Thermostat while away from home.
 

Tenant is leaving end of August. I will be there in middle of October. Wondering about thermostat until then. Various opinions and have emailed twice to Mid-Flame heating & air with promises to get back to me but have not.
So — Honeywell Thermostat Pro series is set for 75 and the Honeywell Relative Humidity, the knob is turned all the way to “on”. What is the suggestion for leaving the property vacant for about 6 weeks. And, I find it odd that the Humidistat (Honeywell Relative Humidity) knob is in the ON position at all times. Would love feedback on this. Do not want to come and find mold growing up the walls or a burned out unit due to excessive use. And, curious about this Honeywell Relative Humidity thermostat. We do not have on in New York. Thanks. Nancy

In our other house when we were snowbirds we used 80 degrees temp and 60% humidity. We also left all the closet and cabinets open ( suggested per our home inspector)

I would set the thermostat to the "hold" position (no programming) and set the temperature setting to 78 or 80 degrees. I would turn off the humidity control. That is the way I have my thermostat set all the time and have no problems.

I just came back from checking the Thermostat and Humidistat at a neighbor's house. It was 92 degrees in the house and the humidistat was set at 60. I sent a picture of both to him. He was pleased. Greatest neighbors in The Villages. We miss them like crazy.

If it was my home the A/C would be on 78 Degrees and that's that. Humidistat, Phooey! :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl: You coulda cooked an egg on the countertop! :popcorn: :1rotfl:

I asked my neighbor if he wanted me to turn off his doorbell each night, cheapazz! :1rotfl::1rotfl::duck:

Running the a/c removes moisture from the air. When the home is not occupied, it isn't necessary to cool the home, but it is necessary to control moisture. The humidistat's purpose is to reduce the cycling of the a/c, but still keep the humidity level in check. My instructions from Munn's call for the humidistat to be set at 60%, and thermostat to 78 degrees. Think of it as a switch between the a/c and the thermostat. In effect, the a/c won't come on until the humidity gets higher than 60%, then the humidistat switches on, which allows the a/c to run until the humidity gets below 60%. Regardless of how hot it gets. The temperature inside an unoccupied home is essentially irrelevant, the moisture is what needs to be regulated.

When the home is occupied, the humidstat is set to "on", and the thermostat set to whatever temperature the occupant finds comfortable. Since the humidstat "switch" is always on, it doesn't interfere with the a/c coming on to make the house comfortable.

I agree about the phooey comment. The typical HVAC system installed by the builder does not have a "real" humidity control function. If you set the temperature to 78 or 80 degrees, you don't need to do anything else. There is an optional humidity setting that works to "overcool" the house by about 3 degress (down to 75 or 77) when the humidity goes above the humidity setting. This will reduce the humidity somewhat, but will usually not reduce it to your humidity set point. The only advantage to using the humidity control is that, you may save a little electricity because you can set the temperature higher and achieve some humidity control. But, I think it is best to just turn off the humidity function and maintain a constant temperature in the house, with no overcooling. Your house will be fine, and you will not have a moisture problem.

The idea is to prevent mold caused by the humidity in Florida and your air conditioner reduces home humidity. While you are away, you can prevent mold by either leaving your air conditioner on continuously using a humidity control device to turn the air conditioner on and off. I set the air conditioner at 85 degrees (it doesn't have to be cooler - no one is home) and the humidity control at 65. While away, the air conditioner is off until the two conditions are met - temp above 85 and humidity above 65. This has worked well during my 10 years here.

The possibility of mold and mildew grow at humidity 68%+ humidistat can be off 10 points is why it should be set around 58 to 60. Mold and Mildew do not become evident at temperatures even at 90 degrees providing setting are below 68%. Humidistat will save money on Ac costs. For years we have enjoyed savings being away our bill is less than $35. Yes we do have a friend monitor our dwelling from April til November. Prior to installation our thermostat was set at 79 degrees our electric bill had been around $120 monthly. Also we unplug unnecessary small appliances that use power in standby mode tv, radios, vcr/dvd microwave. Also a full refrigerator runs less than an empty one prior to out leaving we fill refrigerator with bottled water for our return

We have an older HVAC system that does not have a humidistat feature. When not there we set the thermostat at 81. Keeping the house at that temperature keeps the humidity below 60%. I know this because I keep two dehumidifiers in the house set to run when the humidity reaches 60% as an insurance policy against mold should our A/C fail. The dehumidifiers drain into the kitchen sink and a walk in shower through a hose attached to the water retention tank on the dehumidifiers. I have never had to empty a drop of water from either of those tanks so I know the humidity remains below 60%. Just to check the accuracy of the dehumidifiers, when I increase the setting to 65%, they quickly start sucking water out of the air.

