When we first moved in our house we had gas heat when electricity went out. Then I asked my husband to upgrade the old ugly manual thermostat to a modern digital thermostat and now we can not heat our house when the electricity is out. Of course we threw the old thermostat out that I was told had mercury in it. HELP!! The power is likely to go out here in Virginia soon and we would like to use our gas heat boiler. Any ideas? We are unable to locate an old manual thermostat that we had. Thanks in advance!
Sorry, I can't imagine ANY thermostat working without power. For starters, you need power to run a transformer that converts 120 volts down to 24 volts. THAT voltage goes to the thermostat, then returns to the furnace where either a control board (electrically powered) or a gas valve (electrically powered) opens. Without electrical power the gas valve in any case can't be opened - unless you have battery backup power. If you want to run a gas boiler during a power failure you'll probably need two 12 volt batteries hooked in series (the positive of one battery connected to the negative of the other battery) THEN a mechanical thermostat (or a battery powered one like the first answer mentioned) will run the heat. But with MY furnace, without electrical power, there's no way to circulate the forced air through the ducts. In MY case I'd need a generator. You may want to consider something like that. More reliable and you don't need to worry about the state of charge. Hope this helps. 'av'a g'day mate. )
When the electric is out the PCB board and the Circulating pump on the Boiler will not work, Thats why you get no heat.
Even though the boiler is gas operated the control system requires electrical power to operate. Your thermostat has nothing to do with the needed power for your boiler controls. Without utility or generator power, you're dead in the water.
i take advantage of a twin gasoline gadget that applications as a warmth pump while the outdoors temperature is above 40?F and decrease than that, a ninety% useful organic gas furnace starts off up. A warmth pump is merely an air conditioner that runs forwards or backwards. interior the summertime it strikes warmth from interior to outdoors. interior the iciness it strikes warmth from outdoors to interior. while the temps outdoors are decrease than 40?F, there is not adequate warmth to bypass interior and it does not artwork, so as that's while the organic gas kicks in. I surely have a timber burning hearth that has steel tubes for a grate with a blower. I even have put in a return air duct interior a similar room to help distribute warmth in the time of the abode. As Ben O factors out, geothermal facilitates because of the fact the floor temps stay approximately 59?F, so there is often warmth obtainable. there is likewise completely electric powered furnaces that have an electric powered burner very like an oven that could desire to be fed electrical energy by utilising a nuclear skill plant as might desire to the plenty extra useful geothermal warmth pump.
My thermostats are battery powered. However, you may need power for any zone valves and/or circulating pumps.
