I have designed a little box that goes into the mechanical room with 4 relay closures controlled by one ThermGuard. Using this box, you can turn on all the zones at the same time but still keep them independent from the perspective of the thermostats. This box is handy not only for homes with multiple zones but also for apartments. Landlords can make sure the pipes won't freeze when tenents are using pellet or wood stoves to cut back on their energy bills.

For those who are electrically handy, I can send the schematics of the box and you an build it yourself.

John

 

[PeteD]

It seems that one of these could be used to protect multiple baseboard zones by wiring each zone through the unit in parallel in the mechanical room, right? It must just complete the circuit based on the program. The FAQs on the website seem to suggest one unit per zone...but each zone could be fired up on the same program.

From website FAQs:
"I have more than one temperature zone in my hot-water heated home, how many ThermGuard units do I need?

One ThermGuard unit should be used for each zone which has heating pipes which extend to the outside walls of your home. Certainly, one should be used for any heating pipes that run through garages or attics."

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your question.

You really can't tie the heat zones in parallel since doing so, would turn on all the zones when one thermostat called for heat. Usually you have separate zones for a reason. I have designed a little box that goes into the mechanical room with 4 relay closures controlled by one ThermGuard. Using this box, you can turn on all the zones at the same time but still keep them independent from the perspective of the thermostats. This box is handy not only for homes with multiple zones but also for apartments. Landlords can make sure the pipes won't freeze when tenents are using pellet or wood stoves to cut back on their energy bills.

For those who are electrically handy, I can send the schematics of the box and you an build it yourself.

John

Thanks for the response John. I realize they would all come on at once, but for anti-freezing use when heating with wood, that could work fine for some.

I would be interested in the schematics. I will send you a PM.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[bridgerman]

Hi Pete,

I figured it might be of interest to some other folks as well, so I will just post the schematic here.

Cheers,
John

 

[yanksforever]

Sounds like a great product...Thanks!

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Love the idea of it, but I have three thermostats - I would definitely prefer to have a box that sits near my boiler and just turns the three circulation pumps on. I know that means messing with 110V instead of low voltage, but that does not concern me.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

Hi Pete,

I figured it might be of interest to some other folks as well, so I will just post the schematic here.

Cheers,
John

Could you not just pull the 24v straight from the leads going to the thermostats?

 

[bridgerman]

Hi Pete,

I figured it might be of interest to some other folks as well, so I will just post the schematic here.

Cheers,
John

Could you not just pull the 24v straight from the leads going to the thermostats?

Hi CarbonNeutral,

You could get the 24V right out of your existing transformer. It is really only a matter of the transformer having enough suds to drive another relay. ThermGuard and a relay become a pretty inexpensive solution for the rather nasty problem of frozen pipes. I had a guy put this solution into some rental units. The tenant's would turn off their thermostats and just run their wood or pellet stoves. When the pipes froze, it became his problem. Now with ThermGuard in the mechanical room, the thermostats turn on hot water for the pipes regardless of the tenant's setting.

Please don't hesitate to ask any other questions.

Cheers,
John