My townhome has one thermostat, downstairs near the center of the place. With just an open staircase, I have been able to measure up to almost a ten degree difference in temperatures between upstairs and downstairs. This is frustrating because its like I practically need two sets of settings for it, one for while I’m upstairs and one for while I’m downstairs. There is an easier solution though.
If I turn the furnace fan on, for even five-ish minutes, the temperatures are nearly equalized throughout the house. Seems like a good solution until the electric bill shows up after that month. (ouch) Since it only takes a little bit to even things out, I really don’t need the fan running all the time. So how to make it just run a little bit?
Well, I was actually digging into about what it would take to hack my tini into the furnace controls, but my brother came across something else. While he was living in a rental, he noticed that it had this extra panel hooked up to the furnace. It was an AirCycler, and all it did was make sure the fan ran a few minutes on a regular basis.
Dug up their website quick, and ordered the simplest model. (the others provide controls for things I don’t have.) Then installed it this afternoon. I was quite happy to find that the installation went smoother than I expected; it was almost easy. (except I had to drive out to my brother’s place to borrow a drill.) But its in and running on the first try. I set it to be on for five minutes then wait for twenty-five, so that should do what I want. (Update: I changed this to five and twenty; seems to be a bit better.)
Now I just need to see how my electric bill looks after this. (crossing fingers)