It has about roughly 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit where I live for the past few weeks. When I come home my fiance has the thermostat set for Heat with a range from 65-80, but if I turn the heat off it says the house is 80 degrees inside.
We have two animals who I know are very uncomfortable and I tell him that having Heat on from 65-80 is crazy. I say it needs to be set at Cool and if he wants a range then set it for Cool 65-80 (but I normally just set it to 72 anyway). He said since it’s a wide range of temperatures, even on the Heat setting, that it’s ok and it’s not as hot as I think it is.
How do I explain the difference properly? He thinks since the range is 65-80 that it would be the same be it Hot or Cool. If it matters, we live in a town home.
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This is all dependent on the model of thermostat used. In a lot of systems the heat or cool just determines what effort the system will use to maintain that range. If you set it to heat it will only heat up if the temp drops below 65. If its on cool, it will only cool down if above 80. If you set it to auto/maintain it will kick on the heat or the a/c to stay in that range either way.
In a townhouse the main difference in feeling is due to the system having one thermostat and two floors (assuming you don’t have a dual zone setup). You are almost always going to have the issue of the 2nd floor being warmer than the first and not matching the temp on the thermostat. If the heat is used the 2nd floor will be much warmer, because it will heat the home until the 1st floor reaches that temp. If its being cooled the 2nd floor will remain somewhat warmer, but the bottom floor will be cooled to the set temp.
I’m a little confused about the “ranges”.
All thermostats I’ve ever had, we’re based on a specific selected temperature. The thermostat displays the current temperature. You can select heat or cool and for each a target temperature you want the house to reach.
If you turn on cool, the air conditioner will turn on if/when the inside temp is above the target cool temp you selected.
If you turn on heat, then the heat will turn on whenever the temp inside the house is below the heat target temp you selected.
In your case, if it is 80 degrees in the house and you want it to cools down to 72. You’d have to get it to “cool” at 72 degrees.
The heat setting is designed to stop the temperature from dropping below the set temperature. For example if you have the heat set to 78 degrees and the room temperature is 65, the unit will run until the room temperature is 78, if the room temperature is 100 the unit will not run because the room is above 78. It is the same thing for cooling just the other way around.
With heat- if it goes above that, it won’t do anything, if it goes under that, it will turn on heat.
With cool- if it goes above that, it will turn the AC on, if it goes under that, it won’t do anything.
With heat, the furnace will turn on and heat the house if the temperature gets below 65. With cool, the air conditioner will turn on if the temperature goes above 80.
When thermostat is set to heat and a certain temp, it will kick on and warm the house up to that temp when it drops below. If the temp in the house is above the temp, it’ll do nothing.
Conversely, if you set it to cool and an a certain temp, it’ll kick on the AC when the temp is above the set temp and cool until temps drop down to that level. If the house is below the set temp, then nothing happens.
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