Some additional information! Firstly, two-stage heating is _sorta_ common so the notion that "there is no medium blast" is _probably_ true but if you have a fancy pants HVAC system, then maybe cranking the heat up _might_ make it go faster. No idea what percentage of homes have a two stage heating system, but I'd guess it's in the 10-20% range. In re: the thermostat wire question. Apparently, to this day, the current going through the contactors that actually turn on the high current loads such as your A/C or an electric furnace's heating elements is carried through the thermostat. So, it's more than just color coding; they are designed to carry some current, and thus need to be a minimum wire gauge. So while Cat5 cable or similar would probably work for most HVAC systems, it might not be able to carry enough current for others (and could, potentially, pose a fire risk under the right circumstances). On that note, and I'm mad at myself for not bringing this up, you might have noticed that in the mechanical thermostat, a separate insulated wire connects the R terminal to the contact on the bimetallic strip. This prevents the current from being carried through the bimetallic strip, which could inadvertently heat it up and prematurely stop the furnace. Neat!
I have a two-stage furnace, but not a two-stage-aware thermostat. The furnace installer couldn't be bothered to run a cable with more strands, but assured me that the furnace activates the second stage if the thermostat asks for heat for more than a few minutes. I wish I had invested in a 96% furnace instead.
Well Alec there can be a medium blast if you had a variable speed furnace, heat pump or air Conditioner but these systems require special thermostats to work properly
@@Bob5mith I'm an HVAC/R Tech in my area people want 2 stage heat pumps 1 stage of aux 2 heat pump stages so 3 stage heat they make equipment with multiple speeds which is called an inverter
I always told my wife that setting the heat to 80 is like setting a burrito in the microwave to 10 minutes because you're hungry and want it to cook faster.
I'm not sure it's the same theory when someone is cold. Trying to warm up from freezing temps at 70f will take longer than 80f. Having 80f will warm the body up faster than 70f. It won't make the furnace get to 80 faster, it warms the body up faster.
@@DavidSmith-rf5je If you mean that being in a warmer room will warm you up faster, then yes. If you mean that in a cold house, setting the heat to 80 rather than 70 will warm you up faster, then no, as explained in the video the same furnace will turn on in the same way.
@@greggoog7559 Hotel heating and cooling is a whole different animal.. Generally massive loops that run through all the rooms from a boiler room. Kicking their heater boiler off is not cheap. The boiler may turn on even if the room never reaches a low enough temp to pump out any air..
I had to rewire my furnace yesterday to install a smart stat. I watched hours of video about hvacs, and yes, my furnace is frightfully ancient, it turns 50 next year. I was DEEP into the learning process, bought wire and tools from the Depot, looked up 50 year old schematics, and did it. It was all really new to me and I wished I had a smart but straight forward "beginner's" explanation. And then I found this video today and it turns out I had watched it when it came out... Anyway I successfully retrofitted grandpa hotness and it was probably this video deep in my memory that helped me out so thanks!
HVAC Tech here. Wanna hear a fun story about a furnace that kept blowing its fuse? Yeah, there was a short somewhere on the board in the common side of the circuit, so whenever you connected the common to the thermostat, the fuse would blow. This originally started as me trying to install a Nest thermostat. Imagine hiring an expert to install a new thermostat, only to be told that your furnace needs a new control board. Yeah, the homeowner wasn't happy. I did manage to work out a hackey solution though, that involved wiring the common directly to the common side of the transformer. I should point out that this is NOT a proper solution, and was only a workaround for this specific scenario. If the homeowner's system had also had air conditioning, then this would have been discovered sooner, as well as not been solved this way. For those non experts out there: the circuit that turns on the outdoor condenser unit on a standard split-system AC is also wired to the common terminal on the furnace control board. Were it present, the fuse would have been blowing every time the AC came on. But this was in Breckenridge Colorado, in the house of someone who (rightly) figured that it would be cheaper to run a window unit for the couple months each year that actually required any kind of AC. Because the common was previously unused, I'm at a bit of a loss to how it shorted in the first place, though the two potentials that come to mind are manufacturing defect, or perhaps corrosion on the board.
@@TheMinecraftACMan why do you randomly comment this under someone else's comment where it has nothing to do with that? No one asked for your story here Just put it in your own full comment
As far as "frightfully ancient" goes, I met a woman living in an old farm house with radiant heat whose 1920s boiler was converted from coal to gas long ago. She said that she needed to "get rid of the old thing and upgrade." Her bill for heating her entire farm house was $20 cheaper than my bill for heating a downstairs flat with a 10 year old high efficiency furnace. I told her to keep it.
@@stitchfinger7678I mean to be fair. Excluding heat pumps. Energy is energy. Burning gas in a modern heater vs a 1920s heater isnt magically going to create more heat and be "more efficient". What really has come a long way is insulation. Last year We've moved into a brand new house here in Germany, highest insulation rating and all. How little heat we need to stay warm is comical. You can basically stay in a room for 20mins, and just from the body heat, the temperature will have risen a couple of degrees.
@@leogrievousI mean, undoubtedly a number of older designs probably weren't the best at _transmitting_ all the heat they produced through the system and heating the _rest_ of the house. In this case, the difference-maker is probably that the system is boiler-powered rather than forced-air furnace.
The thermostat in my apartment was acting up a couple of weeks ago. I took off the cover and saw the coiled spring, and that reminded me of this video. Knowing the basic functionality, I saw that the spring was covered in gunk so it couldn't unwind properly. So I used a can of compressed air to gently clean it off and it worked fine after that. If I hadn't known how the coil worked I would have had to call the maintenance person to come take a look, but thanks to you I was able to fix it myself!
Yeah I literally had that exact thermostat in the apartment I used to live in. It used to act up all the time, sadly it seems I’ve gotten to this video too late.
You’re A LOT smarter than the dumb asses that can’t fix my LG fridge! I finally found out there was a massive recall & they didn’t want or know how to do it
"Oh, and if you're about to write this in a comment to save people the trouble, you're a fun sucker and sucked the fun right out of this gag. I hope you're happy." -Technology Connections
Was seriously considering just writing out only this latter half for the continuation of the gag, but then I realised I couldn't be bothered so I took the lazy option and waited for someone else to do it.
Glad my dad did not have the technology of smart phone thermostats of today. Could see it at work. I would make it warmer when he was at work, and dropping it back colder before he got home. I am talking about a/c, my dad liked it to cold, lol
Some days I'm tempted to pop the thermostat off and take it to work. But when I think it through I realize the gas fireplace will just be on high all day long. I have gone as far as shutting the gas valve off on the fireplace and every time my wife asks to turn it on I say yea I'll get to it. I come home one day an its on...Just because. WTF? I turned it off... Turns out they will just figure it out themselves. 🤔 So now if I steal the thermostat I bet I'll come home and find a jumper wire in its place 🤣
It's not the kids that made this mistake in my household. It was my mom. She'd get up in the morning feeling too cold, and crank the thermostat up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit because she wanted to warm up "quickly." Every. Damn. Time.
That would confuse the large mass of people that think all controls are analog. These are the same people that tap the call button repeatedly to make the elevator arrive faster.
I literally just discovered this channel, and I love it. What's that? "You're just commenting for engagement?" No, I don't know what you're talking about.
I used to work in an office building that had only 1 zone on the first floor. One thermostat to control the whole first floor. Everyone hated it! The solution was to install dummy thermostats around the building that weren't hooked up to anything. But the fact that people felt they had some control over the temperature made them feel more comfortable! Bring in the psychologist please!
We considered this for our office thermostats, too, as there is no reaction at all. But for us it is no thought of more control but just something to make fun of or just completely ignore. But we have rooms with windows.
I have "worked" on a lot of AC units that had nothing wrong. After checking everything, I would let the person know "I made a few tuning adjustments, I think it should feel better now. Let me know if it doesn't". I rarely hear back.
i simply trained speedreading for the entire time since this video came out until now, when i was finally able to read the whole thing at full speed with no pauses
The last comment on a mode where the thermostat goes to a new set temperature after you've mowed the lawn: That would be the "Hold" mode on most Honeywells programmables. Just hit the temperature buttons up or down and it will hold the new temperature for 2 hours, then resume its program. You can also set the Hold mode for longer periods, perfect if you're going away on vacation for two weeks, let's say. Thermostat wire is special. I live in Canada, but things are similar in much of the United States. If the thermostat fails, your furnace never gets the call for heat and your pipes freeze causing a huge amount of flood damage. The wire is low-voltage rated and has a FT rating printed on the jacket - that's Flame Travel, to tell you whether or not a furnace fire can spread to the rest of your home via burning thermostat wires. Also, being different enough from ordinary NMD house wiring, it's hopeful no one would try to connect a household thermostat directly to the 120V line - but it does happen where baseboard heaters are common. Don't trust the wire colors as standards - they should be but they're not. Always label the wires as you take them off the old one and put them on the new one. If you lost track, go down to the furnace and look at the control board. The R terminal on the furnace must be connected to the R terminal on the thermostat, and so forth. When you run into W1, W2, W3 or Y1, Y2, Y3, you're dealing with a multistage setup. They're becoming common on high-efficiency residential furnaces here in the snowbelt. W1 turns on the furnace, one burner. W1 and W2 turns on the furnace with two burners.... you get the idea. Multistage heat is a lot more common than multistage AC because gas valves and igniters are cheaper than compressors and condensers, but you might see multistage AC moving into places where there have been energy efficiency incentives. Take your old mercury-bulb or other pure mechanical thermostat and mount it in the utility room where your water service enters your house. Set it to heat and set it at an indoor temperature you'd find unpleasantly cold - lowest setting. Connect its R and W terminals in parallel with your new programmable or smart thermostat, you might even be able to run the wires directly to the furnace. Your old thermostat will be there silently ready to command the furnace to turn on if your new thermostat gets dead batteries or suffers a software crash (or a hack!) while you're away on a ski vacation. It will keep your pipes from freezing.
In hot states in the US, multi-stage A/C is fairly common to cut down on electricity costs (by 1/3 with a two-stage compressor!). We also have a variable speed fan.
Great information. I would recommend doing the same for hot climates? also worth noting that there's been occasional issues of furnaces not ending their heat cycle and melting things due to thermostat crash(hack?). If you're going to the troubles to replicate this a high temperature cutoff might be a good idea.
@@imark7777777 In that case you could also use the old mechanical thermostat, but wired in series. E.g.: You want your house at 72 F, so you set that in the Nest thermostat. Then you run the heating wire through the old thermostat which is set at it's maximum (90 F). If the temperature ever reaches 90 F it will open the circuit, stopping the heating.
@@incompetencelogistics8924 There's quite a few keyboard shortcuts for youTube on desktop... sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/u-m-google-170816/accessibility/google-keyboard-shortcuts---youtube
Still, I'm watching this from a ps4, best i can do is go forward and backwards in increments of ten seconds, or quickly press the option button to pause and play feame-by-frame...
I Service HVAC systems on passenger trains, and everything is preset and automatically controlled. The system is set to run the heat or A.C. as needed to achieve the preset temperature. There is no way to change it other than turning off breakers, which are located under the train car. They do include an override button, that runs the A.C. for 20 minutes to cool off the car in the event there are a lot of passengers. 100 people have a lot of BTUs of heat. I thought I'd provide that little bit of insight since you asked of anyone knew of a thermostat with the feature of running and then returning to the set temperature.
