{"id":2358,"date":"2009-09-14T07:38:39","date_gmt":"2009-09-14T14:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2022-12-28T14:17:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T22:17:05","slug":"diy-digital-thermostat-controlled-space-heater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/diy-digital-thermostat-controlled-space-heater\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Digital Thermostat-controlled Space Heater"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Finished<\/p>\n

The rain and dropping temperatures in San Francisco this weekend reminded me of a project I made in the winter of 2006.\u00a0 This was long before mightyohm.com<\/a> existed, so I originally documented the project at instructables<\/a>.\u00a0 I’m not going to repeat everything here, but I wanted to share some pictures and provide a link to the instructable<\/a> in case anyone else wants to try this at home.<\/p>\n

The project involves using a digital programmable thermostat<\/a> to control an inexpensive space heater<\/a>.\u00a0 The original motivation for this was that I wanted to lower the temperature of the heater at night, reducing my energy bill, while still being able to wake up to a toasty room in the morning by setting the heater to turn on full blast 30 minutes before I awoke.<\/p>\n

Here’s a schematic of the simple circuit I made to interface the thermostat to the space heater.\u00a0 The resistor\/diode\/capacitor circuit allows the thermostat, which is designed to control an AC load, to switch power to a 24VDC coil relay.\u00a0 A 36VAC<\/p>\n

\"Space<\/p>\n

I installed the necessary components inside the case of an old power and telephone line filter, used to protect a fax machine or office copy machine from power surges.\u00a0 The case came with a handy 110V outlet mounted on the front panel which I reused for this project.\u00a0 The digital thermostat mounts to the top cover of the case.<\/p>\n

I used a barrier strip as a way to simplify the wiring and mount the few loose components:<\/p>\n

\"Space<\/p>\n

I had to adjust the value of C1 to get reasonably clean DC to the relay while not having an annoying turn-off lag when the control line from the thermostat goes low.\u00a0 100uF works well for the relay I used.<\/p>\n

Here’s the finished product installed in my former bedroom:<\/p>\n

\"Controller<\/p>\n

I haven’t used it since I moved into a house with working central heating, but it sure came in handy during the cold winter I spent in a 100 year old farmhouse in Petaluma<\/a>.\u00a0 This solved the problem of the sub-50 degree mornings I was having nicely!<\/p>\n

instructables.com: Space heater controlled by digital thermostat<\/a><\/p>\n

Comments?\u00a0 Questions?\u00a0 Leave a comment below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rain and dropping temperatures in San Francisco this weekend reminded me of a project I made in the winter of 2006.\u00a0 This was long before mightyohm.com existed, so I originally documented the project at instructables.\u00a0 I’m not going to repeat everything here, but I wanted to share some pictures and provide a link to … Continue reading DIY Digital Thermostat-controlled Space Heater<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[36,278,24,277],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-diy","tag-hvac","tag-project","tag-thermostat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-C2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1010,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/diy-pid-controlled-soldering-hotplate\/","url_meta":{"origin":2358,"position":0},"title":"DIY PID Controlled Soldering Hotplate","author":"Jeff","date":"January 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In preparation for my Arduino-based AVR HV Programmer boards coming back, I decided to step up my home lab surface mount soldering capabilities. Step one was to find a cheap stereo zoom microscope on ebay, with 7-32X magnification, perfect for working on surface mount devices.\u00a0 One of my biggest frustrations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/3201234462_c0a761b898_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2675,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/2009-in-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":2358,"position":1},"title":"2009 in Review","author":"Jeff","date":"December 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, 2010 came a lot quicker than I expected!\u00a0 With one day to spare, here's a brief look back at some of the highlights of 2009 here at mightyohm.com. DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate: I needed a hotplate for surface mount soldering, so I built one from scratch using a milled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"PID Controlled Hotplate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3200389041_3d2f7a7e3b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1692,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/space-invaders-button\/","url_meta":{"origin":2358,"position":2},"title":"Space Invaders Button","author":"Jeff","date":"April 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Marcus at Interactive Matter made this awesome space invaders button, inspired by Alex Weber's 64pixels project.\u00a0 It uses almost entirely SMT components and an ATmega164P microcontroller. The PCB layout is gorgeous! Marcus provides schematics, source code, and some helpful notes about surface mount soldering. I really like to see SMT\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/diy-8-bit-computer-big-mess-o-wires\/","url_meta":{"origin":2358,"position":3},"title":"DIY 8-bit Computer: Big Mess o\u2019 Wires","author":"Jeff","date":"March 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Steve Chamberlin created an 8-bit computer from discrete logic and called his project the Big Mess o\u2019 Wires. The BMOW runs at 2MHz and has 512K RAM and 16K ROM.\u00a0 It is constructed with primarily 7400 series logic and over 1048 wirewrap connections. The feature list is very impressive: It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevechamberlin.com\/cpu\/bmow_case9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2729,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/retro-wireless-handset-featured-as-make-weekend-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":2358,"position":4},"title":"Retro Wireless Handset featured as Make: Weekend Project","author":"Jeff","date":"January 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In this week's Make: Weekend Project, KipKay shows us how to turn a Bluetooth headset into a retro-styled wireless handset. This project is based on the 'Retro Wireless Handset' article I wrote for Make: magazine volume 20. 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