Dual thermostats for furnace?

I heat with coal burned in a stove in my livingroom from mid fall to early spring. I also have an oil fired furnace that delivers hot air to the basement and to the upstairs living area of my one story ranch house via ductwork and registers. The furnace is controled by one thermostat located upstairs.
Some of the basement registers can be closed and all of the upstairs registers can be closed. None of the registers close off all of the air flow due to the design and construction of these units. Not that they are defective, just the normal, crude in floor registers.

What I would like to do is use my upstairs thermostat to control the furnace from early spring to mid fall. At those times of the year I would like to shut off all basement registers so that no heat is delivered to the basement, and open all of the upstairs registers so that all of the heat is delivered upstairs.

In the mid fall to early spring heating season when I am heating with my upstairs coal stove, I would like to have a basement thermostat control the furnace. At this time of year I would like to close off the heat going to the upstairs and have it all exit the registers in the basement.

I need help in designing thermostat controls and heat duct regulating. I have some thoughts and many questions about how to best go about this.

I would like to have two thermostats located upstairs. One regular thermostat like I have now, and one that senses and displays the basement temperature but can be read and set from upstairs.

Question: Would using two thermostats require an A-B switch to manualy switch from the upstairs thermostat to the basement thermostat, or would I just turn one thermostat off and the other to the desired temp.?

If registers are made that close off nearly all of the air flow when desired are available, that would probably cheaper for me than completely reconstructing the ductwork near the furnace to occomodate splitting the ductwork into two zones (upstairs and basement) and putting some kind of single shut off in each zone ductwork. However I would do whatever I need to do to make the system most effective.

Question: What devises are available to accomplish my goal of being able to divert heat to only basement or only upstairs or both?

Question: Are there solutions to my goal of heating just upstairs or just basement seasonaly that I have not considered?

I consider myself to be an advanced do-it-yourselfer with things mechanical and electrical, but have very limited experience with oil furnaces and their controls.

Your input, instructions, or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I like to use KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.

Make yourself something to block off the registers. Maybe a piece of foam board, maybe a piece of tape over the registers, maybe, clear plastic, whatever would work. Then whenever you want to make the change, spend 1/2 hour removing the register covers to install the covers for either zone.

Get yourself a remote monitoring temperature probe system, like an indoor/outdoor reading unit. Mount the outdoor sensor in the basement. Mount the indoor sensing unit upstairs by your thermostat.

Done !!!!!




Rick

Yo Grizz, there has got to be a more simplistis way to achieve what your looking for. At least I hope so, cause if not, you're way out of this old farmers knowledge area.I think Rick hit on some alternatives. I had some magnetic truck door advertising thingy's & cut them to fit some registers real nicely-my registers are real old & metal-hell, I even painted them a nice earth tone--Dude, me thinks your having too much time on your hands. Get a big jig-saw puzzle to get you through the winter. Later my friend

Grizzly2,

Sure it could be done w/ 2 stats. The one you have now and another wired in parallel to first one (at oil furnace) that has a remote thermistor w/ cable long enough to reach the area wanted to be sensed/controlled.

This was posted recently by member *creek44* and would do the job you desire...

Anyone remotely monitoring boiler temp, etc.

and probably a conventional T'stat could be found w/ remote capabilities also.

Rick 386 wrote:Make yourself something to block off the registers. Maybe a piece of foam board, maybe a piece of tape over the registers, maybe, clear plastic, whatever would work. Then whenever you want to make the change, spend 1/2 hour removing the register covers to install the covers for either zone.

That sounds like a plan to me. Wire an el-cheapo thermostat up in the basement (parallel with the existing one upstairs), and block off the upstairs registers with something simple.

Perhaps the "SAMAPSA" approach should be used.... Spend as much as possible smart ass! Rip the entire hot air system out, install a beauty of a boiler and if you have an eleven room house, put in eleven thermostats & eleven zone valves. Job done & it barely cost $15k!

*sigh* OK... the magnetic duct covers and a remote reading thermostat should work just fine.

Now I guess we're getting an idea just how much money you are saving with that new solar set up, throwing numbers like that around in public.

How about using in duct booster fans at some of the registers, and power them for the off season by the 2nd thermostat and don't run the squirl cage fan in the duct when they are on. Or do a stoker boiler and zone your needs.

AA, how noisey would that be in a small house?

Freddy wrote:Perhaps the "SAMAPSA" approach should be used.... Spend as much as possible smart ass! Rip the entire hot air system out, install a beauty of a boiler and if you have an eleven room house, put in eleven thermostats & eleven zone valves. Job done & it barely cost $15k!

*sigh* OK... the magnetic duct covers and a remote reading thermostat should work just fine.

Perfect Freddy, SAMPSA is definately the approach I well take.

Actually, I gather the consenses is that I am trying to make a big project where small modifications will do just fine. I will go with bocking the registers. I like Freetown Fred's idea of using the flexible magnetic sign material. Rob says mount a cheap thermostate in the basement. Wire in parallel.

Thanks for all the ideas. Boiled down it realy will be a very simple job to accomplish my goal.

You can easily use the two thermostat with your furnace. Which thermostat is in cooler area will produce the heat for heating home. You shouldn't make closer to each other.Second thermostat is used just for the overheat the area of the house. The best solution for your setup would be to get the system zoned.

Overland Park heating and cooling | heating and cooling Olathe

Well, there is good news and there is bad news..

The good news is that a single T-stat with two remote sensors is available, they aren't cheap and are a PIA to program.

The bad news is that your duct system may not carry enough air if you have all of the upstairs registers turned off. I'm making the assumption that you have more registers on the first floor that in the basement, and if that is the case, you end up with the furnace burner cycling on the high limit switch is bad juju.

Have you considered opening all the registers and just running the blower? the temps will still be somewhat stratified but it is a very simple and cheap solution to evening out your temps.

Ops