I'm cold.

November 19, 2007 10:16 AM

I'm too stupid to program the heater in my house.

I have your typical 1970's house with a typical 1970's heater. I've never been able to get it to maintain a comfortable temperature during the winter. I think I'm confused about how the set points work. "Wait, it's set for 69 does that mean the house will have to get to 68 for the heater to come on??? It's 40 degrees outside right now!".

I'm not interested in programming it for daily use. I just want to walk up to it and hit arrow buttons until it displays a number I like and then make it make my house go to that temp.

I know the heater works because sometimes, due to some preset program, it will come on and heat.

The manual says, in the troubleshooting section, if the heat does not come on, and "If temperature setting is higher than current temperature, and display says HEAT ON, contact your heating and air conditioning contractor." This statement accurately describes my current situation. Is there something I can do or do I have to shell out multiple $$$100's for a service call?

Heater is a Honeywell Chronotherm 3.

posted by vito90 to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I've used this heater and had no problem. You should be able to set a temp and the house go there. I think even if a program were stored it would over right until the next setting (ie timed program) were to occur.

you may also want to make sure it is set in manual mode BUT due to cost I'd set up a program.

Are you in a unit - you may want to go next door and have them come over to give you a crash course.

email's in profile - stay warm!
posted by doorsfan at 10:28 AM on November 19, 2007

Well, here's the manual. Maybe that will help.
posted by Floydd at 10:29 AM on November 19, 2007

When it's set for 69, that means that the furnace will switch on until the thermostat (what you refer to as a heater) registers 69 degrees inside the house, it will turn off. In other words, it should keep your house a constant 69 degrees.

Your thermostat is most likely set to turn your furnace on and off according to some sort of program. For instance, it might set the temperature up to 69 when you wake up, then back down to a lower temperature when you go to sleep.

If this is all too confusing, you might want to operate it in manual mode, where you can walk up to is and hit the arrow buttons as you'd like. On page 23 of your users' guide there should be a page titled "operating the thermostat manually". It says that you should press and release the button labeled "HOLD TEMP", then use the "WARMER" and "COOLER" buttons to adjust the temperature to where you are comfortable.
posted by SteveInMaine at 10:32 AM on November 19, 2007

Duh. Re-reading the question I see you have the manual.

Here's a troubleshooting guide from Honeywell.
Here's another troubleshooting discussion.
posted by Floydd at 10:36 AM on November 19, 2007

I had a heating system do this to me also. Heat in the house never matched what the thermostat said. Turned out it wasn't the thermostat, it was something in the furnace. When I removed the service panel on the furnace I found a controller box and a handy 'reset' switch. I pressed the button, held it for a few seconds and released and the furnace ran fine for a few weeks. Then I had to reset it again. Never fixed it permanently, but temporarily.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 11:11 AM on November 19, 2007

You can replace your thermostat control panel very easily. Seriously, I'm not at all mechanically inclined, but I was able to remove my old one and replace it in about 30 minutes. You'll need to match colored wires to labelled connectors. It really is as easy as red wire to red connector, green wire to green connector.
The reason I suggest this is that the new control panels are all fancy LCD touch screen and soooooo much easier to figure out than the old switches. The power you'll save by programming it to run cooler in the day when you're out of the house will easily pay for the new unit.
posted by Eddie Mars at 2:04 PM on November 19, 2007