Among the trivial things in life that annoy me: Some people just don't understand thermostats.
Let me briefly explain how a thermostat works. Say you have a heating system. You set the thermostat for a certain temperature, say 70 degrees. Then when the temperature falls below 70, the heat turns on and warms the house up. It stays on until the temperature gets above 70. Then it turns off. Assuming it's cold outside, eventually the temperature falls back below 70, and the heat turns on again.
It's the same idea with a cooling system, except that the cooling turns on when the temperature gets above the temperature on the thermostat and shuts off when it's below.
There has to be a certain amount of "miss" in the thermostat for it to work right. You don't want the heat to turn on when the temperature falls to 69.99 and turn off once it reaches 70.01, or your heating system would be turning on and off constantly. So usually they give 1 or 2 degrees, like turn on when the temperature falls to 69 and turn off when its 71.
Side note: Old-fashioned mechanical thermostats did this naturally. They just weren't that precise. Modern electronic thermostats have to do it deliberately.
So the idea is, you set the thermostat to the temperature you want, and then you just leave it alone. It will automatically keep the temperature at that level.
I have several relatives who don't understand this. I won't identify them, so I don't hurt their feelings on the off chance they read this.
Relative #1: On the air conditioning, when it's hot, she sets the thermostat way low, like to 60, to get the AC to turn on. Then when the house gets cold, she turns it up to like 100 to turn it off. Then when the house warms up, she turns it back down to 60. Etc. Instead of letting the thermostat turn the AC on and off, she basically treats it as a manual switch that she flips on and off herself.
Relative #2: We had just bought a new AC for our guest bedroom before her visit. She complained that it wasn't working: it kept turning on and off. I tried to explain that that's how a thermostat works: when it gets cold, it turns off. When it heats up, it turns back on. If it wasn't keeping the room cool enough, set the temperature to a lower temperature. She couldn't comprehend this idea. She thought that the AC should just stay on all the time.
Relative #3: On the heating: Sometimes she will bake a cake or some such, something where she will have the oven running for hours. She reasons that with the oven running, that will heat the house, so she doesn't need the furnace on. So she sets the thermostat way low so that the furnace won't go on. But ... if the oven heats the house up over the temperature on the thermostat, then the furnace would never come on anyway. She's just wasting her time.
Oh well. Neither one is costing me anything. They're both just wasting their own time. But it drives me nuts.
A tangential problem: W
Among the trivial things in life that annoy me: Some people just don't understand thermostats.
Let me briefly explain how a thermostat works. Say you have a heating system. You set the thermostat for a certain temperature, say 70 degrees. Then when the temperature falls below 70, the heat turns on and warms the house up. It stays on until the temperature gets above 70. Then it turns off. Assuming it's cold outside, eventually the temperature falls back below 70, and the heat turns on again.
It's the same idea with a cooling system, except that the cooling turns on when the temperature gets above the temperature on the thermostat and shuts off when it's below.
There has to be a certain amount of "miss" in the thermostat for it to work right. You don't want the heat to turn on when the temperature falls to 69.99 and turn off once it reaches 70.01, or your heating system would be turning on and off constantly. So usually they give 1 or 2 degrees, like turn on when the temperature falls to 69 and turn off when its 71.
Side note: Old-fashioned mechanical thermostats did this naturally. They just weren't that precise. Modern electronic thermostats have to do it deliberately.
So the idea is, you set the thermostat to the temperature you want, and then you just leave it alone. It will automatically keep the temperature at that level.
I have several relatives who don't understand this. I won't identify them, so I don't hurt their feelings on the off chance they read this.
Relative #1: On the air conditioning, when it's hot, she sets the thermostat way low, like to 60, to get the AC to turn on. Then when the house gets cold, she turns it up to like 100 to turn it off. Then when the house warms up, she turns it back down to 60. Etc. Instead of letting the thermostat turn the AC on and off, she basically treats it as a manual switch that she flips on and off herself.
Relative #2: We had just bought a new AC for our guest bedroom before her visit. She complained that it wasn't working: it kept turning on and off. I tried to explain that that's how a thermostat works: when it gets cold, it turns off. When it heats up, it turns back on. If it wasn't keeping the room cool enough, set the temperature to a lower temperature. She couldn't comprehend this idea. She thought that the AC should just stay on all the time.
Relative #3: On the heating: Sometimes she will bake a cake or some such, something where she will have the oven running for hours. She reasons that with the oven running, that will heat the house, so she doesn't need the furnace on. So she sets the thermostat way low so that the furnace won't go on. But ... if the oven heats the house up over the temperature on the thermostat, then the furnace would never come on anyway. She's just wasting her time.
Oh well. None is costing me anything. They're both just wasting their own time. But it drives me nuts.
A tangential problem: When it's hot, my wife opens all the windows to "cool the house off". I explained to her that with the AC running, it is cooler inside than outside, so by opening the windows, she is just letting in hot outside air and making it hotter. She replied, But there's a breeze outside. I said, Maybe so, but by the time the air gets in the house, it's not a breeze any more, it's just hot air. She couldn't comprehend this. So we regularly go around with her opening windows and me closing them.
Hen it's hot, my wife opens all the windows to "cool the house off". I explained to her that with the AC running, it is cooler inside than outside, so by opening the windows, she is just letting in hot outside air and making it hotter. She replied, But there's a breeze outside. I said, Maybe so, but by the time the air gets in the house, it's not a breeze any more, it's just hot air. She couldn't comprehend this. So we regularly go around with her opening windows and me closing them.© 2025 by Jay Johansen
No comments yet.