Digital Thermostat for Electric Baseboards

[mpk]

Hello,

I am replacing the electric baseboard heaters in our daughter's bedroom. My wife also wants me to replace the thermostat; it is an old fashioned dial model. She wants me to install a digital model which is obviously more convenient & probably more efficient.

I was at Lowes and it didn't look like the models they carried were compatible for electric baseboard heaters. I asked an associate, and he said they didn't carry them & was not sure if they made digital thermostats that worked with the electric baseboard heaters. Is this true? I would love to get rid of the old, clunky temp controls in some of the rooms. Thanks for any websites, links or info!

[kactuskid]

Here's a few links for you. Make sure you buy the type appropriate for your particular heaters.

http://www.smarthome.com/300603.html

http://www.store.yahoo.com/air-n-water/proghontherp.html

[mpk]

thanks kactuskid, these should do it.

[HayZee518]

The digital ones need power - I have never seen a digital for baseboards. The "old" ones you speak of are mechanical, switching two button type microswitches rated at 250 volts ac.

[Rewired]

I have seen digital thermostats used with electric baseboard heat before BUT you need what is called (I believe) an "electric heat relay".

Basically all it consists of is a small 24 volt transformer and a relay or contactor of some form all in one unit, and mounts in a standard 1/2 knockout... All you have to do is mount the device in a sutable location such as in the side of the heater, in a J-box containing the 240V power to the heater, or wherever you can get the device into the circuit (the location of the OLD thermostat would be ideal IF you can re-locate the box and wires to somewhere like the basement below if possible where the relay will be accessable)... Run some 18/2 LVT between it and the new digital thermostat and you are done.. The relay will now allow you to use ANY low voltage heating thermostat to control your 240V baseboard heater. The following link is what the thing actually looks like.

http://www.furnaceparts.com/eshop/catalog/267.htm

A.D

[mpk]

HayZee & Rewired - did you get a chance to look at the links from kactuskid? Will those thermostats work w/out adding an electric heat relay or other equipment? Just to clarify, these are 4 foot baseboard heaters. There is a thermostat in every room which controls the baseboard heaters. I checked out the links above; and it seems like they would work - but then again it might be a different story when I install them. Any more advice is appreciated!

[HayZee518]

go with the honeywell units - the other one uses a hard contact relay

[mpk]

Thanks for the tip Hay Zee - since I'm a total novice; why is a hard contact relay bad, what does the relay do? One line voltage t-stat by Aube said it has "Epoxy-soundproofed relay ensures quiet operation" - not sure if that's good or not!?! Thanks again...

[HayZee518]

They require a relay mounted remotely of the baseboard device to do the actual switching - it uses low voltage power to operate the relay off the digital t-stat. A whole big mess just to control the heat.