Something that most people don't realise. The average human generates about 100w of heat, so a train carriage full of your 100 people (probably relatively lightly-clad since it's warm) will generate 10kW heat (which is approaching the rated capacity of many "whole-house" ducted a/c systems). Add in thermal gain from the exterior (heat leakage via windows, opening doors, and solar gain from roof irradiance) and the a/c requirements can be very significant indeed.
@@phils4634 Hmmm.... So if I want to lose weight should I *not* put on those extra layers of clothing in winter and lose weight as heat? That 100w of heat isn't constant right? The body thermo-regulates... I'd rather be cold than go to a gym.
Shaun Stephens Well, grow yourself some extra fat for better insulation. If you ever run out of food or suffer indigestion, you can burn the fat as an emergency energy source.
@@Shaun.Stephens Surprisingly, YES! Your basal metabolism produces about 100W heat even sitting still, and exercise (even gentle walking) can easily add another 100w. There have been a number of physiology papers indicating that you can train your body to tolerate pretty low temperatures without shivering, and this seems to be related to increasing the number of Brown Fat cells - these are very important in a process called "non-shivering theremogenesis", and people who live in colder climates have a lot of them. If you can manage to tolerate cooler conditions (especially at night), you can encourage production of brown fat cells, and in effect lose weight whilst you sleep (in theory at least). The problem is that we're also hard-wired to crave more calories as the temperatures drop, so you'll also have to be careful with what you eat. This reflex response to cold is the major reason why people gain weight over winter (our bodies are programmed to maximise energy stores under such conditions).
@@Shaun.Stephens It depends on how cold it gets. Winter in the lower 48 states of the US likely won't do a whole lot. However, in the Antarctic research stations, caloric need effectively doubles. So, yeah, want to lose weight? Move to the polar circle.
Neither did I, but then again, the people at Google don't seem to know that the rest of the world does not use US-QWERTY (the fact that it literally has US in the name apparently didn't tip anyone off)... So yeah, I can press the comma to go back one frame, but in order to press the dot to advance a frame, I need to press shift-semicolon. Which means nothing.
@@Shaun.Stephens Are you pressing the shift key? From what I looked up online it appears those characters are on the comma and period keys, but shifted. The keys you need to press are actually comma and period; see the help screen that appears when you click your profile pic in the top right, and select "Keyboard shortcuts" from the dropdown.
There’s a speed setting on mobile. Set it to 0.25x and pause every screenful to read. On desktop, pause and use the “” keys to advance or rewind frame by frame. Now next time technology connections or any other silly youtuber decides to do the fast scrolly texty boi, you’ll catch their hilarious gag.
As a mechanical guy, familiar with HVAC, I never realized how much thought (or lack there of) went into the common thermostat. Thanks for the video - it was a hoot!
“ The Technology Connections Centre reminds you that the bimetallic coil thermostat will never threaten to stab you, and, in fact, cannot speak. In the event that your thermostat does speak, the Technology Connections Centre urges you to disregard its advice. “
"While it has been a faithful companion, your bi-metallic coil thermostat cannot accompany you through the rest of the test. If it could talk; and the Technology Connections Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot; it would tell you to go on without it. Because it would rather die in a fire, than to become a burden to you."
For those of us where heat pumps are common: the Emergency Heat electric heat strips are also called "Aux Heat". On even basic 30-year-old thermostats, Aux Heat is usually triggered if the setpoint temperature is 3 deg F above actual temperature. In this instance, turning the thermostat up above a 3 degree delta will actually heat faster, but use much more electricity.
I've seen places where "heat" is the heat pump, and "aux heat" or "emg. Heat" are from a gas furnace. Which is probably a decent idea for places with poor electrical infrastructure, where a lot of resistive heat might break the grid. (Like, say, Texas)
Yes exactly this. And much more difficult to find Smart thermostats and programmable thermostats. We have a heat pump with a relatively basic digital thermostat but it's not programmable or anything, have a new programmable one just waiting to install will be so nice, because right now I wake up in the morning and turn the thermostat up 2° then wait 20 or 30 minutes and turn it up another 2°. Just to avoid triggering the "Aux" heat. Can't wait to program with the app a nice smooth increase
I was waiting for the explanation of the heat anticipation adjustment and how it effects the duty cycle along with the screw on the contact effecting the hysteresis and the two working together. Then I was sure he'd give the nod to the people who turn it way up to get it hot faster in that as the temperature approaches the set point it does start to cycle off periodically. Then I figured we'd here all about the algorithms that accomplish the same results without a heater in the thermostat. Still a very good explanation.
@@patrickbroyer5518 Indeed these nuances exist on a finer scale (maybe within a couple degrees of setpoint) but the principle of "cranking it to 80 doesn't heat faster" stands. I don't think you or me are the intended audience, as stated at the beginning.
@@ewicky I don't think it does stand. My Nest thermostat has proportional PWM control. If the set point is only 1 deg above the room temp, the furnace wll cycle on and off every couple of minutes. if the set point is 10 deg above ambient, the furnace will run continuously for for a longer time.
there are actually some units that have second stage heating and cooling, that's what you see W2 and Y2 for. But that is more like full blast and double blast.
I am not a fun sucker.. and I watched in quarter speed because I didn't know about < and >.. Thanks for teaching me that too! Also, you've inspired me to want to build my own thermostat. I know that's nothing tough and that others have done so, but I didn't know that it was quite this easy! Arduino here I come..
@@sergiomendez9231 Also.. I just tested.. it's actually period and comma (at least for me on windows) not the shifted which seem to adjust playback speed
If you want to control different temperatures in different rooms, you don't need a complicated system of shutters in your ductwork. All you need it to have a separate furnace for each room!
That actually happened to me. The thermostat in my apartment runs on batteries. There isn’t even a C wire. I checked. Also it’s mounted sideways for some reason
I’m in the UK and many thermostats here do have a “One-Cycle” mode. It’s usually denoted on thermostats by a button labelled as “+1 HR” and overrides the temperature sensor and enables the heating for a set 60 minutes.
Yeah, Hive has a "Boost" mode where you set a temperature for a certain length of time. It's actually a bit of a misnomer though, because you can "boost" the temperature lower as well as higher.
I just timed tapping the pause button on my tablet to read it all. Too fast and it just toggles 'full screen' on and off, too slow and I miss a few lines of text. I'll try the speed adjust next time... 😕
Ecobee has something along the lines of “turn on for one cycle”. When you manually change the temperature (depending on settings), it can hold it for a specific duration (say 2 hours) before reverting to the default l
12:29 - For a brief second there I almost thought he went out and bought 3 identical toaster ovens...lol. And let us all be glad that at no point does he say that you put toast in a toaster. ;)
I need a shirt that has a picture of a soldering iron instead. It just hurts when clueless people use soldering iron to make a hole on plastic instead of using proper drill.
Is it not a reference to the "This is Not a Pipe" painting by Magritte, The Treachery of Images? Wikipedia has more here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images if you're interested.
The fun thing is you can think of it either as having a separate "on" and "off" threshold (with the area in between being "use last state") or as the threshold itself changing whenever the output changes - whichever happens to be easier to implement really.
I was originally going to comment that effect was called "dead-band" but I realize they are different terms and I'm pretty sure "hysteresis" is the correct one.
Yep, and the same effect is achieved in modern electronic thermostats via PID circuits. Their input and output might seem simple but they're more than just dumb switches.
This is some of the best content on TH-cam! The way your videos explain all the mundane technology we take for granted is so riveting and informative! Your way of explaining is so clear and concise, I finally understood enthalpy! I would have never thought to look into how all of these appliances work, but I’m so glad I did, I’m able to understand the world around me better due to these videos and I’m very grateful. Keep it up and I can’t wait to see more content! 👍👍👍👍
Remember, you must be paused for it to work. Also, this makes reading those single-frame messages *way* easier now that I don't have to set the speed to slowest and spam the spacebar, hoping that if TH-cam skips a frame or two, it doesn't skip the frame I *wanted* to see.
Another Non fun sucker here. I forgot where I learned about the Arrow keys but I believe I learned about them going through the help pages for another reason and wandering past the article that contained keyboard shortcuts. I primarily spammed the spacebar at the lowest speed to catch what I wanted. Now I use this technique for catching glitches either intentional or editing mainly on Jacksepticeye's channel. The digital age sure has made stop frame gags a lot simpler to catch.
Not sure if it's just my browser, but my experience of the frame by frame is a bit buggy. Sometimes it just freezes 20 frames ahead - so you miss the content and you have to hit the button 20 times to keep moving forwards.
I knew a guy who was color blind and for some reason boss let him put on thermostats. Can't tell you the amount of times I had to go back and fix his fuck ups! XD
@@brycelindseth5965 there is a very simple answer for that... Most cheap stats with a c terminal do not have a disconnect switch between the battery supply and 24v supply... So in most cases its easier for the customer to just change batteries rather than risking the chance for the batteries to send a strange interference to the furnace or equipment causing issues that most hvac guys would rather avoid... Most hvac guys like myself prefer either c required stats no batteries or a batteries required cheap stat....
@@steelbender1457 I'm glad you explained that, my head was about to explode. Fortunately, my new Honeywell thermostat uses the C wire and my installer said it required it, so no batteries in mine.
Fine, then I guess I won't type in the very inconveniently long text at 12:25 (I really don't want to no matter what). Instead I'll tell you guys what he wants me to say; use the speed in the player's settings or if on desktop use < and >. There, I'm not a fun sucker. Pfft.
I just watched a time-lapse video of toaster ovens. I'm now trying to figure out how my life got to this point. Seriously though, it was a good demonstration of the PWM-ish-ness of such systems. I can't wait for the PID controller video. :-)
I used to work at Menards (think Home Depot or :Lowes but limited to the upper midwest). Had many people ask about an "Express" setting when shopping for a new thermostat. Pretty much gave the same explanation as the video that it is a longer run time that gives a longer temperature swing.
Rick White Actually depends on the physical layout. If the thermostat is located between you and where the heating/cooling is, telling the thermostat to make it hotter / colder where IT is will change how fast it gets hotter / colder where YOU are. Other similar situations exist. Of cause if the difference between the "turn on/off now" points is large enough, it might oversteer enough to get your location hot/cold enough anyway.
"This prevents a scenario where it cools so much that it snaps to the right, which turns on the heat, which snaps it to the left, which turns on the A/C, which snaps it to the right, which turns *on the heat, which snaps it to the left, which turns on the A/C, which **-snaps it to the right, which turns on the heat, which snaps it on thE LEFT, WHICH TURNS ON THE A/C, WHICH SNAPS IT TO THE RIGHT-*- "-
Thermostat designer here. You are spot on for so many subjects, thermostats included! Let people know that you could have talked for much longer if you included: *Anticipation; (how does a thermostat with a 20 minute thermal time constant make room temperature decisions in five to ten minutes) adjustable/non-adjustable, equipment compatible, how simple mechanical thermostats are often better, how many digital tstats totally missed good anticipation, how internal heat rise from even a 1/4 watt power supply messes with your setting... *Mounting; errors due to poor air circulation/stratification, locating near a heat source, locating where the sun hits the tstat, locating where the cool/heat source is on the other side (!) of the wall, locating where the ceiling fan defeats the chimney effect designed into the tstat, Not plugging the wire access hole fully airtight to keep uncontrolled air from the basement or attic from blowing right through the thermostat... You are so right about the Nest sometimes needing a C line. Odd things happen. Your humor and snarkyness are great. Keep up the good work!
