Hey guys, i had a question the other day and the customer was basically asking me to the effect of you know: hey i've got this thermostat and should it be coming on when this happens, or that happens and their particular scenario was, you know that was 78 In their house - and i guess it was reaching 79, but then the system would not turn on for a while and then it would eventually maybe turn on and or whatever. Let me just say before we dive into all this is. I would not worry so much about the temperature in that i wouldn't make sure it's accurate, doesn't matter. I would make sure that it's dead on and it's coming on and coming up.

I wouldn't worry about all that before we dive into all those problems. I'll just say just find a temperature that you're comfortable at in your home, set it at that temperature and then go from there. I wouldn't worry so much about you know. Well, it feels to me like it's this temperature, but the thermostat actually says it's that temperature.

Maybe the thermostat's inaccurate, but as long as it's coming on keeping you comfortable and things like that and shutting off none of that matters. But let's dive into this into that concern. If you have a thermostat that is, you know, registering at a different temperature and you're wanting it to come on at a different temperature or come on before it reaches that temperature and things like that. There's a thing called dead band on a thermostat and basically, if you, google, it google says dead band on a thermostat, is the temperature range within which neither the heating nor cooling systems function.

It's there to prevent the system from cycling on and off too frequently and to prevent the heating and cooling systems from operating simultaneously. Okay, i think that's accurate, but let me dive into this and let me just go back to the scenario that the customer was painting and, let's just go through this. There is a dead band between when the system turns on and off, based on the temperature. You have it set at that is pretty much true for all thermostats now are there thermostats that are doing what i'm about to describe, but it's not showing you that it's doing it.

Yes, i think there's lots of thermostats that have this dead band and it's going up and down, and you don't even know it - it never tells you that it's going on, but it is. I promise you so let's go through this when you have a system, let's say you set it at 72 degrees. Okay, there is a dead band there. There is a a range that that system will, when the ac comes on, it will cool to okay.

So if it's say it's 74 in there and you set it at 72, it will now okay, let's say that it's set to turn off, even though you have it at 72, it's actually going to turn off at 71.5. Okay, so your ac comes on and it starts lowering the temperature in there and now it's you know 73, and it keeps you know 73 and a half. Now we get down to 72, still won't shut off and then it comes on down and it actually cools to 71.5 degrees. Again, the thermostat might not say that, but that's what's happening, it's all internal and that's what's happening.

Okay, then the system turns off okay. Now this will stay off for maybe a degree and a half okay, whatever that deadband is so now it's 71 and a half you have it set at 72 and it starts warming back up in there warming up it's now at 72, warms up 72 and a Half boom, it becomes 73 and it says hey. I want some ac again and it turns back on and it drops it back down to that 71 and a half again, i'm doing a long version of this. But i want to make it really clear to you on how that works, because a lot of folks whenever they get a thermostat, some homeowners will even get their own little thermometer and set it right there at the thermostat and try to see what's going on more Accurately but again, as i said at the beginning of the video, it doesn't matter, okay doesn't matter what's going on now.

I think there is something as far as if you say to me as the homeowner hey. I don't like the dead band on this on this thermostat. I think it gets too cool in here, or it gets too hot in here when i've got it set at this temperature or not just realize. First of all that you may not be happy with any thermostat okay, you know i i could put another thermostat in there and try to you know, play with the dead band and all that stuff uh.

I there are thermostats on the market that you can adjust that dead band, but, first of all the reason it's there is to save you money. Okay, so if you have a dead band of only half a degree, for example, if you have a system, that's 72 degrees and it will cool down to 72 degrees and shut off and then when it gets up to 72 and a half, it turns back on And you constantly have the short cycling that is very inefficient and your electric bill, your power company, will love you so anyway, as i was telling that customer you know when it comes to dead band and it's cooling and shutting off. There are thermostats that you can play with that. I have never in my career played with it.

There used to be in the old days when i first got in the business the mechanical thermostats had heat anticipators on there. You could adjust it. I never messed with it back then still won't mess with it. Now, if i have a homeowner, that's upset, which is very rare for us, but if they just say hey, you know i'm upset with this thermostat and i want it changed.

I want that dead band to be changed. I just tell them hey, look, i'm not the company for you. You know i'll, replace your thermostat. If you have an issue with this one and something is wrong, but i'm not going and playing with those settings because a lot of those settings are set where they are for a reason and you go start playing with that stuff and then they get a high Electric bill, the homeowner gets a high electric bill.

Then they're upset about that. It's just too much just don't mess with all that. If that's what the homeowner wants, then i just you know, unfortunately we're not for them. I can understand.

I can be sensitive to that enough to where i can understand why the homeowner may want to adjust that for one reason or another, but i would i would dare say that, if you're having an issue with the dead band on a thermostat, there might be other Issues in your home, you might want to look at the humidity and comfort based on that, and what i mean by that is. There are houses where 72 degrees might feel different from other houses that are 72 degrees. Okay, based on the humidity of that house, it can feel like to the the homeowner the person there. It could feel like a different temperature or a different comfort level.

So anyway, if you have a thermostat, that's weird doing some wonky things again, most thermostats with the with the dead band. You don't even see it happening, you set it at 72 and it does it cools it down and it warms back up to 73, but it never turns 73 on the display. It just turns the system back on and you just constantly have that happening and you don't even know it, but if you have a thermostat, that's acting wonky and you're, just you know kind of wondering what's going on that, might be what's going on and then. Finally, if you are in the market for a new heating and air system, if you're in the middle peninsula or northern neck of virginia, give us a call griffinair, we would love to earn your business.

But if you're not in our coverage area, you're somewhere else in the country - and you are in the market for a new heating and air system before you spend thousands check out my new website, it's called new hvac guide, dot com, i'll, put a link to it Down in the comments and this website, i basically wrote a book made it a guide, put it on this website and instead of having a book that would be outdated within a year or two, i'm able to constantly add things on there. If new things come out and the other thing is i've even put information on there that people in our industry don't even want you to know so. I've got a whole page called no nose, and you know just things to stay away from, and so on. That being said, thanks for watching hit that subscribe button, we'll see you next time you.