Best thermostat for hot water baseboard heat
Top Picks: Thermostat for hot water baseboard heat
Hi folks, in today's post i will suggest you best thermostat for hot water baseboard heat systems, As you may already know that for central heating of houses the hot water circulation through out the house is the most effective way to heat your complete house. The role of the thermostat is that it regulates or controls that how much the boiler has to heat the water. The hot water is than sent to water baseboard heaters in different rooms and in this way hot water keeps traveling through all the rooms.
Hot water baseboard heating is preferred over other heating mechanisms because of it being cost effective and also because it is very easy to install. You have to set the temperature on the thermostat as much you want heating in your house.
Types of baseboard heaters
There are two main types of baseboard heaters.
- 1Convection baseboard heaters
The convection baseboard heaters are mostly filled with water or oil. These convection heaters have mostly thermostat builtin to them. We have shortlisted one such convection baseboard heater which is also Amazon best seller. the benefit of these oil based heaters is that they are harmless to health as the basic principal is that the oil or water inside the baseboard heater once heated up keeps the warmth for long interval of time.
- 2Electric hydronic baseboard heaters
Electric hydronic baseboard heaters have water filled inside instead of oil and they are installed mostly at the bottom of wall externally. The electricity converts the water into steam according to temperature you set on the thermostat and this steam regulates the temperature of room. One major benefit of these baseboard heaters is that do to the steam there remains moisture in the ro0om which is very good for you and your kids skin nourishment.
Which type of thermostat do I need?
We have suggested two types of thermostats, firstly Line voltage thermostats and they operate on either 120 volts or 240 volts. These are highly recommended for electric space heaters, baseboard heaters, electric furnace, cove heaters, in-ceiling radiant heat and wall heaters. The second type of thermostats are low voltage thermostats and they don't give power to heating device and they are preferred as they consume very less electricity.
Before you decide which thermostat you buy you should confirm which type of wiring your baseboard heater has. If it has line voltage wiring then you should only buy a thermostat that works on 120 or 240 volts. The thermostats that operate on 120 or 240 watt are actually like plug and play and work on standard United States electricity. These thermostats are identified by a pair of two or four red and black thick wires coming out of your thermostat.
However the low voltage thermostat's saves you lots of electricity and they are different from line wire thermostat in a sense that they are mostly operated using two AA size cells and consume very less electricity and they have very thin and up to 6 or 7 wires at the backside. These are also used with boilers, furnaces and heat pumps.
In America most of the people use furnaces to generate heat at one place and the heat is than transferred to all other rooms through ducts. In this scenario of central heating mostly low voltage thermostats are preferred.
The thermostats that operate on 120 or 220 volts actually convert that current into heat energy. In this case if you have 4 heaters at your home than you will require four thermostats as well.
Line wire thermostat with 2 or 4 wires (120 or 220 volts)
Low voltage thermostat with multiple wires (12 volts)
Mysa Smart Thermostat
Keeping the best for last, I present to you the most advanced and futuristic piece of technology you are going to find at such a relatively affordable price anywhere, the Mya smart thermostat. Smart homes are slowly but surely coming into the mainstream market. From smart watches and sneakers to smart light switches and refrigerators, we sure have come a long way.
The future is now. Might as well get a futuristic thermostat to go along with the smart home if you have one. However even if you don't have a smart home this would be a good investment to make as a quality of life improvement.
The Mysa smart thermostat is a highly energy efficient thermostat that is absolutely chalk full of great features. It has a sleek minimalistic design that basically screams sci-fi right in your face. It's easy to install, took us about 20 minutes to get it up and running in the house. However to be fair, it does take a fair bit of tinkering to get the software completely ready and operating how you want it to.
One of the many cool features that really made me realize how premium this product was made to be, was it's smart location detector. Basically it tracks where you are on the map and turns the heaters on and off according to that such that when I get home, the temperature is exactly where I want it to be.
Moreover, it also has an amazing app that lets you do all sorts of things, including a particularly handy feature that I for one am very grateful for, the ability to track the energy usage from your heaters. Overall I would say that this is definitely the greatest thing I have gotten in a long time, one of the top ten electric baseboard heaters and their thermostats for sure.
Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat for Smart Home
[Update October 2020] Due to highly positive reviews receive about Emerson thermostat and after purchasing and reviewing this thermostat our team has place it on first position. Its a smart thermostat that reduces your bills being compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings. The feature of full week scheduling allows you to save considerable amount of bills. You can also use it with heat only, cold only and heat pump systems.
However I suggest that if you need a low cost solution from Emerson for single stage systems you can try Emerson 1F80-361. It is 5-1-1 day programmable
thermostat which means that there wil be less stress on HVAC system. Not only that you also need not to make adjustments on daily basis after you adjust the temperature once. Only drawback is that it is suitable only for single stage system.
Honeywell 1000 Heat Only thermostat
It is a low voltage thermostat that operates only on 24 volts. me than this thermostat will be a good option. This is one of the best thermostat for hot water baseboard and it is also declared Amazon Choice for its highly positive reviews. It is powered with battery as well as electricity. On the first press of the arrows button it displays the current temperature of hot water however later you an press again the same button to increase or decrease temperature of hot water, however it only displays temperature in Fahrenheit,
Honeywell Manual Baseboard Thermostat
This is a high voltage thermostat and can operate on 120 to 240 volts. This hot water baseboard thermostat is declared Amazon choice for very nice user reviews. It has mechanical operation and has a very efficient bi-metal temperature sensor. This double pole thermostat has total 4 wires out of which two are red and two are black. It will work perfectly for baseboards and convectors that operate on 120 to 240 volts. Under the price tag of 20 dollars its a best purchase you can ever have. It can also be used with pellet stove that works on 110 to 240 volts.
Honeywell Programmable Thermostat T5 (24 volts)
This is another award winning low voltage thermostat that consumes only 24-volts. It is not for most of baseboard heaters that works on 220 or 240 volts.
This thermostat helps you reduce your electricity bill as you can control the baseboard hot water temperature for the whole of week. Large backlit display shows your room temperature and also can be seen easily at night, It support both heating and cooling functions and due to smart learning feature it intelligently provides you hot water when you need it. But please note that this thermostat is only for 750mV heat systems.
SunTouch Thermostat 120V/240V
Whether your baseboard heater is 120 volts on 240 volts you can use this SunTouch thermostat. It has highly positive reviews and also declared Amazon Choice from last many years. You can also use it with most of electric floor heating systems and hot water baseboard heaters as well. It has a builtin circuit breaker that makes sure your house is safe from fire caught due to electricity. If you want to replace any of honeywell thermostats than this will surely work. This thermostat is non programmable but works perfectly and is a very durable product.
Programmable 240 volt thermostat
This Honeywell thermostat works with all baseboard heaters that operate on 240 volts. It is declared Amazon choice for excellent user reviews.
- 7 day programmable - maintain the pre set program schedule for up to 20% energy savings, or modify the schedule to fit your lifestyle.
- It controls the temperature electronically and it has 4 Wires at back side indicating Double Pole. It has 15 minute heating cycles and operates without a battery.
- Soundproofed for quiet operation - reduces the clicking noise commonly heard with conventional thermostats
- Large, clear, backlit display - easy to read in various lighting conditions
Honeywell Aube TH135-01-B Hydronic Thermostat
This Thermostat is only recommended for applications that are 24 volts.This hydronic thermostat from Honeywell requires two AA size batteries for power and it also indicates on its screen when battery gets low. This thermostat is fully compatible with hydronic floor heating systems and hot water baseboard heating system as well.
It automatically activates the pump once in a day so that it pushes hot water from water heater to pipes. This helps in preventing blockage in pipes or coils. It displays the water temperature in both centigrade and Fahrenheit. It has three builtin temperature settings namely comfort, economy and vacation with temperature setting of 20,18 and 10 degree centigrade respectively.
LuxPRO Heat only Thermostat
This digital thermostat will work accurately to maintain the temperature of hot water as per your requirement. It has attractive slim design and highly positive reviews at Amazon. It has large LED display and it is operated with two AA size batteries that come in package. Please remember that it only works for 24 volt or 12 volt heaters.
Conclusion
Either you are interested in high voltage line thermostat or low voltage thermostat for your baseboard heating system. We have tried to shortlist the best thermostats having most positive feedback at Amazon. It would be great if you comment below about your opinion.