"who would watch a Technology Connections video at 6AM?" me- OH BOY 6AM (HIJACKING MY COMMENT TO MENTION BUTTON-ACTIVATED A/C THERMOSTAT BELOW) EDIT - Answering ICantThinkOfUsernames' question: in my church's chapel, we have exactly that. Regular old bimetallic thermostats (that's what they look like at least), but with multiple zones for more even temperatures (one thermostat per zone.) But there's a change: each thermostat has a "COOL" button that, when held down for five seconds, will run the A/C on full blast for half an hour. If you walk around and press all the buttons, the whole room will cool quite quickly before returning to its usual duty cycle. I don't know how this works. I've never taken apart our thermostats! But they do exist.
I'm guessing there's a relay in there that's engaged by a circuit hooked up to a button. Granted, its complexity can vary depending on how high-end it is.
I was a little disappointed when he said he was going to talk about the single purpose receptacle and not the sliced carbohydrate media to be partially burned for our enjoyment.
I’ve done HVAC for almost 6 years now and this guy could seriously be an instructor and I doubt he’s had any proper training but man he knows more than the average joe 😅 good stuff! 👍🏼
This is why I install multi-zone mini split heat pumps. They have their problems but so many configuration options and potential for greater precision and efficiency. Thanks for putting the fun back in the fundamentals.
My dad was in the HVAC business for 40 years, so I grew up knowing the thing about furnaces not heating faster no matter how high you set the heat. It led to some rather heated (lel) debates with roommates in college.
If you have a 2 stage furnace connected a two stage thermostat. Turning up the heat higher will send 24 volts to W1 and W2 telling the furnace to go straight to high and skip low. So it will get warm faster.
Some LG thermostats have powerful cooling function which does exactly this: runs AC at full power for 30 minutes and then switches to regular schedule.
Yup. I've got one. (I live in Europe). The other unit is a different make, but also has this "turbo" mode setting. I think Europeans rather expect to have this more or less standard.
I don't think I've ever lived somewhere without the mercury-style thermostat (Canada btw). Which, considering how long it's been since they made them, really speaks to their longevity.
@@anonharingenamn The keys on US keyboards have both < (with the comma below it) and > (with the period below it). The left and right arrow keys go forward and backward 10 seconds and the up and down arrow keys turn the volume up and down.
My ears perked up when he mentioned how thermostats can be compared to really slow Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). That's a very smart comparison! I was installing LED strip lighting under my cabinets and needed to install a PWM dimmer. I only knew I needed one, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to research how exactly they work. It's a fascinating concept, essentially flashing LEDs rapidly enough to trick your eyes into thinking it's a "dimmer" light. This concept of eye trickery seems to be a common theme with Technology Connections (such as in the awesome mechanical and analog television demonstrations), and I find it interesting how we can take advantage of what our human eyesight cannot see. Anyway, back the topic of THIS video, excellent job describing the simple, necessary, and ingenious technology behind thermostats!
Thank You! I have had the sense that my new range hood (with led lights and two brightness settings) was behaving like a nearly imperceptible strobe light. My husband doesn’t notice it, but I do. I’m guessing this must be why.
A lot of UK thermostats allow a "boost" feature that usually puts the heating on for 30 mins but not override the thermostat temp. Especially as we have more often than not thermostatic radiator valves that regulate temp in individual rooms
8:00 from what I've seen of industrial processes in my line of work, ordering a mold for injection is what sets you back the most in terms of R&D budget for that kind of extremely simple device. IMHO, it's not "too cheap" but rather "pretty smart" (and quite "normal" too)! :-)
I was going to remark that there's floating digital text over his furnace. His video is leaking into the real world! At least it seems to be localized to his region of the world.
How about modulating thermostats using e.g. OpenTherm? This can be used in a furnace with a throttling valve or in a water central heating system to regulate the circuit input/boiler water temperature. Not just medium blast is possible in this case, but also x blast, with x somewhere between 5-100% power.
Soooo.... yeah I'll be that guy for this one... Boosting Engagement! I have a Carrier Infinity heat pump system, and it's the exception to the rule. It doesn't use the old school 4/5 wire setup, it's a serial data bus, and is variable speed on both the fan and the compressor motor. So turning it all the way up to 90 does in fact speed up both the circulation fan and the heat output. The damn thing sounds like a hurricane when it gets up to full speed. But most of the time it runs at a low speed and low compressor output so you don't even hear it running. But the motors in the compressor and air handler are driven by real PWM! Of course, it also means I have to use only Carrier stuff, I can't go just buy a thermostat at Home Depot, I have to use the $300 one Carrier sold me. Great video as always!
Same! Mine is a Lennox 2 stage heat pump with variable speed fan and TXV. The thermostat has only 4 wires: power, ground, and RSBus +/-. It figures out the heat load and determines if it needs to run in first or second stage and what speed to run the fan on. My power bill dropped like a stone, what was a $350/month bill in the summer went to just over $100/month.
@@mobile_vic probably switching on and off, uses so much power for the initial start current, that running continuous but at low speed is a lot less power demanding.....?
@Lambda Music I do! I went from a propane fired heater and single speed AC to the heat pump. AC bills could easily go above $500/month for electricity. Propane was harder to figure out since other things in the house use it to, but I went from filling the tank 3 times a year to once a year. Electricity now rarely breaks $100/month.
Maybe I missed somebody else's comment about this..... All of the modern and fairly modern digital thermostats I have seen DO have a feature to allow temporary override of the normal heat or cool setting. You just use the normal temperature UP & DOWN buttons, but don't go into programming mode first. Then the digital thermostat uses the new temporary setpoint for a while (2 hours seems common) before reverting to the normal setpoint.
I've noticed that by staying awake for more than 36 hours straight I am comfortable at a warmer temperature in the Summer months, saving both on air conditioning and restaurant meal bills.
it's actually usually at set (adjustable) times that it returns to the program rather than a duration. like 6am 9am 5pm 10pm for people with a regular work schedule who wake up at 6, go to work at 9, get home at 5, and go to sleep at 10
@@X2Brute , I was talking about impromptu settings, used only on occasion, rather than the regular programmable temperature settings that you refer to. The method you mention requires going into a programming mode of some sort, whereas what I was talking about is just done by pressing the up/down buttons without going into programming mode.
@@youtuuba so was I, usually with most thermostats when you just use the buttons to change the temperature temporarily it will stay at that temperature until there is a program change rather than for a set period of time
@@X2Brute , what do you base your assertion on? I have installed many tens of digital thermostats over the last 10-15 years, all of them different models, and most of them worked as I described, although certainly some worked more like what you said.
re: the final question... my Fujitsu heat pumps have a "powerful" button, that turns the cooling on full blast for several minutes and then returns to its normal set routine, so things like that do exist.
Probably it only makes it turn in 100% duty time for this several minutes and then come back to the 50 or 70% duty cycle to stabilisation. Even newest systems with microcontroller wich allows you to variate output temperature like your car ac were you can see notorious diferente when you change temperature, can do it just because they have a thermostat directly on vent output instead of in the middle of the car like happens at home and gives them a quick feedback alongside with pre-defined duty cycles for each temperature because you are in a limited closed area, and variations are not so big. In home systems its almost impossible to make factory regulations because every home are different
i have the same button on my panasonic AC/heatpump but obviously it rather releases some extra cooling power on top of the regular maximum setting, so full blast without any regulation, and it will only stop if i switch back to normal. but hey it works, when it is very hot and the normal mode struggles to cool down the room. but a way cooler feature is the inverter control of the heat pump which actually allows the system to run constantly at the exact needed power instead of the annoying on/off cycle.
Minisplit (ductless)heat pumps are variable speed. The compressor and indoor and outdoor fans only run as hard as they need to. They are very energy efficiant.
in order to boost engagement and inform the public, in case you did not know, any fast scrolling text can be quite easily read by pausing the video at its start and going frame-by-frame using the < and > keys
Mate, your delivery in Theese presentations is always on par Your sense of humor makes the seemingly simple extremely entertaining and I truly learn a lot from your lectures Keep up the good work
Engagement! Lots of central heating systems in the Netherlands use OpenTherm thermostats to do modulation on the heat output of the furnace. And they learn your programmed temperature schedule and how fast the house warms up and know when to start the heat output to reach the desired temp in time and all that nice jazz. And then many have output temp probes to do weather dependent water temperature for extra savings.
OpenTherm is available on a fair number of UK boilers too (we call them boilers, probably because they heat water, and we're simple folk), although it's not well-known - my Mother in Law had a new boiler and a Nest installed last year and they didn't connect the OpenTherm terminals. I fixed it. Also our Nest thermostat is different to your Nest thermostat because our boilers are different, but that's a whole other problem
Engagement! Here in Italy even without opentherm some furnaces modulates the amount of heat. Oh, and a/c too, we call it “inverter” models. Yeeeee, engagement :)
Ok but let's be serious Alec, THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW ABOUT < AND >. I was always so annoyed having to guess when to pause to catch 1 frame jokes in videos!
@@DEMENTO01 The numbers or > and < ? On my keyboard the frame step is . and , not the carrot brackets. Period and comma. The brackets change playback speed
Some LG thermostats have powerful cooling function which does exactly this: runs AC at full power for 30 minutes and then switches to regular schedule.
Most ducted systems have this facility. The modern systems have single-zone or multiple zone time-selected override (and you can choose the temp. override in single degree increments). Add in the now ubiquitous "App-based" zonal management and you can control the room temperatures of your home from anywhere in the World with mobile 'phone access. It is interesting to note that the Mobile 'Phone leaders, LG and Samsung, offer the most comprehensive "app-based" systems. Samsung offers fully remote diagnosis of any faults, including upload capability to their local service network.
My Daikin AC has inverter so it can actually vary output power and not run on full blast and then idle for minutes at a time. The thermostat changes voltage on the control wire to control the output power.
@@NyanSten This inverter technology is now common in refrigerators too (e.g. Panasonic). All larger installations have been inverter-based for quite some time, and even the smaller "through the window / wall" modular systems are now offering this technology. Major innovators in this "no Technician installation necessary" area of small compact fully integrated units are all Chinese. Gree, and Midea (the latter the World's largest manufacturer of a/c systems, small and large).
Ecobee thermostats can be configured so that when you manually change the temperature, it will hold the new set-point for a configurable amount of time, then go back to the scheduled set-point. I noticed that it turns on the second stage cooling if the current temperature is ~2F above the set-point or if stage-1 cooling was running for ~20 minutes.
