wmoses wrote:
I am interested in doing the thermostat upgrade from my Coleman-Mach thermostat:
to a digital programmable thermostat.
I need to be able to set the thermostat for 2 daily programs - awaketime and bedtime - and I want to not have to touch the thermostat regardless of the time of year or the degree of shade when I go camping. In other words, so long as the battery is powering the thermostat's brain I can set the thing and forget it.
I have already done a search on the ModMyRV site (Mod 37, Mod 100) and saw that the typical choice is a Hunter or Honeywell unit which may / may not be programmable and which does not seem to have the auto changeover feature which to me is important. I have a Hunter in my house now and have not touched it in years. I barely know how to program the darned thing now. It just works to maintain the same 2 programs, all year long.
After some searching and trying to balance cost with function (the blue display is also nice) I have come up with the Robertshaw Digital Programmable Thermostat RS5110 (Product Info) which appears to fit the bill. There are even some how-to "tutorials" on their website.
So my first question - does anyone with experience doing this upgrade have any comments to share before I buy this unit? Specifically the wiring. It would be nice to know what the wires are on the back of my thermostat are (I am not able to check myself at this time).
Also the present Coleman-Mach thermostat has 2 fan speeds and I note that some of the mods use a small toggle SPST switch to enable either fan speed to be set once it is called for by the program.
This brings me to my second question - anyone see any issues with installing such a switch on this unit?
Thanks in advance.
Not sure if that T-stat is going to work very well on 12V.
Per the spec chart "24V AC with battery back-up OR 3.0V DC" it looks like the T-Stat uses the 24V AC coming from furnace transformer as the MAIN supply. The battery serves as BACKUP in case of power outages or long calls for HEAT on the furnace line (when T-stat calls for heat it basically shorts out the power the T-stat sneaks from the furnace).
I doubt that the life of the battery will be long if you don't have 24V AC coming from the furnace or T-stat may not even function correctly...
Just my hunch...
