Thermostat to control Heatpump & Fireplace


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Old 11-17-16, 07:48 PM
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Thermostat to control Heatpump & Fireplace

I have a Heat Pump with built in electric heat as a auxiliary/backup/emergency heat. I also have a natural gas fireplace. I would like one thermostat that I can use to control both. This is what I know so far.

Current Thermostat: Honeywell th8320u1008
Current HeatPump: Goodman, unknown exact model. It has an outdoor coil with indoor air handler model #: aruf303016ba
Current Fireplace: Monessen Hearth BDV400 with optional wall switch.

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What options exist?
 
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Old 11-17-16, 08:03 PM
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Trying to think how to put this..... why would you want your home heating stat to run the fireplace ?

There really is no way to switch between heat sources. It you wanted to have a setup where if the heat pump and electric reheats failed.....the fireplace would fire up... that may be able to be done but that's not terribly effective.
 
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Old 11-18-16, 05:57 AM
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HI,just curious, are you trying to set this up in the event of a power failure? If so you will not be able to use the fireplace anyway.
Just Saying!
 
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Old 11-18-16, 07:44 AM
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I would like to set this up so that my fireplace and my heat pump stop battling each other. It would also be nice for the fireplace to help supplement the heat pump when it gets cold outside below the efficiency of the heat pump. Natural gas is really cheap where I live, much cheaper than using the emergency/backup electric heat of the heat pump. As for the fireplace it is already designed to run when the power goes out. The 120v fan will not run but the fireplace itself will run perfectly fine without power since it has a battery backup. Even without the fan it still provides a lot of heat.

It looks like some of the smart thermostats such as the Ecobee3 and Nest allow for 1-2 stages/options of auxiliary heat. Stage 1 would be the fireplace and stage 2 would be the electric heat pump backup heat.
 
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Old 11-18-16, 03:34 PM
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Even in the event of a power failure the thermostat needs to be powered via a control signal. The batteries power the thermostat not the devices it's controlling.
First I'd set the heat pump to a constant temp and leave it be. Heat pumps are happiest and most efficient that way.
This can be done but it's going to cost you some cash in custom wiring.
 
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Old 11-28-16, 09:28 PM
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Well I decided to hook my thermostat up to my fireplace so that my Heat Pump and Fireplace can work in conjunction with one another especially when it doesn't get above 40 degrees for weeks on end.











https://youtu.be/BxNM2zstbsI https://youtu.be/AXsw6AqTkFs
 
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Old 11-28-16, 09:50 PM
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Here is are some fun facts:

My Heat Pump is a Goodman GSZ13 with a SEER of 13 and HSPF of 8 (Bottom of the line Heat Pump, not my doing)
The Cost of Electricity is: $0.0908/KWH
The Cost of Natural Gas is: $0.79053/Therm
The Average Temperature for November is: High 50, Low 36
The Average Temperature for December is: High 41, Low 29
The Average Temperature for January is: High 41, Low 29
The Average Temperature for February is: High 47, Low 33.
 
 

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