Thermostat in parallel

[studentspark]

I have a client that has an elderly mum with dementia who lives alone.
She keeps turning down the room stat so the house is freezing.
He wants her to have some control over the system, so she can turn up the stat if she needs to, but cant turn it completely off.
I was thinking of putting in an additional stat in parallel set to around 20, so if she did turn down her old stat , this new stat would still send a call for heat.
Same issue with the hot water, she keeps switching it off. The chap want me to bypass the controller to have hot water on all the time (controlled by the cylinder stat)

would appreciate your thoughts on this, or any better ideas

phone based controls are not suitable as no wifi

Thanks

 

[JohnW2]

I was thinking of putting in an additional stat in parallel set to around 20, so if she did turn down her old stat , this new stat would still send a call for heat.

I see no problem with that. In my house, I have situations in which there are thermostats in parallel, albeit for other reasons. The only issue is obviously that the one set to the highest temp will always over-ride the others - but that is precisely what you want.

Same issue with the hot water, she keeps switching it off. The chap want me to bypass the controller to have hot water on all the time (controlled by the cylinder stat.

Again I see no problem - many people leave immersions on constantly, and there have often been debates in which some believe that this is the most efficient approach. If would be nice/desirable to have some sort of isolating switch somewhere, but maybe that could be sited somewhere where the elderly lady couldn't get at it (maybe not even know about it!).

Kind Regards, John

 

[John D v2.0]

Some thermostats have pegs behind the rotating bit to limit the range, that would be simpler.
However they physically limit the position of the knob, so it depends whether that's acceptable.

Your suggestion would work fine though, at greater cost. Hope his mum is alright, it must be tough.

 

[slippyr4]

You could use a programmable stat with all the time set points set to a comfortable temperature. Then if she turns it down (or up) it'll reset itself after a short while.

Can she copy with a digital stat with up/down buttons?

 

[JohnW2]

You could use a programmable stat with all the time set points set to a comfortable temperature. Then if she turns it down (or up) it'll reset itself after a short while. Can she copy with a digital stat with up/down buttons?

I would suspect that her behaviour will probably be unpredictable, so that the only safe course would be to deny her access to any controls which would have a significant impact on the heating.

Kind Regards, John

 

[deadshort]

I was thinking of putting in an additional stat in parallel set to around 20, so if she did turn down her old stat , this new stat would still send a call for heat.

Sounds like a great solution.

DS

 

[imroberts]

Don't see any reason why your proposal wouldn't work - it's the same principle as a frost stat when they used to be commonplace - but at a much higher temperature.

Though if she could cope with a digital thermostat it might be simpler to swap what she has already - either program it with fixed programs through the day so if she changes the temperature to something silly it'll change itself back after a period of time - or alternatively some of them you can set minimum and maximum temperatures and lock down the rest of the controls.

 

[DaveHerns]

Just disconnect the existing thermostats so they become dummies and have the real ones hidden away.

 

[ericmark]

I have two in mothers house, and times set so one works in day and other at night and placed in living room and bedroom works well. However just come to also live in her house, so now need to consider temperature in other rooms.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I have an exact opposite situation where someone turns it up to maximum 35c, so i have secretly wired one in series to limit maximum to 25C, where it senses heat as well so it is not totally obscured, just that it is housed in a different case that doesn't look like a thermostat, and I have vent holes to allow warm air flow through it.