I love this channel, and I love the palpable levels of exasperation our nattily-attired host shows toward not just the TH-cam comment section, but various insular online tech communities, as well. I come for the fascinating breakdowns of technology (and I love the long-form stories for everything from analog television to RCA's CED snipe hunt), and I stay for the dry, deadpan humor.
If only you had a system where heated water circulated through vessels with a large surface, using a local valve to determine the flow through each vessel ... The idea that this is a thermostat is quite outlandish to people living in northern Europe.
Thats how you heat stuff here! but I never seen it used to cool your room... Or circulate air. I wish I could circulate air by turning that knob. The main disadvantage with this type of heating, is that it is very very noisy (about on par with the coil-whine from phone chargers). It also requires de-bubbling every few years.
@@markchip1 this is sexist as hell, i'm willing to bet the girl i marry some day will know more about tech than your son/daughter who was raised with a cell phone in hand from the age of 0.5!
*stares at his mercury switch thermostat* it's OK boy, I know you exist and still work perfectly after 70 years. Good video for anyone who has never replaced their thermostat and went 'ok so that is incredibly simple...' love your content I'm still going through a back log haha.
This brings to mind a funny anecdote (code for probably stop reading now), but in ye old yesteryear when I got my first "blue collar" job, I had moved to the balmy climes of Alaska and charisma'd my way into a job doing remediation work (think water damage, mold, fire and death remnants (paid double time!) within man-made structures.) I was told that we need to remove pressed paneling up to a line four feet circling this garden level room. Now, in Anchorage, there's quite a bit of boiler fed baseboard heating, and this property was no exception. So... You can cut paneling by running a utility knife along a line to make a score mark and snap it off. But that's laborious and time consuming. We just got a full set of battery op hand tools. Circular saw sounds much faster and easier. Short story long, a circ saw will do a number on copper piping, and the first 30 seconds or so of water spraying out are fine. But then the boiler kicks in while you've got a piece of rubber hose and some zip ties just in the right position. That room needed a lot of dehumidification (dead of winter, couldn't really open windows and doors to vent).
My grandmother had an electric fan that had three settings... off, too slow to make a difference and too fast like a wind tunnel. No joke - that thing sucked.
I remember back in the day when I was young and poor and me and my buddy rented a third floor walk up in an old poorly insulated brick building. It basically became a furnace in July and August. My dad gave us his old window shaker a/c unit from like 1972. It had two speeds. Off, and Full Blast. So basically, you had the option of furnace, or meat locker in our apartment, lol.
And until today I had simply no idea < or > or , or . allowed one to to speed up slowdown step forward step back youtube... just assumed it couldn't be done. Just for that alone this video wins the internet today.
Re: one cycle heat / cooling, I think honeywell programmable ones can do this. Essentially you could either program the thing with daily high low holds or permanent holds in the menu, but if you simply went up to the thing and pressed the + / - buttons it would say something along the lines of "temporary hold - 1hr" or something. I'm not sure the exact model but I would guess that most "older style" programmable thermostats can do this.
Some additional information!
Firstly, two-stage heating is _sorta_ common so the notion that "there is no medium blast" is _probably_ true but if you have a fancy pants HVAC system, then maybe cranking the heat up _might_ make it go faster. No idea what percentage of homes have a two stage heating system, but I'd guess it's in the 10-20% range.
In re: the thermostat wire question. Apparently, to this day, the current going through the contactors that actually turn on the high current loads such as your A/C or an electric furnace's heating elements is carried through the thermostat. So, it's more than just color coding; they are designed to carry some current, and thus need to be a minimum wire gauge. So while Cat5 cable or similar would probably work for most HVAC systems, it might not be able to carry enough current for others (and could, potentially, pose a fire risk under the right circumstances).
On that note, and I'm mad at myself for not bringing this up, you might have noticed that in the mechanical thermostat, a separate insulated wire connects the R terminal to the contact on the bimetallic strip. This prevents the current from being carried through the bimetallic strip, which could inadvertently heat it up and prematurely stop the furnace. Neat!
I have a two-stage furnace, but not a two-stage-aware thermostat. The furnace installer couldn't be bothered to run a cable with more strands, but assured me that the furnace activates the second stage if the thermostat asks for heat for more than a few minutes. I wish I had invested in a 96% furnace instead.
Two-stage cooling is also a thing, but I'm not sure if it's more or less common that having a multiple-stage furnace.
Well Alec there can be a medium blast if you had a variable speed furnace, heat pump or air Conditioner but these systems require special thermostats to work properly
Heat pumps with secondary/backup resistance heating are becoming more common.
@@Bob5mith I'm an HVAC/R Tech in my area people want 2 stage heat pumps 1 stage of aux 2 heat pump stages so 3 stage heat they make equipment with multiple speeds which is called an inverter
"For this, we'll need a toaster."
Alec you have a problem. Please admit it.
I feel like toasters will be a meme on this channel going forward.
@@Zeragamba Ahem, recurring theme. A meme is something different.
Maybe "toasters" have replaced "pixels"... :-)
I say we form a religion around this. Alec would be the High Priest of the Church of Automaticity Beyond Belief.
BRING US THE TOASTERS, THE OMNISSIAH DEMANDS
I always told my wife that setting the heat to 80 is like setting a burrito in the microwave to 10 minutes because you're hungry and want it to cook faster.
That's actually a great analogy!
I'm not sure it's the same theory when someone is cold. Trying to warm up from freezing temps at 70f will take longer than 80f. Having 80f will warm the body up faster than 70f. It won't make the furnace get to 80 faster, it warms the body up faster.
@@DavidSmith-rf5je If you mean that being in a warmer room will warm you up faster, then yes. If you mean that in a cold house, setting the heat to 80 rather than 70 will warm you up faster, then no, as explained in the video the same furnace will turn on in the same way.
@@greggoog7559 Hotel heating and cooling is a whole different animal.. Generally massive loops that run through all the rooms from a boiler room. Kicking their heater boiler off is not cheap. The boiler may turn on even if the room never reaches a low enough temp to pump out any air..
@@DavidSmith-rf5je This is the point in the argument that I just start throwing sweaters at people until the house is warm.
My wife just walked into the room after being gone for a few minutes and said, “Goodness, is he still talking about thermostats?” 🤣
Golly, Beav, Wally's wife never says anything at all.
You should have told her to keep her cool LMFAO. Just kidding.
Did you respond with, “yeah, I think he really likes them, I want to hear more about that toaster”
My girlfriend thinks technology connections is the most boring thing ever.
I disagree XD
@@Megadriver she doesn't get his humour, then. You poor bastard.
I had to rewire my furnace yesterday to install a smart stat. I watched hours of video about hvacs, and yes, my furnace is frightfully ancient, it turns 50 next year. I was DEEP into the learning process, bought wire and tools from the Depot, looked up 50 year old schematics, and did it. It was all really new to me and I wished I had a smart but straight forward "beginner's" explanation. And then I found this video today and it turns out I had watched it when it came out... Anyway I successfully retrofitted grandpa hotness and it was probably this video deep in my memory that helped me out so thanks!
“Go ahead and comment about it, it boosts engagement.” Savage, lmao.
never been to this channel, this guys hilarious and informative ....subbed
Time to engage.
They are good for the youtube algorithm
@@Lorddrago_69 Commenting on necro threads is also good for engagement!
"I promise this isn't about toast."
You shouldn't say things like that. It reduces engagement.
"Ignore the blue", that got me paying even more attention to the blue
HVAC Tech here. Wanna hear a fun story about a furnace that kept blowing its fuse? Yeah, there was a short somewhere on the board in the common side of the circuit, so whenever you connected the common to the thermostat, the fuse would blow. This originally started as me trying to install a Nest thermostat. Imagine hiring an expert to install a new thermostat, only to be told that your furnace needs a new control board. Yeah, the homeowner wasn't happy. I did manage to work out a hackey solution though, that involved wiring the common directly to the common side of the transformer. I should point out that this is NOT a proper solution, and was only a workaround for this specific scenario. If the homeowner's system had also had air conditioning, then this would have been discovered sooner, as well as not been solved this way. For those non experts out there: the circuit that turns on the outdoor condenser unit on a standard split-system AC is also wired to the common terminal on the furnace control board. Were it present, the fuse would have been blowing every time the AC came on. But this was in Breckenridge Colorado, in the house of someone who (rightly) figured that it would be cheaper to run a window unit for the couple months each year that actually required any kind of AC. Because the common was previously unused, I'm at a bit of a loss to how it shorted in the first place, though the two potentials that come to mind are manufacturing defect, or perhaps corrosion on the board.
same
Streisand effect
@@TheMinecraftACMan Huh. I had a guy bring in a control board like that and asked me to fix it at a computer store in Denver.
@@TheMinecraftACMan why do you randomly comment this under someone else's comment where it has nothing to do with that?
No one asked for your story here
Just put it in your own full comment
As far as "frightfully ancient" goes, I met a woman living in an old farm house with radiant heat whose 1920s boiler was converted from coal to gas long ago. She said that she needed to "get rid of the old thing and upgrade." Her bill for heating her entire farm house was $20 cheaper than my bill for heating a downstairs flat with a 10 year old high efficiency furnace. I told her to keep it.
hey you can't blame someone for imagining SOME progress had been made in almost 100 years lol
@@stitchfinger7678I mean to be fair. Excluding heat pumps. Energy is energy. Burning gas in a modern heater vs a 1920s heater isnt magically going to create more heat and be "more efficient".
What really has come a long way is insulation. Last year We've moved into a brand new house here in Germany, highest insulation rating and all. How little heat we need to stay warm is comical. You can basically stay in a room for 20mins, and just from the body heat, the temperature will have risen a couple of degrees.
@@leogrievousI mean, undoubtedly a number of older designs probably weren't the best at _transmitting_ all the heat they produced through the system and heating the _rest_ of the house.
In this case, the difference-maker is probably that the system is boiler-powered rather than forced-air furnace.
"Blue does nothing. Ignore the blue"
Sometimes your videos make me feel like I'm in an Orwellian dystopia.
Hey stop thinking about the blue one.
He told you not and you don't want to betray alec right?
Blue is common. It powers the thermostat. No batteries needed
@@Negative13Prod THE BLUE DOES NOTHING!
IGNORE IT.
Making half of OSP cry
THERE IS NO BLUE WIRE. YOU SEE NOTHING.
The thermostat in my apartment was acting up a couple of weeks ago. I took off the cover and saw the coiled spring, and that reminded me of this video. Knowing the basic functionality, I saw that the spring was covered in gunk so it couldn't unwind properly. So I used a can of compressed air to gently clean it off and it worked fine after that. If I hadn't known how the coil worked I would have had to call the maintenance person to come take a look, but thanks to you I was able to fix it myself!
Gotta keep that coil gunk-free.
Yeah I literally had that exact thermostat in the apartment I used to live in.
It used to act up all the time, sadly it seems I’ve gotten to this video too late.
You’re A LOT smarter than the dumb asses that can’t fix my LG fridge! I finally found out there was a massive recall & they didn’t want or know how to do it
Cooler than I thought indeed, what a hot topic.
Feeling grounded now, despite not being a common subject!
Hey LGR, didn't realize you were a fan too!
@@CFSworks I mean, who isn't a fan of this channel
@@CFSworks neither did I.
