Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Redoing the half bathroom that is in my master bedroom. Original owners had some "odd" choices in wall color and tile. I've ripped out the old tile and in the process of new paint and hanging a modern 6-panel door.
The entire house is FHW heating, but this bathroom has an electric baseboard heater as it's source of heat with a manual thermostat.
I've been thinking about adding some in-floor heating while i'm here. I'm not intending this to be the source of heat for the room, but it would be nice to heat the floor in the AM when i'm using the bathroom to get ready. Don't need to do a large area as it's not a large bathroom. Total area is 30 sq feet and i'm thinking of heating 10 sq feet (area in front of toilet and sink). I do not intend to pull up boards and insulate the underside either so for this reason I don't think I can remove the baseboard heater completely.
My thoughts are how to do this without having 2 thermostats in the room. One is controlling the main baseboard heater (which I rarely use except when VERY cold in the AM) and the other controlling the floor. The infloor heat has a sensor that is installed in the floor and connects to the T-stat. I've found tstats for the floor heat.
Thoughts? Am I stuck running two thermostats? I have a feeling this may get messy as having two tstats next to each other, not that anyone other than myself (and my G/F) will be using this setup. However these are pretty much two independent systems so I wouldn't think one tstat could control both. One will be measuring air temp and the other usng the in-floor sensor.
My G/F thinks I should just leave it all alone and get a rug, but I like adding these little luxury features in. I just want to do it "clean"
Last edited by BostonMike7; 01-14-2016 at 01:19 PM..
Is it possible? I'm sure it is. You'd just need an electrical engineer to figure out how to use two different inputs with one t/stat that controls the output of two different devices.
I specifically worded the former so you would have a complete understanding of how the electrical circuitry would be developed to accomplish your goal- and you may want to throw a couple of thousand dollars in there also. The engineer wants to CYA in case your house burns down.
First, I think if you are going through the trouble of pulling up the old flooring it is more than a little foolish to NOT make the effort to tie in to the rest of the home's heating system, that seems like the best way to eliminate this "auxiliary" electric baseboard heat.
Second, if the room has about 30 sq ft of floor area it almost certainly makes sense to put an electric floor warming system under ALL OF IT instead just a third -- the extra expense is minimal compared to relative "what was I thinking" you will experience every time your bare feet step OFF the warm area and on to the cold stuff.
If you want to get fancy (which makes no sense because you are too cheap to tie into the central heat when you have the chance...) you could get a system from Lutron that will control everything with some high end system -- http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocum...y/367-2020.pdf
EDIT -- Apparently Lutron's system (which is based around Honeywell thermostat...) will NOT control line voltage baseboard heat by itself. You could add the appropriate 2-pole/24v coil / contactor, the material would be cheap, but you'd be running the control wire and current carrying stuff into an approved enclosure that might be kind of ugly in a remodeled bath -- http://www.airstarsolutions.com/Page...ontactors.aspx
I'm not getting why you want them on a single thermostat? I guess simplicity of operation, but, seems to me having two thermostats would give you better control, would be simpler and easier to install, and if one system has a problem, it wouldn't affect the other system.
What type of baseboard electric heater does it have? I've used CADET smart-base programmable thermostat that attached to their baseboard heater before. Just set the programming if you want to upgrade the manual thermostat.
I'm not getting why you want them on a single thermostat? I guess simplicity of operation, but, seems to me having two thermostats would give you better control, would be simpler and easier to install, and if one system has a problem, it wouldn't affect the other system.
Just less clutter having one thermostat on the wall really. I was hoping someone would chime in with an "off-the-shelf" product I wasn't aware about that might be able to accomplish this, but after some research it appears not. I could custom build something (I have the technical background) but it's not worth it and I don't have the time (other rooms to paint and update)...that's why I was hoping for something off the shelf.
I think the way to go if I choose to pursue this is to replace the aux baseboard heat with a programmable unit with it's own thermostat and just use the wall tstat for the heated floor. Prob the easiest solution.
HOWEVER, I've decided to not pursue this anymore. After thinking about it, it's really not worth it for maybe 5 mins a day. It's a nice to have, but doesn't really improve my daily living much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr
Is it possible? I'm sure it is. You'd just need an electrical engineer to figure out how to use two different inputs with one t/stat that controls the output of two different devices.
I specifically worded the former so you would have a complete understanding of how the electrical circuitry would be developed to accomplish your goal- and you may want to throw a couple of thousand dollars in there also. The engineer wants to CYA in case your house burns down.
Good luck!
Good thing the electrical engineer owns the house. I'm also an electrician.
Last edited by BostonMike7; 01-15-2016 at 06:51 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
