Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>
> On Thu 01 Jan 2009 03:52:06p, Pete C. told us...
>
> >
> > Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> >>
> >> "Pete C." > wrote in message
> >> >
> >> > Don't try to understand, it falls in the same category of women (not)
> >> > understanding how a thermostat works...
> >>
> >> You mean as in "turn it up higher so it will heat up faster"? Its a
> >> friggin switch, not a throttle.
> >
> > Yes, as well as the "turn it down in the summer so you don't waste
> > energy", and similar insanity. Set heat set point at 68, cool set point
> > at 78 and assuming an auto changeover thermostat, never touch them
> > again.
>
> Recognizing of course, that most people do not have changeover thermostats.
> I don't know what the parameters are, but I wouldn't want one unless I
> could keep the temperature within 1 degree, one way or the other. Ten
> degrees would be totally unacceptable.

Well, those are the "normal" numbers that I gave. I'm a cheap *******,
so heat is set to 65 and cool is set to 80 here If you've got money
to burn, then by all means hold it to a degree or two. They say 2
degrees is the minimum increment that humans can detect.

>
> > Of course in the odd case that you have a sophisticated multistage
> > system, it may actually be a "throttle", but even then, the thermostat
> > will have the smarts to track the rate of change and throttle the system
> > appropriately.
>
> I would think it would indeed be an odd case. I would think that very few
> people have such systems in their home.
>

Two stage systems are somewhat common, full variable systems will become
more common as efficiency becomes more of a concern.