These puns give me chills.
LGR sighted!
I like how he always points out tiny details in an attempt to prevent unnecessary comment section drama
I suspect that is something he has learned the hard way over the years.
It boosts engagement 😁
Ohhhh, that’s what the blue wire does!!! (Engagement boosted)
I’m boosting the engagement of you comment
This comment needs boosted engagement from yours truly.
boosted!
@@tabbyteacat boooosted!
2:02
TH-cam recommend: Thermostat
Me: Why would I want that?
> Technology Connections
Me: ok.
This guy is such a pleasure to watch. Did *you* expect to be enthralled over a toaster tear-down? No you did not. :D
They're cooler than you think!
SO TRUE! lol
"Oh, and if you're about to write this in a comment to save people the trouble, you're a fun sucker and sucked the fun right out of this gag. I hope you're happy."
-Technology Connections
C O N V I C T E D F U N S U C K E R
I literally paused it just to see that exact message. Didn't bother reading the rest.
Was seriously considering just writing out only this latter half for the continuation of the gag, but then I realised I couldn't be bothered so I took the lazy option and waited for someone else to do it.
@@grn1 That kind of defeats the purpose though? I read it, it was a very sad story, lol.
When you go up to the thermostat to raise the temperature, what actually happens?
.... your dad yells at you for touching the thermostat.
Yep, this is the more realistic discription of the events
"Hey Peter, my thing went off! Your thermostat OK?"
I've lived alone for 2 years and when i adjust my thermostat i get a phone call from my dad.
I'll say it for everyone else: "That would be impressive!"
I predict millions of views on this video. Dads everywhere will show this video at the next family meeting because the electric bill is too damn high.
@@krinohs My father is always telling to me change it because he was too lazy to get up.
I don't know...it will take electricity to actually show the video. They will request written transcripts and pass them out.
Glad my dad did not have the technology of smart phone thermostats of today. Could see it at work. I would make it warmer when he was at work, and dropping it back colder before he got home. I am talking about a/c, my dad liked it to cold, lol
Some days I'm tempted to pop the thermostat off and take it to work. But when I think it through I realize the gas fireplace will just be on high all day long. I have gone as far as shutting the gas valve off on the fireplace and every time my wife asks to turn it on I say yea I'll get to it. I come home one day an its on...Just because. WTF? I turned it off... Turns out they will just figure it out themselves. 🤔
So now if I steal the thermostat I bet I'll come home and find a jumper wire in its place 🤣
It's not the kids that made this mistake in my household. It was my mom. She'd get up in the morning feeling too cold, and crank the thermostat up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit because she wanted to warm up "quickly." Every. Damn. Time.
"There is no medium blast" would make a good shirt
Sounds like me as a kid..... "DAD!, is there such thing as medium blast? What about small blast?"
Then when you get tired of the fan running at all, you turn it to "off blast".
Memetastic (slightly legally-challenged) version: "Do or do not. There is no medium blast!"
Thermostat be like:
"Go hard or go home"
That would confuse the large mass of people that think all controls are analog. These are the same people that tap the call button repeatedly to make the elevator arrive faster.
I literally just discovered this channel, and I love it.
What's that? "You're just commenting for engagement?" No, I don't know what you're talking about.
I used to work in an office building that had only 1 zone on the first floor. One thermostat to control the whole first floor. Everyone hated it! The solution was to install dummy thermostats around the building that weren't hooked up to anything. But the fact that people felt they had some control over the temperature made them feel more comfortable! Bring in the psychologist please!
We considered this for our office thermostats, too, as there is no reaction at all. But for us it is no thought of more control but just something to make fun of or just completely ignore. But we have rooms with windows.
That’s how a lot of offices do it to this day. Make people think they have temp control but really, nope.
Ladies and gentlemen... The placebo effect!
I have "worked" on a lot of AC units that had nothing wrong. After checking everything, I would let the person know "I made a few tuning adjustments, I think it should feel better now. Let me know if it doesn't".
I rarely hear back.
@@JoshuaTootell That's why I have trust issues with craftsmen!
Did I plan on watching a video about thermostats at 4am? No. Did it happen? Yes
Better question: Did you enjoy it?
@@stephblackcat yes, yes I did
Welcome to the proud nerd community! :) I definitely relate!
@@Lariat_V More or less than Toasters. I'm in the less camp. :)
11 PM for me
"One of my favorite things is when i discover a connection between two seemingly distant technologies." [LONG PAUSE] 😆
In the Closed Captions it says "[pregnant pause]" LOL
I didn't get that until it was written out. :P
@Shahin Parsay The name of the channel.
he fuckin got me there
This guy and Calculon need to start a public speaking class...
Temperature: gets 1°C below the desired one
Thermostat: *H E A T N O W*
Temperature: Reaches target heat
Thermostat: Ok stop heating.
Temperature: gets 1°C below the desired one
Thermostat: i.imgflip.com/38hm3e.png
I read this with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice 😅
vjfajardo0728 HEAT! HEAT THE ROOM NOW!
Sometimes there's a lag of a few degrees to stop it from kicking in constantly, particularly in forced air systems with an audible fan.
This is my fav comment
12:28 using low playback speed or frame-by-frame is for casuals, i simply paused and unpaused the video repeatedly at full speed
Same
haha < and > go brrrrr
you didnt even read that
Same
i simply trained speedreading for the entire time since this video came out until now, when i was finally able to read the whole thing at full speed with no pauses
Me too, lol. At least I read all of it before being convicted as a fun sucker.
The last comment on a mode where the thermostat goes to a new set temperature after you've mowed the lawn: That would be the "Hold" mode on most Honeywells programmables. Just hit the temperature buttons up or down and it will hold the new temperature for 2 hours, then resume its program. You can also set the Hold mode for longer periods, perfect if you're going away on vacation for two weeks, let's say.
Thermostat wire is special. I live in Canada, but things are similar in much of the United States. If the thermostat fails, your furnace never gets the call for heat and your pipes freeze causing a huge amount of flood damage. The wire is low-voltage rated and has a FT rating printed on the jacket - that's Flame Travel, to tell you whether or not a furnace fire can spread to the rest of your home via burning thermostat wires. Also, being different enough from ordinary NMD house wiring, it's hopeful no one would try to connect a household thermostat directly to the 120V line - but it does happen where baseboard heaters are common.
Don't trust the wire colors as standards - they should be but they're not. Always label the wires as you take them off the old one and put them on the new one. If you lost track, go down to the furnace and look at the control board. The R terminal on the furnace must be connected to the R terminal on the thermostat, and so forth.
When you run into W1, W2, W3 or Y1, Y2, Y3, you're dealing with a multistage setup. They're becoming common on high-efficiency residential furnaces here in the snowbelt. W1 turns on the furnace, one burner. W1 and W2 turns on the furnace with two burners.... you get the idea. Multistage heat is a lot more common than multistage AC because gas valves and igniters are cheaper than compressors and condensers, but you might see multistage AC moving into places where there have been energy efficiency incentives.
Take your old mercury-bulb or other pure mechanical thermostat and mount it in the utility room where your water service enters your house. Set it to heat and set it at an indoor temperature you'd find unpleasantly cold - lowest setting. Connect its R and W terminals in parallel with your new programmable or smart thermostat, you might even be able to run the wires directly to the furnace. Your old thermostat will be there silently ready to command the furnace to turn on if your new thermostat gets dead batteries or suffers a software crash (or a hack!) while you're away on a ski vacation. It will keep your pipes from freezing.
In hot states in the US, multi-stage A/C is fairly common to cut down on electricity costs (by 1/3 with a two-stage compressor!). We also have a variable speed fan.
Great information. I would recommend doing the same for hot climates? also worth noting that there's been occasional issues of furnaces not ending their heat cycle and melting things due to thermostat crash(hack?). If you're going to the troubles to replicate this a high temperature cutoff might be a good idea.
I like that idea of having the second backup mechanical thermostat... Good cheap insurance for those that go away for days at a time.
@@imark7777777 In that case you could also use the old mechanical thermostat, but wired in series.
E.g.: You want your house at 72 F, so you set that in the Nest thermostat. Then you run the heating wire through the old thermostat which is set at it's maximum (90 F).
If the temperature ever reaches 90 F it will open the circuit, stopping the heating.
Good info here. However, I wonder about the proportion of only furnace problem fails compared to pure thermostat failure.
"A convicted fun sucker".
Take care when saying that out loud.
I actually didn't know < and > allowed you to look at each frame
@@incompetencelogistics8924 Same, I'd seen ppl use it on streams but never knew the keys.
@@incompetencelogistics8924 There's quite a few keyboard shortcuts for youTube on desktop...
sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/u-m-google-170816/accessibility/google-keyboard-shortcuts---youtube
Still, I'm watching this from a ps4, best i can do is go forward and backwards in increments of ten seconds, or quickly press the option button to pause and play feame-by-frame...
@@iamise I just set the playback speed to 0.25 and paused it when needed.
I Service HVAC systems on passenger trains, and everything is preset and automatically controlled. The system is set to run the heat or A.C. as needed to achieve the preset temperature. There is no way to change it other than turning off breakers, which are located under the train car. They do include an override button, that runs the A.C. for 20 minutes to cool off the car in the event there are a lot of passengers. 100 people have a lot of BTUs of heat. I thought I'd provide that little bit of insight since you asked of anyone knew of a thermostat with the feature of running and then returning to the set temperature.
Something that most people don't realise. The average human generates about 100w of heat, so a train carriage full of your 100 people (probably relatively lightly-clad since it's warm) will generate 10kW heat (which is approaching the rated capacity of many "whole-house" ducted a/c systems). Add in thermal gain from the exterior (heat leakage via windows, opening doors, and solar gain from roof irradiance) and the a/c requirements can be very significant indeed.
@@phils4634 Hmmm.... So if I want to lose weight should I *not* put on those extra layers of clothing in winter and lose weight as heat? That 100w of heat isn't constant right? The body thermo-regulates... I'd rather be cold than go to a gym.
Shaun Stephens Well, grow yourself some extra fat for better insulation. If you ever run out of food or suffer indigestion, you can burn the fat as an emergency energy source.
@@Shaun.Stephens Surprisingly, YES! Your basal metabolism produces about 100W heat even sitting still, and exercise (even gentle walking) can easily add another 100w. There have been a number of physiology papers indicating that you can train your body to tolerate pretty low temperatures without shivering, and this seems to be related to increasing the number of Brown Fat cells - these are very important in a process called "non-shivering theremogenesis", and people who live in colder climates have a lot of them. If you can manage to tolerate cooler conditions (especially at night), you can encourage production of brown fat cells, and in effect lose weight whilst you sleep (in theory at least). The problem is that we're also hard-wired to crave more calories as the temperatures drop, so you'll also have to be careful with what you eat. This reflex response to cold is the major reason why people gain weight over winter (our bodies are programmed to maximise energy stores under such conditions).
@@Shaun.Stephens It depends on how cold it gets. Winter in the lower 48 states of the US likely won't do a whole lot. However, in the Antarctic research stations, caloric need effectively doubles. So, yeah, want to lose weight? Move to the polar circle.
