heat pumps, radiant heating and thermostats

Do not use common programmable thermostats, if you have a heat pump system or a radiant heating system.

Heating mode & Programmable Heat Pumps

In heating mode, heat pumps operate like air conditioners, which means that if programmable thermostat are turned up and in cooling mode, they will save energy.

The problem comes when heat pumps are in heating mode. In that case, turning the heating temperature back will typically cause the electric resistance to turn on, causing higher use of energy instead of energy savings.

Pay attention to this issue. If your manufacturer has a thermostat specifically designed to your heat pump model, you haven't to worry. Otherwise, the alternative is a new generation of programmable thermostats, specially designed to heat pumps.

Specially designed thermostats

Some manufacturers are offering specially designed programmable thermostats for heat pumps, using special algorithms to overcome the limitation of common thermostats when applied to heat pumps.

Programmable thermostats & Radiant heating

Radiant floor heating and steam heating systems are also incompatible with common programmable thermostats. These systems have response times of several hours, which collide with the use of thermostats.

There are however a new generation of programmable thermostats that can solve the problem. THey also use special algorithms, capable of tracking the heating needs of the home, to solve the problem.