Does anyone know if it's possible to get wireless 'fiddle proof' thermostats for central heating?
We are perfectly happy for guests to turn central heating up and down as required to their tastes but the thermostats we have at the moment are far too easy to reprogramme completely - we keep having situations where guests change the programme so it's 23 degrees all day and night - they go out all day leaving it like that and when they leave it's like that too. Once the program has been changed it doesn't go back to our default one at the next time change.
We leave instructions everyone on how to turn it up and down and ask them NOT to change the set programs but we really need something where they can't do that.
Anyone got any suggestions?
Central heating thermostats
Central heating thermostats
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
I'm not an expert and imagine he combinations of system controllers are varied.
We have the timer locked away so the programme is fixed, on for 2 hours in the morning and 6 in the evening which is normally ok here. The guest then has a room thermostat which turns all radiators on/off and individual thermostatic valves on each radiator. Seems to work here.
If they want the heating on all day they pay extra for it. This normally ensures they go out!
We have the timer locked away so the programme is fixed, on for 2 hours in the morning and 6 in the evening which is normally ok here. The guest then has a room thermostat which turns all radiators on/off and individual thermostatic valves on each radiator. Seems to work here.
If they want the heating on all day they pay extra for it. This normally ensures they go out!
We have got some that are lockable with a code.
However two things. I do not know if you can get wireless models and the code is the same so If Ifound one in building I could "hack it".
The brand is Perry (some examples below)
http://www.portalelectricidad.es/cronot ... -2557.html
http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0205999164
http://cgi.ebay.es/CRONOTERMOSTATO-PERR ... 3a55f26afc
I cannot find a website for the manufacture through.
However two things. I do not know if you can get wireless models and the code is the same so If Ifound one in building I could "hack it".
The brand is Perry (some examples below)
http://www.portalelectricidad.es/cronot ... -2557.html
http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0205999164
http://cgi.ebay.es/CRONOTERMOSTATO-PERR ... 3a55f26afc
I cannot find a website for the manufacture through.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
thank you very much for that info, I will have a good look at it.
We use wireless at the moment but I don't think they have to be wireless. And in any case, the guests keep mistaking them for an alarm clock! I had to put a sticky label on them saying 'THIS IS THE CENTRAL HEATING CONTROLLER NOT AN ALARM CLOCK' after I got a call from some American guests saying they couldnt find the thermostat. I described it, told them it looked like a bit like a square white digital alarm clock. They still couldn't find it. I went round there and there it was on a bedside table. There it is, I said.
Oh we thought that was an alarm clock. Said they.
So we are thinking of wiring it in anyway if we replace.
We use wireless at the moment but I don't think they have to be wireless. And in any case, the guests keep mistaking them for an alarm clock! I had to put a sticky label on them saying 'THIS IS THE CENTRAL HEATING CONTROLLER NOT AN ALARM CLOCK' after I got a call from some American guests saying they couldnt find the thermostat. I described it, told them it looked like a bit like a square white digital alarm clock. They still couldn't find it. I went round there and there it was on a bedside table. There it is, I said.
Oh we thought that was an alarm clock. Said they.
So we are thinking of wiring it in anyway if we replace.
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
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TTP mk2
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Many years ago, I was so fed up with my wife & kids turning the thermostat up thinking it would make the house hotter quicker, that I put the thermostat in a cupboard & a dummy one on the wall for them to play with.
It wasn't until I pointed it out to the person who bought the house 10+ years later that they knew.
Perhaps you could do the same.
It wasn't until I pointed it out to the person who bought the house 10+ years later that they knew.
Perhaps you could do the same.
They do have them in America anyway...I vaguely recall an online conversation a few years ago. The cheapest and easiest way though? You can buy these plexiglass boxes that mount right over the thermostat (like in a hotel) and only unlock with a key - they sell them here at any of the big home improvements centers. (I don't have either though and just deal with the gusts turning the heat way up for the minute.)
It' s not them turning up the heat I'm worried about - in the recent cold weather it would have been awful for them not to be able to do that. But for our system, they only need to use up/down arrows to override the set temparature and then at the next programmed cycle change, it goes back to the default settings. I've got stickers on the thermostat telling them how to do that.
but people keep changing the default program settings and THAT'S what I don't want them to have access to. Because most of them just choose programme 1, which is an all day setting and then they programme it all day at 23 degrees or whatever. As the 'all day' prog is the first option given, it's just too easy to do it on the ones we have now. And then of course, that's what its set at until I go along and reprogramme it. My cleaner doesn't know how to do it and I don't really want to add it to her long list of 'duties', she has enough to check already.
What I want is for when people turn the heating up or down, it just does that until the next programmed change and then goes back to the settings programmed by US!
but people keep changing the default program settings and THAT'S what I don't want them to have access to. Because most of them just choose programme 1, which is an all day setting and then they programme it all day at 23 degrees or whatever. As the 'all day' prog is the first option given, it's just too easy to do it on the ones we have now. And then of course, that's what its set at until I go along and reprogramme it. My cleaner doesn't know how to do it and I don't really want to add it to her long list of 'duties', she has enough to check already.
What I want is for when people turn the heating up or down, it just does that until the next programmed change and then goes back to the settings programmed by US!
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
I think that may be impossible to find...but the ones we use can have a link via phone. you can switch the heating on that way. So maybe they can be reset by you to the original settings.
I was once told that the thermostat has to be placed at a certain hight and in certain rooms to obtain the best overall house temp. So the idea of a cordless one has me now wondering if the above is all just B/S
I was once told that the thermostat has to be placed at a certain hight and in certain rooms to obtain the best overall house temp. So the idea of a cordless one has me now wondering if the above is all just B/S
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
AHHHH. then you just need to look around at new thermostats. Mine does that (at my home and VR) - to program the time cycles, you have to actually open it up and reprogram...to turn up or down temp, you just press the big arrows on the front...and it turns it up (or down) until the time for the next pre-programed cycle. I'm sure you can order something like that if you don't have it in a local store.
no - not locked or lockable (at least the kinds I have), but, so far *knock on wood* guests have just turned it up/down as needed and it goes right back to it's set schedule - the one I have at my own home is a "ritetemp" - don't remember the brand in the hr...have guests in, but will take note of it next week.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... ts-_-x-_-x is what they look like here - don't know if that's pretty standard everywhere or not though...no one has tried to reprogram that I know of...they just push the arrows up or down (so far!)
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... ts-_-x-_-x is what they look like here - don't know if that's pretty standard everywhere or not though...no one has tried to reprogram that I know of...they just push the arrows up or down (so far!)
saw this on the vr yahoo group and thought of you:
http://www.myvrzone.com/blog/remote-hva ... t-control/
http://www.myvrzone.com/blog/remote-hva ... t-control/
musetta, you are a star - and thanks also to all the others for suggestions. We will look into all the options but that last one, on a brief read through does seem to have the same 'wish list' as us so I'm going to look at the options he came up with very closely.
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
After reading this topic, I have removed all the instructions leaflets in French and in English, that came with the thermostat.
Hopefully guests will not know how to change the settings. Or won't bother !
I have only left instructions on how to change the temperature temporarily.
So thanks to all the other people on LMH who post, and advise, and reply to queries.
Best regards
Dominique
Hopefully guests will not know how to change the settings. Or won't bother !
I have only left instructions on how to change the temperature temporarily.
So thanks to all the other people on LMH who post, and advise, and reply to queries.
Best regards
Dominique