You distracted me the whole time with the “THIS IS NOT A DRILL” shirt
haha. me too!
drills make holes. hammers can make holes, too. hammer IS a drill
@@leslieq958 ok, i see your point. But you can’t hit a hammer on metal and make a hole. However, you can use a drill bit on a drill and make a hole
Sure you can put a hole in metal with a hammer. You're just not swinging hard enough.
@@ZTenski haha yes
"how can you make a dumb furnace do that?"
That poor furnace. He's trying his best, you know.
I know right? The furnace doesn't know any better. Just doing it's job by making things hot.
It's not dumb, just thermally challenged. That's more PC
++
I legitimately did not know about using < and > keys to move frame by frame on youtube. i felt dumb
Neither did I, but then again, the people at Google don't seem to know that the rest of the world does not use US-QWERTY (the fact that it literally has US in the name apparently didn't tip anyone off)... So yeah, I can press the comma to go back one frame, but in order to press the dot to advance a frame, I need to press shift-semicolon. Which means nothing.
It doesn't work for me. I hit 'K' to pause and the < and > keys jump 5 seconds rather than a single frame. (Firefox 66.0.5 on Windows 10.)
@@Shaun.Stephens Are you pressing the shift key? From what I looked up online it appears those characters are on the comma and period keys, but shifted. The keys you need to press are actually comma and period; see the help screen that appears when you click your profile pic in the top right, and select "Keyboard shortcuts" from the dropdown.
Juan Rial So it's not < and > except on some minority of machines that happen to be common in California.
@@EvenTheDogAgrees When I press the shift key in combination with the ,/< and ./> keys the playback speed changes. Thanks though.
There’s a speed setting on mobile. Set it to 0.25x and pause every screenful to read.
On desktop, pause and use the “” keys to advance or rewind frame by frame.
Now next time technology connections or any other silly youtuber decides to do the fast scrolly texty boi, you’ll catch their hilarious gag.
fun sucker :P
Lol you are indeed NOT a convicted fun sucker. Good thing you didn't type out that entire block of text just to get trolled in the last paragraph.
Note: In EU keyboards are the "," and "." keys
Is there a solution for viewers from console?
@@DEMENTO01 Not just EU keyboards. I'm using a US keyboard with Firefox on Linux and it's , and . for me too (< and > do speed).
As a mechanical guy, familiar with HVAC, I never realized how much thought (or lack there of) went into the common thermostat. Thanks for the video - it was a hoot!
“ The Technology Connections Centre reminds you that the bimetallic coil thermostat will never threaten to stab you, and, in fact, cannot speak. In the event that your thermostat does speak, the Technology Connections Centre urges you to disregard its advice. “
"While it has been a faithful companion, your bi-metallic coil thermostat cannot accompany you through the rest of the test. If it could talk; and the Technology Connections Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot; it would tell you to go on without it. Because it would rather die in a fire, than to become a burden to you."
Apeture Science companion cube safety warning reference.
Rolling in laughter at this, I am!
This should be a mod.
"It runs on full blast because that's the only degree of blast that a furnace can run." 🤷♂️
As far as I can tell, this also applies to blast furnaces.
Blasted things.
"There is no medium blast."
@@Skipperthekitty Only full.
And off.
Off blast.
While certainly a cool statement, it's only partially true: multi-stage heating systems have existed for years.
For those of us where heat pumps are common: the Emergency Heat electric heat strips are also called "Aux Heat". On even basic 30-year-old thermostats, Aux Heat is usually triggered if the setpoint temperature is 3 deg F above actual temperature. In this instance, turning the thermostat up above a 3 degree delta will actually heat faster, but use much more electricity.
I've seen places where "heat" is the heat pump, and "aux heat" or "emg. Heat" are from a gas furnace.
Which is probably a decent idea for places with poor electrical infrastructure, where a lot of resistive heat might break the grid. (Like, say, Texas)
Yes exactly this. And much more difficult to find Smart thermostats and programmable thermostats. We have a heat pump with a relatively basic digital thermostat but it's not programmable or anything, have a new programmable one just waiting to install will be so nice, because right now I wake up in the morning and turn the thermostat up 2° then wait 20 or 30 minutes and turn it up another 2°. Just to avoid triggering the "Aux" heat. Can't wait to program with the app a nice smooth increase
What place uses both heat pumps and Fahrenheit?
@@MrAwawe The southern US (although they are used some in the north, even Alaska)
@@Owen_loves_Butters my 2018 construction apartment in philly has a heat pump (and no aux heat, so i hope it doesn't get too cold lol)
Amazing how you were able to avoid saying "feedback loop" for 15+ minutes on thermostats
I was waiting for the explanation of the heat anticipation adjustment and how it effects the duty cycle along with the screw on the contact effecting the hysteresis and the two working together. Then I was sure he'd give the nod to the people who turn it way up to get it hot faster in that as the temperature approaches the set point it does start to cycle off periodically. Then I figured we'd here all about the algorithms that accomplish the same results without a heater in the thermostat. Still a very good explanation.
@@patrickbroyer5518 Indeed these nuances exist on a finer scale (maybe within a couple degrees of setpoint) but the principle of "cranking it to 80 doesn't heat faster" stands. I don't think you or me are the intended audience, as stated at the beginning.
@@ewicky I don't think it does stand. My Nest thermostat has proportional PWM control. If the set point is only 1 deg above the room temp, the furnace wll cycle on and off every couple of minutes. if the set point is 10 deg above ambient, the furnace will run continuously for for a longer time.
" There is no medium blast. There is only full blast. And off."
Rolling 😂
@Leon thecat Mine has medium and full blast heat.
Just like my ex wife.
Mine's completely variable between something like 40% and 100%
Y'all laugh about the strangest things.
there are actually some units that have second stage heating and cooling, that's what you see W2 and Y2 for. But that is more like full blast and double blast.
I am not a fun sucker.. and I watched in quarter speed because I didn't know about < and >.. Thanks for teaching me that too! Also, you've inspired me to want to build my own thermostat. I know that's nothing tough and that others have done so, but I didn't know that it was quite this easy! Arduino here I come..
I didn't know about the < and > either! I just would press play/pause really fast using the spacebar!
@@sergiomendez9231 Also.. I just tested.. it's actually period and comma (at least for me on windows) not the shifted which seem to adjust playback speed
If you want to control different temperatures in different rooms, you don't need a complicated system of shutters in your ductwork.
All you need it to have a separate furnace for each room!
The fact that radiators actually do this effectively lol
"I promise this isn't about toast."
(X) Doubt
"Bro can you turn it down its a little hot in here"
"Oh yeah sorry gimme a minute forgot to charge my thermostat"
lol
That actually happened to me. The thermostat in my apartment runs on batteries. There isn’t even a C wire. I checked. Also it’s mounted sideways for some reason
@@Jaymac720 it might be a wireless unit, some newer installations use them, especially for multi unit housing and commercial buildings
I’m in the UK and many thermostats here do have a “One-Cycle” mode. It’s usually denoted on thermostats by a button labelled as “+1 HR” and overrides the temperature sensor and enables the heating for a set 60 minutes.
Yeah, Hive has a "Boost" mode where you set a temperature for a certain length of time. It's actually a bit of a misnomer though, because you can "boost" the temperature lower as well as higher.
@@iAmTheSquidThing Perhaps it's "the impact of the combined HVAC system" that's "boost"ed, instead of "the temperature"?
Unfortunately not on Nest's UK thermostats.
"Off blast", my favorite level of furnace blasting
"Off blast"
-Zlad
Almost as cool as "blast: off!"
I never knew about < and > to advance frames... That was a damned game-changer
I'm glad I took the time to read the whole thing
wait, isn't it . and , ?
@@chrisakaschulbus4903 look at your keyboard, shift "," is < and shift "." is >
@@riisenwarfare8646 shift , is ; and shift . is : ...and the next thing you wanna tell me is that you don't have the "Strg" key on your keyboard? :P
you can press SHIFT+ / to see every keybinding youtuve has, < and > are for me the speed of the video, and , & . are for frame skipping on pause
I just timed tapping the pause button on my tablet to read it all. Too fast and it just toggles 'full screen' on and off, too slow and I miss a few lines of text.
I'll try the speed adjust next time... 😕
There's a damage message at 2:47! You should really look at that!
That's a lotta damage!
and here i assumed that alec planned to add the message, my bad!
My dad senses are tingling, no touching the thermostat!!!
Family Guy reference? 🙂
Ecobee has something along the lines of “turn on for one cycle”. When you manually change the temperature (depending on settings), it can hold it for a specific duration (say 2 hours) before reverting to the default l
12:29 - For a brief second there I almost thought he went out and bought 3 identical toaster ovens...lol. And let us all be glad that at no point does he say that you put toast in a toaster. ;)
You're beautiful.
Would have been good to put a load in that toaster oven, like chocolate pudding.
"This is not a drill." Of course it isn't. It's a t-shirt.
Lol
I need a shirt that has a picture of a soldering iron instead. It just hurts when clueless people use soldering iron to make a hole on plastic instead of using proper drill.
I just got the joke :)
It looks like a hammer to me.
Is it not a reference to the "This is Not a Pipe" painting by Magritte, The Treachery of Images? Wikipedia has more here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images if you're interested.
Just to give you a heads up. That delayed switching process that's cause by that magnet and that mercury switch is called "hysteresis".
The fun thing is you can think of it either as having a separate "on" and "off" threshold (with the area in between being "use last state") or as the threshold itself changing whenever the output changes - whichever happens to be easier to implement really.
I was originally going to comment that effect was called "dead-band" but I realize they are different terms and I'm pretty sure "hysteresis" is the correct one.
Yep, and the same effect is achieved in modern electronic thermostats via PID circuits. Their input and output might seem simple but they're more than just dumb switches.
I thought it was differential. Is differential and hystericious the same thing?
Hysteresis sounds like a woman disease. :0
This is some of the best content on TH-cam! The way your videos explain all the mundane technology we take for granted is so riveting and informative! Your way of explaining is so clear and concise, I finally understood enthalpy! I would have never thought to look into how all of these appliances work, but I’m so glad I did, I’m able to understand the world around me better due to these videos and I’m very grateful. Keep it up and I can’t wait to see more content! 👍👍👍👍
For those who have problems reading the explanation at 12:20
You can go frame by frame by using , and . (or in his case < and >)
Thanks! you're not a fun sucker :-D
Remember, you must be paused for it to work.
Also, this makes reading those single-frame messages *way* easier now that I don't have to set the speed to slowest and spam the spacebar, hoping that if TH-cam skips a frame or two, it doesn't skip the frame I *wanted* to see.
Where are those buttons located on my mobile phone?
/sarcasm
Another Non fun sucker here. I forgot where I learned about the Arrow keys but I believe I learned about them going through the help pages for another reason and wandering past the article that contained keyboard shortcuts. I primarily spammed the spacebar at the lowest speed to catch what I wanted. Now I use this technique for catching glitches either intentional or editing mainly on Jacksepticeye's channel. The digital age sure has made stop frame gags a lot simpler to catch.
Not sure if it's just my browser, but my experience of the frame by frame is a bit buggy. Sometimes it just freezes 20 frames ahead - so you miss the content and you have to hit the button 20 times to keep moving forwards.
