Taking Control of Your Thermostat

Once in a while I come across a new product that solves a problem so elegantly that I just have to ask myself, why didn’t think of this before? It’s been very cold recently in the East Coast and when it gets very cold, my house’s gas heating system goes completely nuts. If I set the thermostat desired temperature to 70 degrees, the temperature in the bedroom will be in the roasting 80’s. The temperature differential depends how how cold it is outside, so I can’t just simply set the thermostat to a specific offset and forget either. I constantly need to get up in the middle of the night to adjust the thermostat downstairs when it gets cold outside. Why do I have to do this? I guess nobody told my house that we are in the 21st century.

So, the first thing I thought of is a remote control for the thermostat. Well, no surprise, they do make them. Apparently, my problem is fairly common for two-story homes with a single HVAC system. This Lux TX9000RF Programmable Thermostat with Remote looked very promising to me. A product like this would allow adjusting the thermostat temperature from anywhere in the house.

That still requires some work however. Hmm… what if there is a thermostat that can read the current temperature from a remote sensor? Bingo: they make those too. There are not many to be found, and after searching around, I decided to go for the  Honeywell YTHX9321R5003 Prestige HD Thermostat Kit and I’ve been very happy with the result so far. This kit is expensive, but very well made and it works as advertised. It also looks very nice. The kit includes the thermostat, a remote control/sensor, and an outdoor sensor. This kit is in Honeywell Pro Install line, which means it’s sold mainly through HVAC contractors and installers. I found the installation process only slightly more complicated than a regular programmable thermostat. The only thing you need to watch out for is that this thermostat requires a 24vac Common wire (commonly black in color), which may not be available in your setup. If that is the case, then you will need to run/fish a new wire from your furnace – a pretty big job.

Now with this cool new gadget hooked up and everything humming, all I have to do is bring the remote with me to the bedroom and push the button on it named “Read temp from this device” and I am set for the night. If I ever want to tweak the temperature for some reason, I can do it right there with the remote. If only everything else was this easy!