Programmable thermostat

[Beverly]

I would like to install a programmable thermostat to my approximately 5 year old Appollo HydroHeat unit. The current thermostat is White Rodgers. Do I need to install this brand (miore expensive than others) or are other programmable thermostats such as compatible?

Beverly in North Carolina

[Scottpat]

I would like to install a programmable thermostat to my approximately 5 year old Appollo HydroHeat unit. The current thermostat is White Rodgers. Do I need to install this brand (miore expensive than others) or are other programmable thermostats such as compatible?

Beverly in North Carolina

Whatever brand you install you need to make sure that it is designed to work with your system, most will. Go to the Apollo website and see if they have any specific requirements or call them.

[Jim Katen]

I would like to install a programmable thermostat to my approximately 5 year old Appollo HydroHeat unit. The current thermostat is White Rodgers. Do I need to install this brand (miore expensive than others) or are other programmable thermostats such as compatible?

Beverly in North Carolina

You can use any brand.

I really like the Honeywell touch screen models. Their controls are very intuitive.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Mark P]

Really pretty easy - just read the directions and mark the wires before you disconnect the old one.

[resqman]

I would recommend against a programable thermostat for an Apollo system. They do not respond quickly to changes in temperatures. During the heating season, the house will cool down, but it may take 8 plus hours to come up 5 degrees.

[Jim Katen]

I would recommend against a programable thermostat for an Apollo system. They do not respond quickly to changes in temperatures. During the heating season, the house will cool down, but it may take 8 plus hours to come up 5 degrees.

Excellent point.

If you get a programmable thermostat, be sure it's one that has an adaptive recovery feature and never set it back more than a few degrees.

With adaptive recovery, the thermostat's brain will look at past performance to judge when to enter recovery mode in order to meet your temperature setting on time. After a few days, it will learn how much lead time it needs. This will change throughout the year. It's a very cool feature.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Chad Fabry]

I have one of those ..sort of... when it's real cold out, I put a lot more wood in the boiler.

[Tom Raymond]

Uhm, that's regressive not adaptive. We as a species adapted beyond the need for wood fuel during the industrial revolution. Fire wood is a little too 'hunter/gatherer' for me[]

Seriously, Apollo is a water to air HX isn't it? I would think that as long as the water heater can keep up that it would recover faster than an all hydronic system. Still, with any set back thermostat I think more than 5 degrees F is extreme.

I got sick of fighting with the wife over setting back the thermostat so I just let her at it, the house was colder than usual and the fuel consumption was up considerably. Now we just slowly ramp up the temps as the heating season begins, reach a comfortable level and leave it there, then slowly ramp down as the season ends. I would save more with my all hydronic system using a thermistor to modulate the water temps then I could endlessly fiddling with t-stats, the recovery is too slow and irratic.

Tom