"Ignore the Blue one, we'll come back to that"
Me, HVAC Guy: heh heh heh
High velocity average car guy
I knew a guy who was color blind and for some reason boss let him put on thermostats. Can't tell you the amount of times I had to go back and fix his fuck ups! XD
Most HVAC guys dont even hook it up even when the stat had the terminal for it. They would rather run it off battery for some insane reason
@@brycelindseth5965 there is a very simple answer for that... Most cheap stats with a c terminal do not have a disconnect switch between the battery supply and 24v supply... So in most cases its easier for the customer to just change batteries rather than risking the chance for the batteries to send a strange interference to the furnace or equipment causing issues that most hvac guys would rather avoid... Most hvac guys like myself prefer either c required stats no batteries or a batteries required cheap stat....
@@steelbender1457 I'm glad you explained that, my head was about to explode. Fortunately, my new Honeywell thermostat uses the C wire and my installer said it required it, so no batteries in mine.
Fine, then I guess I won't type in the very inconveniently long text at 12:25 (I really don't want to no matter what). Instead I'll tell you guys what he wants me to say; use the speed in the player's settings or if on desktop use < and >. There, I'm not a fun sucker.
Pfft.
*slow clap* good game
Merde!
@@nelsonbrum8496 Does ayone know how to do this on a qwertz keyboard?
@@Stilgarsan Why are you asking me? OP already covered it.
@@nelsonbrum8496 oh a random Reddit user
I was having a rough day and that shirt gave me a much needed chuckle right from the start.
I just watched a time-lapse video of toaster ovens. I'm now trying to figure out how my life got to this point.
Seriously though, it was a good demonstration of the PWM-ish-ness of such systems. I can't wait for the PID controller video. :-)
My life is a PWM cycle...sleep, wake, sleep. I'd rather try CPPM or S-BUS sometime.
@@CaveyMoth there's a word for that, Schwingungspaketschalter.
It switches on for a packet of powerlinecycles 50/60Hz.
"I turn it up because it heats up quicker" - The amount of people that think this is infuriating. Thank you!
- my wife
And stepdaughter
I used to work at Menards (think Home Depot or :Lowes but limited to the upper midwest). Had many people ask about an "Express" setting when shopping for a new thermostat. Pretty much gave the same explanation as the video that it is a longer run time that gives a longer temperature swing.
Rick White Actually depends on the physical layout. If the thermostat is located between you and where the heating/cooling is, telling the thermostat to make it hotter / colder where IT is will change how fast it gets hotter / colder where YOU are. Other similar situations exist. Of cause if the difference between the "turn on/off now" points is large enough, it might oversteer enough to get your location hot/cold enough anyway.
I honestly never heard anyone say or do this. I thought it was pretty much a given. Guess not.
"This prevents a scenario where it cools so much that it snaps to the right, which turns on the heat, which snaps it to the left, which turns on the A/C, which snaps it to the right, which turns *on the heat, which snaps it to the left, which turns on the A/C, which **-snaps it to the right, which turns on the heat, which snaps it on thE LEFT, WHICH TURNS ON THE A/C, WHICH SNAPS IT TO THE RIGHT-*- "-
how did you get bold text in a youtube comment
@@herrkatzegaming look it up
**This makes you bold.**
__This puts you in italics__
--And I think this makes it strikethrough. Always confuses me.--
__There's more..._*_*
__The possibilities are _*_*Endless,*_*_ my dear... --My _*_*dear.*_*___
__Though__, This doesn't work. Because *TH-cam.*
The second one was a disaster...
Thermostat designer here. You are spot on for so many subjects, thermostats included! Let people know that you could have talked for much longer if you included:
*Anticipation; (how does a thermostat with a 20 minute thermal time constant make room temperature decisions in five to ten minutes) adjustable/non-adjustable, equipment compatible, how simple mechanical thermostats are often better, how many digital tstats totally missed good anticipation, how internal heat rise from even a 1/4 watt power supply messes with your setting...
*Mounting; errors due to poor air circulation/stratification, locating near a heat source, locating where the sun hits the tstat, locating where the cool/heat source is on the other side (!) of the wall, locating where the ceiling fan defeats the chimney effect designed into the tstat, Not plugging the wire access hole fully airtight to keep uncontrolled air from the basement or attic from blowing right through the thermostat...
You are so right about the Nest sometimes needing a C line. Odd things happen.
Your humor and snarkyness are great. Keep up the good work!
"who would watch a Technology Connections video at 6AM?" me- OH BOY 6AM (HIJACKING MY COMMENT TO MENTION BUTTON-ACTIVATED A/C THERMOSTAT BELOW)
EDIT - Answering ICantThinkOfUsernames' question: in my church's chapel, we have exactly that. Regular old bimetallic thermostats (that's what they look like at least), but with multiple zones for more even temperatures (one thermostat per zone.)
But there's a change: each thermostat has a "COOL" button that, when held down for five seconds, will run the A/C on full blast for half an hour. If you walk around and press all the buttons, the whole room will cool quite quickly before returning to its usual duty cycle.
I don't know how this works. I've never taken apart our thermostats! But they do exist.
it 10PM here, time for bed
It's 6 am here but I am starting my day so.... Time to get ready for work
I'm guessing there's a relay in there that's engaged by a circuit hooked up to a button. Granted, its complexity can vary depending on how high-end it is.
You have just used blast. Do you think it has 2 stage cooling/heating?
My church has similar ‘cool’ buttons that I never really understood. It all makes sense now. Thank you for reminding me of them. ;)
"HEAT NOW!!!" I almost spit out my drink hahaha
Technology Connections busts out a toaster: "Oh man, shit's about to get good!"
Hey, that auto toaster Was pretty awesome!
I was a little disappointed when he said he was going to talk about the single purpose receptacle and not the sliced carbohydrate media to be partially burned for our enjoyment.
Illinois man still going insane over toaster
@@neyoid x cer x. Cs e x c
That guy is all toaster, but no toast!
I’ve done HVAC for almost 6 years now and this guy could seriously be an instructor and I doubt he’s had any proper training but man he knows more than the average joe 😅 good stuff! 👍🏼
remember this guys videos like 2 years ago
i feel like now hes telling the same amount of info but with a shit ton of sarcasm lol
It's the best
honestly, you are the funniest channel I know. And you are explaining thermostats... I still think you'd never manage to get me bored
This is why I install multi-zone mini split heat pumps. They have their problems but so many configuration options and potential for greater precision and efficiency. Thanks for putting the fun back in the fundamentals.
My dad was in the HVAC business for 40 years, so I grew up knowing the thing about furnaces not heating faster no matter how high you set the heat. It led to some rather heated (lel) debates with roommates in college.
If you have a 2 stage furnace connected a two stage thermostat. Turning up the heat higher will send 24 volts to W1 and W2 telling the furnace to go straight to high and skip low. So it will get warm faster.
@@TheDeadheadable is that going to exist in a dorm or cheap apartment tho?
no one in my family worked on hvac stuff and i always knew that. assumed it was common sense and everyone knew it.
@@grants7390never assume anything about common sense
Some LG thermostats have powerful cooling function which does exactly this: runs AC at full power for 30 minutes and then switches to regular schedule.
Was looking for this. Thanks!
Drop the model name! We all need this!
It’s most likely an inverter which have infinite speeds lg only sell those
Yup. I've got one. (I live in Europe). The other unit is a different make, but also has this "turbo" mode setting. I think Europeans rather expect to have this more or less standard.
We have an Ecobee and it does "almost" this same thing. Set the thermostat for a lower temp (or higher), and it will ask you how long.
This channel is really heating up, the toast of TH-cam.
that moment you realize even with the video at 25% speed, the scroll is still so fast you have to pause regularly to read it
Time to crack out the old Evelyn Woods speed-reading course again! (And if you know what I'm talking about, you just gave your age away.)
I don't think I've ever lived somewhere without the mercury-style thermostat (Canada btw). Which, considering how long it's been since they made them, really speaks to their longevity.
I have salvaged them from many old systems and still use them they work great.
The apartment I just moved out of had one of those
Are you aware that your furnace is damaged?
(I'm making this comment for the sole purpose of boosting engagement.)
Consider engagement boosted.
“Excuse me, Sir, is your furnace running?”
...
...
“Well, You’d better go catch it!”
Truth to be told, I'm not sure what is the damage; maybe the brown cable?
@@Mardox91 The slightly rusted section, I think
Shift the comments into *MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE*
11:25 The Streamy award for best dramatic pause goes to...
Also, thanks for the tip about using < and > to advance frame by frame!
For a Swedish keyboard it's the . and , keys.
@@anonharingenamn In Germany too! Thanks for pointing that out! :)
@@anonharingenamn Same for Danish keyboards
@@anonharingenamn The keys on US keyboards have both < (with the comma below it) and > (with the period below it). The left and right arrow keys go forward and backward 10 seconds and the up and down arrow keys turn the volume up and down.
No, the award went to Calculon. Oh well, better luck next time!
My ears perked up when he mentioned how thermostats can be compared to really slow Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). That's a very smart comparison! I was installing LED strip lighting under my cabinets and needed to install a PWM dimmer. I only knew I needed one, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to research how exactly they work. It's a fascinating concept, essentially flashing LEDs rapidly enough to trick your eyes into thinking it's a "dimmer" light. This concept of eye trickery seems to be a common theme with Technology Connections (such as in the awesome mechanical and analog television demonstrations), and I find it interesting how we can take advantage of what our human eyesight cannot see. Anyway, back the topic of THIS video, excellent job describing the simple, necessary, and ingenious technology behind thermostats!
Thank You!
I have had the sense that my new range hood (with led lights and two brightness settings) was behaving like a nearly imperceptible strobe light.
My husband doesn’t notice it, but I do.
I’m guessing this must be why.
A lot of UK thermostats allow a "boost" feature that usually puts the heating on for 30 mins but not override the thermostat temp. Especially as we have more often than not thermostatic radiator valves that regulate temp in individual rooms
8:00 from what I've seen of industrial processes in my line of work, ordering a mold for injection is what sets you back the most in terms of R&D budget for that kind of extremely simple device. IMHO, it's not "too cheap" but rather "pretty smart" (and quite "normal" too)! :-)
I'm not sure if you know about it yet... But there's some damage at the bottom of your furnace.
That's right. I'm engaged.
I didn't see any damage.
Congratulations! When's the wedding?
@@andymerrett there was also fine print!
@@CFSworks Yesterday! It was wonderful, now I'm divorced, but at least I'm boosting engagement!
I was going to remark that there's floating digital text over his furnace. His video is leaking into the real world! At least it seems to be localized to his region of the world.
Toaster Connections. Second channel. Make it happen.
Third channel*
Neon Rukario Toastnology Connections 3
Afterall, you bought THREE toasters and now THREE toaster ovens!
How about modulating thermostats using e.g. OpenTherm? This can be used in a furnace with a throttling valve or in a water central heating system to regulate the circuit input/boiler water temperature. Not just medium blast is possible in this case, but also x blast, with x somewhere between 5-100% power.