Last night my AC stopped working because it needed new batteries. Never realized AC needs thermostat to be working in order for AC to work.
Something to think about when leaving for a long period of time (like snowbirds)

[QUOTE=gatorbill1;1822565]Last night my AC stopped working because it needed new batteries. Never realized AC needs thermostat to be working in order for AC to work.
Som

ething to think about when leaving for a long period of time (like


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I bought a Temp Stick on line to monitor the temperature and humidity in my house when we are away during the summer. It takes a reading every hour of the day and I can monitor from my cell phone. It will alert me if either the temperature or humidity exceeds a set point.

Thanks for replying. Much appreciated and puts my mind at ease. Nancy

Thermostat
 

SunKool told me to switch it to 80 and leave it there.

Thermostat
 

Munns recommended 80 degrees and 60% humidity and leaving closet doors and room doors open for best ventilation flow. However, I chose to set our thermostat at 78 degrees when we are not there. We bought new in the Villages and our house came with an Ecobee thermostat which I highly recommend for temperature control. The Munns representative came to our house and showed me how to get the Ecobee app on my iphone. I can now monitor and change the temperature in our Villages house from wherever I am. Real easy to use and nice to be able to check the temperature while travelling.

We have had two homes for 13 years now. I have experimented with various settings for absences of up to six months. We have settled at 80 degrees (with no humidistat) as best. We put the fan on continuous operation and open the doors on all closets and some cabinets. We make sure nothing is stacked against any outside wall, such as boxes in closets. This system has worked well for us.

The Temp Stick uses WiFi. So, do you leave your Internet/Cable/WiFi system on all summer? Isn’t it possible to have your internet service provider turn them off when you are out of state for months?

When I lived in Sarasota back in the eighties, I was s snowbird. I had a humidistat because if you leave the thermostat set to 80 it will run constantly during the summer months. The idea of a humidistat is to ignore the thermostat and turn on the AC only when the humidity reaches a certain level. If I recall correctly we either turned the thermostat off or set it to its highest setting. If you're going to leave the thermostat on 78 or 80 the humidistat is a waste.

You need to have humidity setting on at all times and the temp should be set at 82 degrees while you’re away. Don’t compare NY with FL.

Just a warning about AC system that sometimes can stop working for whatever reason. Might be good to have a trusted person check on your place to make sure all is well once in a while. Sure beats getting back to a mouldy home. Just as an aside, I made the mistake of unplugging the fridge once, but the door must be open or else it too gets mouldy.

Nope. They work in conjunction with one another. If you turn the thermostat off, or way high, the a/c won't come on, regardless of what the humidistat says.

The humidistat doesn't directly control the a/c, it acts as a switch to allow the thermostat to control the a/c.

As someone else said - both settings have to be to be satisfied for the a/c to come on. The humidity would have to exceed the humidistat setting, and the temperature has to exceed the thermostat setting.

The new houses (at least the ones we were looking at) now have an Ecobee thermostat, which is a smart thermostat. As long as you have wireless internet you can monitor and control your house's temperature and humidity from a web browser or smart phone. It also allows you to monitor how much your system is running. We currently have ours set to 79 with 60% humidity. The other nice thing is that you can have the temperature set to the value you want prior to you return so your house is at the desired temperature when you arrive.

Thermostat/Humidistat while away from home
 

With the equipment you have here’s what you need to do. You want to control humidity and the temperature doesn’t really matter. The way the 2 devices you have work is that both conditions ie temperature and humidity have to be true for the AC to come on. If you want to AC to come on anytime the humidity goes above 60%, the AC must be set at a lower temperature. Set the temperature at 70 degrees on the thermostat and set the humidistat to 60, odds are the temperature during summer months will always be higher than 70 degrees in your house. The AC will then come on anytime the humidity is above 60 percent and run until the humidity goes down to 60% then go off. You will only control humidity, the temperature doesn’t matter. With this setting the temperature could be 100 degrees and the AC won’t come on until the humidity goes above 60%.

Many people try to set the temperature to 80 something and the humidistat to 60 and because both conditions must be true if the humidity is above 60 the AC won’t come on because the temperature may still be below 80 something. I know this is confusing, but if you set the devices as I suggest you will control humidity and the AC will only come on if the humidity is exceeded.

Thermostat at 70 degrees and humidistat at 60%. It works.

Thermostat connected to the internet you can monitor and set from anywhere in the world on your phone.

Snowbird here. I have a nest thermostat and I set it on eco while away at 85. Have never had a problem. Humidity runs in the 50’s.

My system doesn't work that way. All systems are not the same. If I set the thermostat to 70 degrees, the AC will run all the time. There is a humidity option that will "overcool" the house by up to 3 degrees below the thermostat setting to lower the humidity, but that function would never work with a thermostat setting of 70. I have found that a thermostat setting of 80 degrees and no humidity control works fine. No mold. Maybe you can save money on electricity by using another control system and keeping the temperature extremely high. However, I don't like the idea of having my house go above 80 degrees in the summer. If you want to actually control the humidity, you need a dehumidifier that allows cooling and reheating the air to achieve true control of both temperature and humidity in your house. Most systems in The Villages do not have a reheat function for dehumidification. So, humidity control is always a compromise.