In floor heating

[NewDad]

We Just moved into a house this past year and getting ready to turn on the in floor heating. It runs off a separate hot water tank and relay pump I believe. The thermostat is located in the furnace room so the home inspector mentioned we should move it to the family room to get a better temp reading. I was looking at it today and it’s old as #### and the temp reading dial hasn’t moved an inch even when the temp has obviously gotten warmer. Here’s a similar version mine just doesn’t have the options on the side of the thermostat but everything else looks the same as this one (two wire) https://diy.stackexchange.com/questi...l-programmable

Any suggestions on a new thermostat?

[redforever]

Originally Posted by NewDad

We Just moved into a house this past year and getting ready to turn on the in floor heating. It runs off a separate hot water tank and relay pump I believe. The thermostat is located in the furnace room so the home inspector mentioned we should move it to the family room to get a better temp reading. I was looking at it today and it’s old as #### and the temp reading dial hasn’t moved an inch even when the temp has obviously gotten warmer. Here’s a similar version mine just doesn’t have the options on the side of the thermostat but everything else looks the same as this one (two wire) https://diy.stackexchange.com/questi...l-programmable

Any suggestions on a new thermostat?

I don't know anything about thermostats but for in-floor heating, I always use Remi's Mechanical. Sean has done all my work.

[bagofpucks]

We have a similar set up and have been in our house for 5 years. I believe ours actually has three sensors; one for outside, one for the slab and one for the temperature in the basement and then uses some sort of formula to determine when to come on. We also have three “normal” vents in the basement.

What we have learned is they are just finicky systems and you need to monitor and make slight changes regularly. It wasn’t a big deal until our daughter was born and her room is down there. I just set up a temperature sensor in her room and monitor it and make changes as required. Funny enough, we actually had some issues in the summer as the AC would cool the house down too much and then the in floor heat would kick on. Took me far longer than I’d like to admit to figure out that was the problem.

I’ll be following this thread to see if you find any solutions, as I would certainly rather have a normal thermostat to control it.

[chedder]

I have a thermostat in the main living area of basement. Also have 6 different zones but didn't bother setting them up with their own thermostats. I just set the one to 21 degrees same as main floor forced air thermostat. Since basement without in floor on sits about a degree or 2 colder the in floor just has to make up the difference. Seems to work well and kids are comfortable.

[chedder]

Sorry, to answer your question I just have a basic digital, non programmable thermostat that is meant for in floor heating. Can't see what brand it is. Didn't think programmable was necessary as the temp changes are slow with this type of heating and don't think you'll save any money programming all kinds of temperature variations.

Edit: I think this is the one I have.

[speede5]

I built a system for my garage years ago and it was pretty basic, the thermostat controlled the pump and had to be 220, which is the same one you would use for baseboard haters.

There are so many ways to build these systems though I wouldn't tell you to buy anything without having someone look at your systems design first.

[opendoor]

If it runs off a relay, it's probably a 2-wire 24V setup. I had in-floor heating with a thermostat that looked like that and that's what it was. If that's what you have, you'll need a 24V thermostat that's battery powered (since 2-wire setups don't have constant power to the thermostat). I think I used this one to replace it and it worked fine:


https://www.amazon.ca/Honeywell-RTH2...RRAS01W8WH1GCN