Honeywell thermostat

[fan-of-fans]

I always liked the round Honeywell thermostats that you used to see, particularly when the house also had round a/c vents. I noticed they do still make these round thermostats, but of course they're plastic. There is a digital version too that works similarly by turning the dial and has a green backlight.

 

[wayupnorth]

I have 2 Honeywell round thermostats, one up, one down that were installed 22+ years ago. Being the wind chill with brutal temps is sub-zero right now, they kick on the boiler exactly where I leave them set and I am comfortable. I leave the temp set and dont want a digital up-down. Set it and forget it is what I do.

 

[johnrk]

My Home

was built in the mid 60's. When I bought it 20 years ago it still had the original round Honeywell thermostat, the one that they used to advertise in magazines. And yes, the vents in my ceilings are those round ones with a rod to pull with a knob on the end, to cut off the air flow. I love those round vents, too.

I miss seeing the huge ones that used to be in mid century department stores.

 

[petek]

Our house still has its original Honeywell roundie from 1958.. Since we have boiler heat there's no point in changing it to something more modern with setbacks and setting for non existant air conditioning , we have a mini split for that.

I put one of the new plastic roundies in moms house about 9 years ago and I had to get it in Michigan because all the ones in Ontario are in celcius. She didn't like celcius because there's not as many degree markers on the dials plus she was old and liked her Fahrenheit. lol

 

[johnrk]

petek-

What's a 'mini split'?

 

[gusherb]

I have a collection of T87's and even some T86's and other various old thermostats. I love the styling and simplicity of the T87, and I love the complexity of the electromechanical setback thermostats.

I have installed and used a few of them here but ultimately technology wins out in this case. Digital thermostats, particularly Honeywell are just unbeatable in temperature control. The T87's are almost as good as a digital Honeywells for heating but fall way short for cooling. Plus I really like being able to control everything from my phone, which I can't do with a T87.

As for the digital Round models those were never a reliable thermostat, they used triacs for switching which often failed, and I've seen many where the thermistors have gone haywire. I always thought a digital thermostat the shape of a T87 was cool though, they even had a programmable one 15+ years back. The electronic T87N that replaced the T87F is fairly reliable though.

 

[petek]

Mini split, ductless a/c since we don't have forced air heating/ac

http://https//www.homedepot.com/services/mitsubishi-ductless-mini-split-system/?utm_expid=.9wCCQOinQhKS7n8OkEJCZQ.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F

 

[fan-of-fans]

My grandmother's house had one of the metal round ones on her central a/c system.

I too miss the big round diffusers in stores. My local Winn Dixie and Bealls Outlet still have them despite the stores being remodeled. My old Publix used to have them also and some of the stores in that strip mall still have the smaller ones such as the barber shop, laundromat, and a space that I think is an office of some sort but has a post office walk up window.

And on Honeywells, my house used to have a rectangular Honeywell thermostat that was gold. It had a circle on the left of the face that showed the room temperature around its perimeter. It was replaced with a digital thermostat that says "Simple Comfort 2000" on it. It was an old Fedders HVAC system.

 

[gfm8959]

Setbacks

Do they really save fuel or is it better to "set and forget" at one constant setting??

 

[gusherb]

Setbacks

That is purely dependent on the home itself, the length of the setback, the efficiency & sizing of the equipment and whether you're setting back in cooling or heating mode.

The best case for a setback is an average insulated to leaky/uninsulated home with an oversized 80-90% efficient forced air furnace. The worst case would be a well insulated/sealed home with radiant floor heat or any kind of radiators.

If you have a furnace sized per Manual J and have a decently insulated home then an 8 hour setback of even a few degrees could wind up costing you more in fuel reheating the home than just leaving it set to what you desire all the time. You certainly don't wanna do more than a 3 degree setback with a properly sized forced air system, or hydronic system. In more than one case I've found it cheaper to leave the thermostat alone after replacing equipment with something more efficient and properly sizing it.

For A/C it's best to leave it alone in almost all cases.

 

[philr]

I collect Honeywell stuff, mostly thermostats!

I have a few that I'll probably never use but I like them anyway!

The round one in my kitchen is labeled as a Crane, I have a similar NOS cooling thermostat that I don't use since I don't have central a/c. There used to be an humidificator the humidistat was left there when the previous owners removed it. I have no idea how it worked since I have hot water heating, no ducting. I also have Honeywell Tap Lite switches.
The thermostat for the bedrooms is a rectangular Honeywell too. The one in the garage is newer round thermostat but still quite old. I also have an indoor/outdoor thermometer and quite a few old Honeywell thermometers.

I also have a few with a setback timer, including two round ones with a mechanical timer.

Here are a few pictures.

 

[DADoES]

 
Family's 1964 house had a Honeywell of this style.  Heat-only system.

Had separate Heat (left side) and Cool (right side) setpoint levers on top.  Cool was always at the max end of the range although it wouldn't do anything regardless of the setting.

 

[gusherb]

These are the two drawers dedicated to thermostats. I need to thin out some of the digital thermostats.

 

[moparwash]

Digital Round

Here is the Digital Round, that I replaced the non-digital one in 2007. It displays the room temperature, but when you turn the dial, it shows the set temperature and automatically lights up when you turn the knob. You can push the light button to light it up as well. 70-72 is good in the winter and 76-77 is good in the summer. When I got it, the instructions in English were missing, so it was either wing it on the installation (which was not hard), or learn Spanish!

 

[cuffs054]

My Aunt had an old Honeywell that I never understood how it functioned. It was tall and narrow with a metal case and no switches. It controlled a Frigidaire ground source, water cooled AC and propane furnace combo. To switch from c to h there was a large crank handle mounted near the top of the unit between the cooling and heating sides. When the handle was cranked it sounded very much like a large damper moved to block off either side. That was all there was for controls. The thermostat controlled both functions.

 

[iowabear]

Phil - enjoyed seeing those photos.

 

I grew up with the rectangular gold Honeywell, #5 in your photo set.  It was in use from the time my family bought the home in 1970 to when the furnace was replaced in mid-2000s.  I think the furnace was nearly 50 years old when it was replaced but I'm not 100% sure.

 

Do you know year were those made?

 

[fan-of-fans]

Those rectangular Honeywells in reply 12 first picture look a lot like the one that was in this house, except it had a circular temperature gauge instead of in a line.

On the digital round thermostat, does the light stay on if you press the light button, or does it go off after a period of time?

 

[moparwash]

The light goes out after about 5 seconds

 

[gusherb]

Cole

You would be describing the T872, the predecessor to the T874's you see in my other photos. The predecessor to the T872 is the T870 pictured in reply #11

The T870 was made in the 1960s, followed by the T872 in the 70s, and the T874 in the 80s til around 2006 give or take a year. The most noteworthy difference between the T872 and T874 was that the heat and cool lever were together in the T872 and separate in the T874. The T874 was Honeywells top of the line non programmable mechanical thermostat, mainly used in commercial settings where multistage equipment was used, requiring a thermostat that could control multiple stages of heating/cooling. It was just about the most accurate mechanical thermostat ever produced as well.

The particular T872 in my collection was made the 24th week of 1977.