Re: zoned or not zoned?? thermostatic control of multiple spaces

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 7 Dec 2006 14:13:01 -0500, "E. Lee Dickinson"
<lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message <el9p9m$40u$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>
>"Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>and tormenting your
>> tenants in the process, really doesn't seem like a good idea.
>
>That's how I read this at first, too, untill I went back and re-read the
>first post. Curently, there is a single thermostat in a tenant space
>controlling the temperature for all three. "Lighthouse" is trying to install
>something more equitable.
>
>I would put in a damper system, in this case. This will give your tennants
>the maximum amount of control in each of their spaces, without having to
>install a seperate air handler for each. Install an electric damper in the
>ducts leading to each apartment. The damper will be triggered in parallel
>(probably via a 12v relay) with the boiler. Each tennant now has his own
>thermostat which he can set to any temperatre he pleases. If the
>boiler/blower is running, his duct will simply open when the room is too
>cold. If it's not running, it will start up, open his duct, and warm the
>place up.
>
>Anyone who lives with someone else knows that different people have vastly
>different temperature prefernces, and a few degrees either way can be
>intolerably uncomfortable for some people. So this is a big deal, to me.
>
>Electric dampers can be had on Ebay for around $80.
>
>As for a maximum temperature setting, you could always just put some stop
>screws or rivits in a conventional lever thermostat or put wireless temp
>probes in the apartments with stiff contractual penalties if anyone lets
>their apartments get too hot or too cold (expensive/freezing pipes).
>

Lighthouse has specified twice that he needs to control a _boiler_. Typically
that means radiators/baseboard heat without forced air. (But not always -- I
have a boiler-heated forced air system).

With a boiler + radiator (not forced air), none of the suggestions/options you
suggest would apply but absent more concrete info, we are jist guessing.

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org