New Thermostat for 21RBS

[charliem]

[font size="3"][font face="arial"]I replaced the Atwood grope and hope heater thermostat with a battery powered illuminated electronic unit. [/font][font face="arial"]Great for tweaking the temp at night.
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[tinkeringtechie]

LOL... grope and hope.

I was actually excited about it because it has zero standby power. Were you having reliability issues with the stock one, or just not accurate enough?

[charliem]

[font size="3"][font face="arial"]Didn't use the original long enough to evaluate reliability. Just inconvenient. No calibration on the control and no thermometer to see how it's working. I had an indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer mounted above the original, but no way to accurately determine the set point. The replacement is inexpensive, easy to install, illuminated, and easy to set/read. But the whole function could be tied into a central microprocessor controller  .
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[tinkeringtechie]

I actually hadn't thought about using my RV monitor to run the thermostat, but that's an interesting point. All of my ideas so far have been geared toward reducing power consumption, but I might be able to include a thermostat if the controller only checked every minute or so and then went to sleep...

[shark24]

What is the make and model of this thermostat? Guess there is a difference in the ones at lowes and home depot power? New to this so sorry if this is a dumb question. I like the way it looks wish I could find one in black.
Thanks

[charliem]

[quote source="/post/731/thread" timestamp="1398635447" author="@shark24"]What is the make and model of this thermostat? Guess there is a difference in the ones at lowes and home depot power? New to this so sorry if this is a dumb question. I like the way it looks wish I could find one in black.
Thanks[/quote][font size="3"]Shark24,

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers. And hopefully not many of those. Welcome to our humble forum.
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[tinkeringtechie]

[quote source="/post/733/thread" timestamp="1398641546" author="@charliem"][font size="3"]Shark24,

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers. And hopefully not many of those. Welcome to our humble forum.
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You forgot to tell her the make and model of your thermostat...  

[pinstriper]

I bought a cigar humidor thermometer and hygrometer so I could tell temps and humidity, know when to air her out, etc. I rather doubt we will ever run the propane furnace, as we plan to heat with a small 1kw ceramic cube heater, whose thermostat reads "high, low".

Mounted with command tape what I got by buying a pack of useless hooks and throwing them away (I mean I threw away the hooks; I kept the adhesive pads as that's what I wanted to buy - jeesh, some people !)

This has almost nothing to do with the original topic, so I guess it's a dumb answer.

[charliem]

[font size="3"][font face="arial"]Sorry about not answering the question; I guess old age is showing.

I used a LuxPro PSD010BF thermostat, but they are now superseded and hard to find. However, any digital non-programmable battery operated single stage heat thermo rated for 12-24 volt systems will work. A newer model, LuxPro DMH110, is available at Amazon, Lowes, HD, etc for 20-30 dollars. It has a fan switch, but that will not be functional with the Atwood heater. Heating/cooling models will also work, but only the heat side will be used. Other brands like Honeywell have similar models so it becomes an issue of personal preference and availability. The interface to the heater is a simple two wire 12 volt circuit. The heater contains its own relay, fan control, and cycle logic. Even an old style mechanical thermo will work, but then that's what we're replacing  
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[fasteddieb]

Anyone thought of installing a Nest, or would that be overkill?

[tinkeringtechie]

[quote source="/post/739/thread" timestamp="1398695085" author="@fasteddieb"]Anyone thought of installing a Nest, or would that be overkill?[/quote]I believe Nest requires 24VAC (standard for household systems), so it's not directly compatible with the 12V system used in the trailer.

[mdp]

[font face="comic sans ms" color="#e66319" size="4"]The Nest seems like it is overkill for use in a travel trailer.  Especially when used only for heating.  I am going to install the simplest thermostat I can find with a digital readout.[/font]

[kycamper]

Thanks for the help with this issue. Again, LL could have spent another nickel and avoided this upgrade.

[livinthegoodlife]

gleamb, I agree, but it sure gives us something to talk about!

[kodabear]

I replaced the crappy Atwood thermostat in my last camper with this [a href="http://www.homedepot.com/p/Honeywell-1-Week-Programmable-Thermostat-RTH221B/203539508?N=5yc1vZc4kcZ1z135ot"]Honeywell RTH221-B[/a] that Home Depot has for $20. Easy-peazy. It's not backlit though.