Hello,
I live in NC and we have around 3 months of cold weather most years, if that, and it's not usually too bad. I'm on that TOU Time of Use plan the power company offers where you get a discount on/off peak hours but must pay the demand charge for the demand KW that are used at on peak times. I've found my Honeywell 3611 thermostat turning the aux heat on so often it always spikes my demand charge several KWs which are close to $4 each usually costing me $20+ unnecessarily each month on the months I use the heat at all. Since I don't usually have the extreme cold winters I don't need the aux heat on all the time and only want it to work when at the off peak hours times. I tried a toggle switch on the aux wire and that worked ok but its easy to forget about turning it off before the On Peak times start. Right now I have the aux heat wire disconnected but sometimes the heat pump runs a long time to try and keep up.
Are there any small programmable timer switches available that do not apply any power to the switch but only use the timer to open or close it? I'm wanting something to control my heat pumps aux heat on/off times to keep the aux heat off during On Peak power hours but still run the heat pump alone at those times.
I'm currently doing this with a timer for my electric tank water heater and saving a lot more $$$ versus what my gas tank water cost me and also do not have to hassle with the gas man.
Any help appreciated,
Brian
I live in NC and we have around 3 months of cold weather most years, if that, and it's not usually too bad. I'm on that TOU Time of Use plan the power company offers where you get a discount on/off peak hours but must pay the demand charge for the demand KW that are used at on peak times. I've found my Honeywell 3611 thermostat turning the aux heat on so often it always spikes my demand charge several KWs which are close to $4 each usually costing me $20+ unnecessarily each month on the months I use the heat at all. Since I don't usually have the extreme cold winters I don't need the aux heat on all the time and only want it to work when at the off peak hours times. I tried a toggle switch on the aux wire and that worked ok but its easy to forget about turning it off before the On Peak times start. Right now I have the aux heat wire disconnected but sometimes the heat pump runs a long time to try and keep up.
Are there any small programmable timer switches available that do not apply any power to the switch but only use the timer to open or close it? I'm wanting something to control my heat pumps aux heat on/off times to keep the aux heat off during On Peak power hours but still run the heat pump alone at those times.
I'm currently doing this with a timer for my electric tank water heater and saving a lot more $$$ versus what my gas tank water cost me and also do not have to hassle with the gas man.
Any help appreciated,
Brian