Timer for Furnace Fan

petehouk · 01-21-13, 04:52 PM

Hi Everybody. I am trying to find a way to more effectively circulate air in my house. I have been heating more with the wood stove lately, and there are times when the temperature differential throughout the house gets pretty large.

when this happens, I usually turn on the fan on our forced air furnace. It does a pretty good job of evening things out. The problem is that the fan tends to get left on longer than it probably should. And I can't leave it running if I am going to be out for a long time since there won't be anyone home to turn it off.

The same thing used to happen with our bathroom vent fans. Someone else who lives in my house (who happens to be married to me, but I'm not singling anyone out here or naming names or anything) had a tendency to leave the bathroom fan running long after any offending smells had been evacuated. I fixed that problem with one of those spring-wound timers.

Can I wire one those spring-wound things in parallel with the switch on my thermostat? Then if the temperature gets too far out of whack, I can twist that timer to 30 or 60 minutes and forget about it.

I have also seen a few thermostats that will automatically cycle the fan on. But those are pretty expensive and they run the fan more than I would like. (Braeburn 5300--$85--will run the fan as little as 12 minutes out of 120; Lux CAG1500--$55--will run the fan as little as 12 minutes out of 60.)

Thanks for your help!

01-21-13, 04:52 PM	#1
petehouk Lurking Renovator Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 13 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Timer for Furnace Fan Hi Everybody. I am trying to find a way to more effectively circulate air in my house. I have been heating more with the wood stove lately, and there are times when the temperature differential throughout the house gets pretty large. when this happens, I usually turn on the fan on our forced air furnace. It does a pretty good job of evening things out. The problem is that the fan tends to get left on longer than it probably should. And I can't leave it running if I am going to be out for a long time since there won't be anyone home to turn it off. The same thing used to happen with our bathroom vent fans. Someone else who lives in my house (who happens to be married to me, but I'm not singling anyone out here or naming names or anything) had a tendency to leave the bathroom fan running long after any offending smells had been evacuated. I fixed that problem with one of those spring-wound timers. Can I wire one those spring-wound things in parallel with the switch on my thermostat? Then if the temperature gets too far out of whack, I can twist that timer to 30 or 60 minutes and forget about it. I have also seen a few thermostats that will automatically cycle the fan on. But those are pretty expensive and they run the fan more than I would like. (Braeburn 5300--$85--will run the fan as little as 12 minutes out of 120; Lux CAG1500--$55--will run the fan as little as 12 minutes out of 60.) Thanks for your help!