Soooo.... yeah I'll be that guy for this one... Boosting Engagement! I have a Carrier Infinity heat pump system, and it's the exception to the rule. It doesn't use the old school 4/5 wire setup, it's a serial data bus, and is variable speed on both the fan and the compressor motor. So turning it all the way up to 90 does in fact speed up both the circulation fan and the heat output. The damn thing sounds like a hurricane when it gets up to full speed. But most of the time it runs at a low speed and low compressor output so you don't even hear it running. But the motors in the compressor and air handler are driven by real PWM! Of course, it also means I have to use only Carrier stuff, I can't go just buy a thermostat at Home Depot, I have to use the $300 one Carrier sold me. Great video as always!
Same! Mine is a Lennox 2 stage heat pump with variable speed fan and TXV. The thermostat has only 4 wires: power, ground, and RSBus +/-. It figures out the heat load and determines if it needs to run in first or second stage and what speed to run the fan on. My power bill dropped like a stone, what was a $350/month bill in the summer went to just over $100/month.
Hurricane? the plane or the storm?
@@mobile_vic probably switching on and off, uses so much power for the initial start current, that running continuous but at low speed is a lot less power demanding.....?
@Lambda Music I do! I went from a propane fired heater and single speed AC to the heat pump. AC bills could easily go above $500/month for electricity. Propane was harder to figure out since other things in the house use it to, but I went from filling the tank 3 times a year to once a year. Electricity now rarely breaks $100/month.
@@toboterxp8155 Yes.
Maybe I missed somebody else's comment about this.....
All of the modern and fairly modern digital thermostats I have seen DO have a feature to allow temporary override of the normal heat or cool setting. You just use the normal temperature UP & DOWN buttons, but don't go into programming mode first. Then the digital thermostat uses the new temporary setpoint for a while (2 hours seems common) before reverting to the normal setpoint.
I've noticed that by staying awake for more than 36 hours straight I am comfortable at a warmer temperature in the Summer months, saving both on air conditioning and restaurant meal bills.
it's actually usually at set (adjustable) times that it returns to the program rather than a duration. like 6am 9am 5pm 10pm for people with a regular work schedule who wake up at 6, go to work at 9, get home at 5, and go to sleep at 10
@@X2Brute , I was talking about impromptu settings, used only on occasion, rather than the regular programmable temperature settings that you refer to. The method you mention requires going into a programming mode of some sort, whereas what I was talking about is just done by pressing the up/down buttons without going into programming mode.
@@youtuuba so was I, usually with most thermostats when you just use the buttons to change the temperature temporarily it will stay at that temperature until there is a program change rather than for a set period of time
@@X2Brute , what do you base your assertion on? I have installed many tens of digital thermostats over the last 10-15 years, all of them different models, and most of them worked as I described, although certainly some worked more like what you said.
re: the final question... my Fujitsu heat pumps have a "powerful" button, that turns the cooling on full blast for several minutes and then returns to its normal set routine, so things like that do exist.
Mine too, things do work a little different once you ad a variable speed/inverter compressor into the mix.
Probably it only makes it turn in 100% duty time for this several minutes and then come back to the 50 or 70% duty cycle to stabilisation.
Even newest systems with microcontroller wich allows you to variate output temperature like your car ac were you can see notorious diferente when you change temperature, can do it just because they have a thermostat directly on vent output instead of in the middle of the car like happens at home and gives them a quick feedback alongside with pre-defined duty cycles for each temperature because you are in a limited closed area, and variations are not so big. In home systems its almost impossible to make factory regulations because every home are different
i have the same button on my panasonic AC/heatpump but obviously it rather releases some extra cooling power on top of the regular maximum setting, so full blast without any regulation, and it will only stop if i switch back to normal. but hey it works, when it is very hot and the normal mode struggles to cool down the room.
but a way cooler feature is the inverter control of the heat pump which actually allows the system to run constantly at the exact needed power instead of the annoying on/off cycle.
Minisplit (ductless)heat pumps are variable speed. The compressor and indoor and outdoor fans only run as hard as they need to. They are very energy efficiant.
in order to boost engagement and inform the public, in case you did not know, any fast scrolling text can be quite easily read by pausing the video at its start and going frame-by-frame using the < and > keys
Mate, your delivery in Theese presentations is always on par
Your sense of humor makes the seemingly simple extremely entertaining and I truly learn a lot from your lectures
Keep up the good work
Top notch content as usual No idea why you don’t have over a million subscribers.
Probably has something to do with the fact that he literally talks about toasters and thermostats :P
Just give it a few years
partly because vaccines don't cause autism
Engagement! Lots of central heating systems in the Netherlands use OpenTherm thermostats to do modulation on the heat output of the furnace. And they learn your programmed temperature schedule and how fast the house warms up and know when to start the heat output to reach the desired temp in time and all that nice jazz. And then many have output temp probes to do weather dependent water temperature for extra savings.
Exactly, modulation on your furnace seems like a better way to save energy than doing slow PWM. Don't know why this is not common in the US.
OpenTherm is available on a fair number of UK boilers too (we call them boilers, probably because they heat water, and we're simple folk), although it's not well-known - my Mother in Law had a new boiler and a Nest installed last year and they didn't connect the OpenTherm terminals. I fixed it. Also our Nest thermostat is different to your Nest thermostat because our boilers are different, but that's a whole other problem
Engagement! Here in Italy even without opentherm some furnaces modulates the amount of heat. Oh, and a/c too, we call it “inverter” models. Yeeeee, engagement :)
Your gags and puns are hilarious, never change. I can't get enough of your videos!
Ok but let's be serious Alec, THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW ABOUT < AND >. I was always so annoyed having to guess when to pause to catch 1 frame jokes in videos!
Also pressing 0-9 will take you to the start of a video or 10-20-30% of the way in.
That doesnt work for me ;-;
@@DEMENTO01 The numbers or
> and < ?
On my keyboard the frame step is . and , not the carrot brackets. Period and comma. The brackets change playback speed
"When I discover a connection between two seemingly technologies...." yeah, it's technology connections.
Some LG thermostats have powerful cooling function which does exactly this: runs AC at full power for 30 minutes and then switches to regular schedule.
16:50 my Daikin’s AC has “power” mode, which runs with full power for 15 minutes, many Japanese AC has similar feature.
Most ducted systems have this facility. The modern systems have single-zone or multiple zone time-selected override (and you can choose the temp. override in single degree increments). Add in the now ubiquitous "App-based" zonal management and you can control the room temperatures of your home from anywhere in the World with mobile 'phone access. It is interesting to note that the Mobile 'Phone leaders, LG and Samsung, offer the most comprehensive "app-based" systems. Samsung offers fully remote diagnosis of any faults, including upload capability to their local service network.
My Daikin AC has inverter so it can actually vary output power and not run on full blast and then idle for minutes at a time. The thermostat changes voltage on the control wire to control the output power.
@@NyanSten This inverter technology is now common in refrigerators too (e.g. Panasonic). All larger installations have been inverter-based for quite some time, and even the smaller "through the window / wall" modular systems are now offering this technology. Major innovators in this "no Technician installation necessary" area of small compact fully integrated units are all Chinese. Gree, and Midea (the latter the World's largest manufacturer of a/c systems, small and large).
My LuxPro PSPA711a also has a temporary temperature override setting.
Ecobee thermostats can be configured so that when you manually change the temperature, it will hold the new set-point for a configurable amount of time, then go back to the scheduled set-point. I noticed that it turns on the second stage cooling if the current temperature is ~2F above the set-point or if stage-1 cooling was running for ~20 minutes.
I love the AvE-style solution to putting AA batteries in to a device that needs AAA batteries. :)
Look again, they're AAA's
I love this channel, and I love the palpable levels of exasperation our nattily-attired host shows toward not just the TH-cam comment section, but various insular online tech communities, as well. I come for the fascinating breakdowns of technology (and I love the long-form stories for everything from analog television to RCA's CED snipe hunt), and I stay for the dry, deadpan humor.
If only you had a system where heated water circulated through vessels with a large surface, using a local valve to determine the flow through each vessel ...
The idea that this is a thermostat is quite outlandish to people living in northern Europe.
Although these are typically misunderstood by, and misused by, our wives as the same "on/off" switch approach to thermostats.
Thats how you heat stuff here! but I never seen it used to cool your room... Or circulate air. I wish I could circulate air by turning that knob.
The main disadvantage with this type of heating, is that it is very very noisy (about on par with the coil-whine from phone chargers). It also requires de-bubbling every few years.
Europe in general, I'd say. Maybe Spain or Greece are different.
@@markchip1 this is sexist as hell, i'm willing to bet the girl i marry some day will know more about tech than your son/daughter who was raised with a cell phone in hand from the age of 0.5!
@@frogz it's a joke.
*stares at his mercury switch thermostat* it's OK boy, I know you exist and still work perfectly after 70 years. Good video for anyone who has never replaced their thermostat and went 'ok so that is incredibly simple...' love your content I'm still going through a back log haha.
It's always about toast, don't pretend otherwise!
My boiler has three settings;
1. Off
2. On
3. EXPLODE!!!!
Luckily I've only ever needed the first two.
This brings to mind a funny anecdote (code for probably stop reading now), but in ye old yesteryear when I got my first "blue collar" job, I had moved to the balmy climes of Alaska and charisma'd my way into a job doing remediation work (think water damage, mold, fire and death remnants (paid double time!) within man-made structures.) I was told that we need to remove pressed paneling up to a line four feet circling this garden level room. Now, in Anchorage, there's quite a bit of boiler fed baseboard heating, and this property was no exception. So... You can cut paneling by running a utility knife along a line to make a score mark and snap it off. But that's laborious and time consuming. We just got a full set of battery op hand tools. Circular saw sounds much faster and easier. Short story long, a circ saw will do a number on copper piping, and the first 30 seconds or so of water spraying out are fine. But then the boiler kicks in while you've got a piece of rubber hose and some zip ties just in the right position. That room needed a lot of dehumidification (dead of winter, couldn't really open windows and doors to vent).
My grandmother had an electric fan that had three settings... off, too slow to make a difference and too fast like a wind tunnel. No joke - that thing sucked.
Don't forget. It also blew.
I remember back in the day when I was young and poor and me and my buddy rented a third floor walk up in an old poorly insulated brick building. It basically became a furnace in July and August. My dad gave us his old window shaker a/c unit from like 1972. It had two speeds. Off, and Full Blast. So basically, you had the option of furnace, or meat locker in our apartment, lol.
Not many options here, but if your home is insured and run down AND you need a pile of cash to buy a new home option 3 would be very convenient.
And until today I had simply no idea < or > or , or . allowed one to to speed up slowdown step forward step back youtube...
just assumed it couldn't be done.
Just for that alone this video wins the internet today.
Ditto. Learned more about TH-cam than about toasters and thermostats... ;)
Re: one cycle heat / cooling, I think honeywell programmable ones can do this.
Essentially you could either program the thing with daily high low holds or permanent holds in the menu, but if you simply went up to the thing and pressed the + / - buttons it would say something along the lines of "temporary hold - 1hr" or something.
I'm not sure the exact model but I would guess that most "older style" programmable thermostats can do this.