Similarly off-topic. I've long wondered why residential HVAC systems don't
have more sophisticated controls like commercial systems - thermostats that
check the outdoor temperature and compensate accordingly. For instance,
with a big old house in the frozen north, you have to push the thermostat up
a little as it gets colder outside to compensate for the greater heat loss,
and conversely on a warm day you tend to get a little hot if you don't drop
the thermostat a bit. Similar needs in AC weather too.
With today's electronics, it should be simple and cheap to offer a
thermostat with an outdoor sensor, programmable compensation for the amount
of bias to add with decreasing outdoor temperatures, electronically
programmable setbacks, etc. etc. For that matter, you might as well throw
in a hygrometer for outdoor humidity and an anemometer to check wind speed
and compensate for those factors too.
Easy for me to say..... ;-)
Karl
> It tracks how long it takes to warm up to a temperature at the time of
> day. So if you set it to 70 degrees at 7 AM, it figures out when it
> needs to start heating so that it will be 70 at 7 AM. Instead of
> telling it when to start heating, you tell it what temperature to be at
> what time.
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