Home Repair forum - Disabling the Thermostat

Author

Disabling the Thermostat

Bert Byfield

2006-04-24, 5:21 pm

I am having a thermostat war. If I open the old standard bumpy-wheel
round thermostat and disconnect a wire, is it turned off?

Philip Lewis

2006-04-24, 5:21 pm

Bert Byfield <bbyfield@nospam.not> writes:
>I am having a thermostat war. If I open the old standard bumpy-wheel
>round thermostat and disconnect a wire, is it turned off?

If by turned off, you mean disabled, yes. (for two wire systems and no
alternate "call for heat" connections.) Technically the thermostat
can still be turned on or off, it just won't call for heat.

--
May no harm befall you,
flip
Ich habe keine Ahnung was das bedeutet, oder vielleicht doch?
In my email replace SeeEmmYou.EeeDeeYou with CMU.EDU

hallerb@aol.com

2006-04-24, 5:21 pm

better and easier to install a hidden switch somewhere along the
line....

dont forget if the weather turns freezing

PipeDown

2006-04-24, 8:21 pm

"Bert Byfield" <bbyfield@nospam.not> wrote in message
news:Xns97AF9F3A2D1E7bbyfield134caravelab@24.24.2.165...
>I am having a thermostat war. If I open the old standard bumpy-wheel
> round thermostat and disconnect a wire, is it turned off?
>
>
>
>

This will just cause your enemy ( a roommate who dosen't pay bills I would
guess) to go out and purchase a 1500W Electric space heater and operate that
all day where you can't get to it. (this still may be cheaper than heating
the whole house)

2006-04-27, 10:21 pm

On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:44:54 GMT, "PipeDown" <nowhere@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>
>"Bert Byfield" <bbyfield@nospam.not> wrote in message
>news:Xns97AF9F3A2D1E7bbyfield134caravelab@24.24.2.165...

Depends which wire. If you cut the wrong wire, it will explode. You
learn this from every bomb movie. Be sure to cut the right wire.[color=darkred]
>
>This will just cause your enemy ( a roommate who dosen't pay bills I would
>guess) to go out and purchase a 1500W Electric space heater and operate that
>all day where you can't get to it. (this still may be cheaper than heating
>the whole house)

You make a good point. In college I belonged to a small frat with 18
residents at most**. One member was House Manager. He was from
rural Minnesota and the only one who knew how houses worked. I guess
someone was turning up the heat, because first he drilled a hole in
the metal scale on the side (not the round thermostat above) and
inserted a little screw. So the temp couldn't be raised. I guess
someone removed the screw, so then he disconnected the thermostat at
the wire in the basement and didn't tell anyone. So I guess the guy
kept turning the heat up in the dining room, but it didn't do
anything. (I suppose he put a thermostat somewhere, but I never
looked.)

**Except right after WWII, we had more.

He also thought a couple of us were watching to much tv, so he cut one
prong off the plug and plugged it back in. (That one I figured out,
but I didn't say anything.)

He also liked classical music and didn't like it when he was home and
the guy across the hall listened to rock. So out of a radio or
something, he built a transmitter and would jam the radio of the guy
across the hall. So Rich would eventually change stations, and after
a few minutes the house manager, who was also my roommate or I
wouldn't know about this stuff, would change frequencies on the
jammer.

I doubt if Rich is reading this, and afaik, no one has told him about
it since 41 years ago, when it happened.

I learned a lot from my roommate.

Stan

2006-04-28, 6:21 pm

Along with these 'ideas' the following story!
Back in the first era of conservation due to high energy costs, of the 1970s
etc. a large corporation decided on lower temperatures in its office areas.
All thermosts were set to 68F and locked. One secretary found it cold.
So each morning she would come into work with a small plasic bag of ice
cubes which she would hang immediately above the thermostat!

Steve

2006-04-29, 11:21 am

mm <NOPSAMmm2005@bigfoot.com> wrote in
news:0rq252hochgdp4oon7e13qo02cd847u99g@4ax.com:
[color=darkred]
> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:44:54 GMT, "PipeDown" <nowhere@earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>

I once worked in a 50s-era building where the temperature varied wildly,
mostly too hot. It had those old brass thermostats with mercury
thermometers. After a little analysis, we figured out that the temperature
varied with the length of the skirt of the woman who sat by the thermostat.
The temperature war was low key, but fierce.

Late one evening, I repositioned the thermometer so that it read about
three degrees warmer that reality. The war ended immediately.

2006-04-30, 6:21 pm

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 08:32:17 -0500, Steve <steve@comcast.net> wrote:

>mm <NOPSAMmm2005@bigfoot.com> wrote in
>news:0rq252hochgdp4oon7e13qo02cd847u99g@4ax.com:
>
>
>
>I once worked in a 50s-era building where the temperature varied wildly,
>mostly too hot. It had those old brass thermostats with mercury
>thermometers. After a little analysis, we figured out that the temperature
>varied with the length of the skirt of the woman who sat by the thermostat.

A long skirt kept the warm air from reaching the thermostat??

Or kept a cold draft from reaching it??

>The temperature war was low key, but fierce.
>
>Late one evening, I repositioned the thermometer so that it read about
>three degrees warmer that reality. The war ended immediately.

I did that with a heat control once. Lived in a 49 unit building,
and the furnace was often broken and even when working, he illegally
turned DOWN the temperature during the daytime, because most people
were away**. I got into the basement by "unusual" means, and a big
furnace like this doesn't have a thermostat as such. It had "heat
output" with settings from 1 to 10 or maybe it was from A to J.

I turned up the heat one letters worth, and then removed the knob and
put it back on pointing to the original setting. The knob had a set
screw. I never told anyone.

**(One man claimed his baby got sick and died during one of these
periods. I don't know any details, but by the time I saw him, only
once, the father wasn't that angry anymore.)

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