New Digital Thermostat

[Wardster]

Like most of the TC's out there, my Northern-Lite has a propane forced air furnace and a roof top air conditioner. As detailed in the pic below, the Atwood unit in my NL came with a thermostat that doesn't really allow you to accurately set the thermostat to a specific temperature.



After doing a little research, I found a digital replacement for units with just heat - see below.





The first step was to remove the existing thermostat. The cover popped off and the base was held to the wall with two screws that I removed.





As you can see in the picture above, my Atwood had two wires on the thermostat, a white one and a black one. The white wire was connected to the 'W' and the black wire was connected to the 'R'. I made a note of this since I would attach the wires to the new thermostat the same way.

After disconnecting the wires, I removed the backing plate from the new thermostat and attached the white and black wires to the new terminals before attaching it to the wall.



I installed the provided batteries into the new thermostat, then attached it to the backing plate. After a quick test, I confirmed that everything works according to plan, so my days of playing the thermostat temperature game are over. It will be nice to simply set it and forget it like a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie.

[towpro]

wnjj, I have that one in my Open Range, with the addition of a "electric heat" setting to run the heat pump.

Thinking about it now, my AC is a cub with all the controls on the ceiling. on the ceiling controls you turn the AC fan on high or low with a knob, than turn another knob to set the AC temp. When AC temp is met, compressor goes off but not fan. you can watch the humidify go down to 40 when AC compressor is running, than back up to 98 when compressor shuts off, than back down to 40 when compressor starts. I realized "this ain't going to work".

So I bought a AC/Heat digital thermostat to replace my bimetallic spring one. from this digital thermostat I ran the AC wire pair to turn on and off a 12V relay. This relay has 12V coil but contacts are good for 30A 120V.
The relay turns on and off the Electric to the complete AC roof unit.
I can control fan speed by switching knob on roof unit, and wall thermostat turns complete AC unit on and Off.:).

yes it will even still start while running on my Honda 2000, even in eco mode.
I have thought if I ever run into a problem starting it with my Honda, I will get a time delay relay so when electric is applied the compressor starts before the blower fan if needed, but has not been needed yet.

Others on here have also done this AC mod I am talking about.

[wnjj]

towpro wrote:
I did this conversion. Mine also runs the roof AC. Then I realized if you turn off the AC compressor but leave the fan running the humidy goes real high as fan blows all the moisture back into camper when compressor shuts off.

So now my thermo turns on and off a relay that now shuts off the AC to roof unit.

I'd be surprised if your A/C didn't have a fan input already. You shouldn't have to add a relay.

Our Eagle Cap came from the factory with a digital stat that controls both the heat and A/C. The A/C fan can be set to 'on' where it runs full time or 'auto' where it only runs with the compressor. No batteries required. It's this one.

[Bedlam]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
WOW............


You TCrs need to visit other sections of this forum or get out more

The analog to digital t-stat swap has been around well before 2007 when I changed mine out


Truck Campers Section isn't the only one for getting/sharing info.

Glad you did the upgrade.......it is a good mod.

SPREAD the WORD :B

The question should really be why RV and part manufacturers are still using and making the analog spring thermostats after all these years.

[deltabravo]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
The analog to digital t-stat swap has been around well before 2007 when I changed mine out

I did my first one in 2003

[jimh406]

Old-Biscuit, it's that new here either. Still, it's a good mod. 🙂

[Old-Biscuit]

WOW............


You TCrs need to visit other sections of this forum or get out more

The analog to digital t-stat swap has been around well before 2007 when I changed mine out


Truck Campers Section isn't the only one for getting/sharing info.

Glad you did the upgrade.......it is a good mod.

SPREAD the WORD :B

[deltabravo]

diver57 wrote:
so I take it any household thermo stat will work is that correct

...as long as it uses onboard batteries (AA, AAA) to engage the relays.
Pretty much any digital thermostat should do it.

The defacto standard in the early 2000s was a "Hunter" brand, which was easily found at WalMart.

That's what I put in my toy hauler.

I have a Honeywell in my AF811. I bought it at Home Depot.

Mine doesn't control the A/C - A/C runs on its own controls on the face plate of the A/C unit.

[towpro]

I did this conversion. Mine also runs the roof AC. Then I realized if you turn off the AC compressor but leave the fan running the humidy goes real high as fan blows all the moisture back into camper when compressor shuts off.

So now my thermo turns on and off a relay that now shuts off the AC to roof unit.

[diver57]

so I take it any household thermo stat will work is that correct

[MORSNOW]

I ordered mine a couple of days ago, should be here in AK on Monday. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer on the wall next to the thermostat so current temp is taken care of with that.

[Jack_Spratt]

One of the easiest/best mods you can make to your camper

[hedge]

I just installed one too, I went with the Honeywell 5100. I didn't want programmable and I wanted one that showed current temperature as well as the set point. I also chose this one as I don't trust the cheap little finicky switches to shut it off, this one you shut it off with the push buttons on the front. I also like it because it has a backlight.

No need to get too stuck on the model, almost any thermostat will work as these simple ones are simply a two wire R/W setup. It may be a more advanced if you have a/c through the thermostat.

I also like this one because of the battery tray, the others you have to pull apart and it's easy to break the pins off.

http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-RTH5100B-Deluxe-Manual-Thermostat/dp/B002RL9BIM/ref=sr_1_70?ie=UTF8&...

[Yeti_plus]

I did this about a year ago, and it sure is nice to know what temp the t-stat is set at. No more I think this is a good spot for the lever to be, ooops too hot, ooops too cold.
I couldn't find one that was a simple thermostat for a long time so when I did I bought it. About $20 at CTC for the rest of the Canadian TCers.
Brian

[Homeless_by_Cho]

Lowe's only carries Honeywell brand thermostats. They don't carry the Pro 1000. The best digital match they had was the RTHL2210000B which is a 1 Week Programmable Heating/Cooling unit. It was $18.95, so I bought it. My N-L wires are Red 16 gage only. I connected the the existing "W" to the new "W" terminal and the "B" to the "B" terminal; inserted the batteries; and then the fun began.

The bottom line is: It does Work. The hassle is trying to figure out the goofy instructions as far as setting up the clock, date, etc. But like I said, It Works. I now have a digital thermostat that I will manually turn ON and OFF like before that Honeywell claims is accurate to +/- 1F.

I will give it the acid test in the morning. Meanwhile, I will keep fiddling with the buttons to see if I can set the program to a ON time of 6AM with a temperature of 68F along with a time of 7AM at 40F for the remainder of the day.

Thanks again,
LeRoy