Thermostat Placement

Thermostat Placement

4 min read

When it comes to installing heaters and wall thermostats in your home, some places are definitely better than others. Our engineering and tech support teams have some pretty solid suggestions for those of you who may be asking yourselves, "Where's the best place to install a thermostat?" Without further ado, here's the good, better and best of thermostat placement:

Okay to install your thermostat directly above the heater, but is not ideal.

 

Placing a wall thermostat directly above a wall heater is not ideal ''as the radiant temperature of that wall will be higher in summer and lower in winter than the air temperature inside your home. This can lead to your HVAC system running unnecessarily and driving up your bills.'' (Conditioned Air Solutions) Similarly, putting a thermostat directly above a heater is OK, but not recommended. That's because when the heater turns off, residual heat from the heater will escape and influence the temperature the thermostat senses. (In other words, the thermostat will temporarily think your room is warmer than it actually is.)

Better yet, install your thermostat at least 1 stud away from the heater

 

Moving a thermostat out of the same wall cavity as a heater will help performance. Moving your thermostat into an adjacent stud cavity on the same wall is a better option. Why? Well, it won't be directly above the heater, which means that residual heat won't be an issue. (Residual heat isn't a factor for thermostat placement with our new Apex72 heater, which is shown in the photo above, because it's placed high on the wall.)

Best option: Same room, different inside wall

 

Installing a wall thermostat on an adjacent wall is the best install option.

Putting your thermostat on an inside wall that is adjacent to where you installed your heater is the best option. Our engineers at Cadet suggest: "To get the best and even temperature in your room, you want the thermostat to be on an inside wall that is adjacent to the wall that the heater is on. So it can only sense the heat from the room and not be offset by being too close to the heater."

Remember, this is a good, better and best recommendation system. Sometimes you don't have a lot of choices where you can install a thermostat -- and if you're remodeling a home, that decision was probably already made for you. If you have a choice, go for the best option. Some thermostats are already built into the heater. Check out this blog article+ video on How to : Use a heater with a built in Thermostat for more information on where and how to place your thermostats to fit your homes.