Odd question...

[Fat Tone]

Yup, its a simple

supply
|
timer
|
stat
|
return

with thumping great contacts and blue sparks sometimes

[cjolley]

Yup, its a simple

with thumping great contacts and blue sparks sometimes

I'll just bet.
I'd be interested to see that system start up an air conditioning compressor.

[Fat Tone]

hehe. I image there is a relay or two in there somewhere. And probably a soft-start for the compy.

[cjolley]

I'm not so fond of the computer-operated one. It's harder to just... nudge the heat up.

Then again, I'm not fond of the manual one upstairs.

Maybe I'll switch 'em!

*sigh*

If your computer one is a Honeywell, like most people's are, throw it in the trash and get a Rite-Temp.

We put up with that up-one-degree = oven, down-one-degree = freezer thing for years.

I finally got fed up and rolled the dice on a $50 Rite-Temp.
It made a world of difference!
Now set it up one and it gets a little warmer, down one and it gets a little cooler.
Wish I'd done it years ago. sigh...

[cjolley]

hehe. I image there is a relay or two in there somewhere. And probably a soft-start for the compy.

Gas or Electric heat?
We have gas heat, and I pictured a direct connection to the gas valve and the electric igniter, and fan. Which is at least concevable.
I suppose a direct connected heating element would be even worse than an AC compressor

[Paddy]

Just a thought:

My boiler has a thermostat to regulate the water output.
My radiators are thermostatically controlled.

Why do I need a wall thermostat?

[degrub]

Both of those control the supply side of the system. The wall thermostat measures the air + wall temperature and creates the "demand" signal for the system.

[Paddy]

do the radiator thermostats not function as a 'demand'?

[degrub]

yes they do, however, they only respond to the temperature of the water in the radiator ( and the temperature of the radiator metal in the immediate ). Very effecient at extracting all of the heat possible from the water - not a very high heat transfer rate though. Only indirectly to the air temperature in the room. The radiators transfer heat two ways - by air passing over the pipes (small) and by direct radiation (warm body transfers heat to a cold body) usually much larger .

If you want to get more overall heat transfer to the room, you either need more radiator area or air movement to replace warmed air with cold next to the tubes.

THe only thing i can think now that a wall thermostat would do for you is to raise the water temperature ( and thus the direct radiation to the room) in response to cold room air, subject to pressure limitations in your boiler system. Otherwise you could remove the radiator thermostats and go to a circulation system, but that gets really complicated balancing the hydraulic distribution and would only improve the heat transfer by keeping the time averaged temperature of the water in the tubes higher.

[gt40]

I could be tricked into making a cover for it, for the right motivation
It would have to be aluminum, but would buff up pretty nice.

[Paddy]

Cheers for the offer mate, but i am sure that would be a lot of work.
I'll stick with the cheap plastic one for now....