# Electric Baseboard Heater - New Thermostat Installed - Cycling Often



## Dan64456 (Dec 9, 2015)

Hello,
I have an 8 foot baseboard heater and picked up a Honeywell RLV3100A to replace the ancient knob thermostat that was totally inaccurate and at times caused the heat to never come on, or stay on until the room was burning hot..  Nevertheless it's gone.. It as a 4 wire with ground attachment setup..  The new thermostat is 2 wire.  I pushed the ground back into the box since there is no attachment for it on the new plastic unit (the main ground wire going downstairs is still attached to the electrical box itself) and wire nutted the 2 white wires together, and wired the 2 blacks to the thermostat.  It has its own beaker so I am able to shut it off safely when off season.  I'm assuming it's still safe and breaker protected since the ground is running to the box (but no longer to the thermostat itself since it's plastic I'm assuming?).



Anyway that aside it works great but I do have a few questions.
Before I ask the questions I'll note that it has icons for flames, from 0 - 5 flames.  5 flames is 100% heating activated, and anything less is partial.. 0 is off.  

Once it reaches the desired temp, say 70, it usually goes down to 1 flame as it should and holds the temp right there very accurately.  My concern is that it sounds like it's cycling on and off every 15 seconds or so to do that.  The old unit either had 100% on or 100% off, and you can clearly hear the pinging noises from the metal heating / cooling.   With the old unit it only did that once every 15 or 30 mins or so presumably because of the 5 to 10 degree swing range of the old POS thermostat.  
With the new one, I can hear the sounds it used to make every 15 to 30 mins  now every 15 seconds only once it reaches the desired temp and has only 1 or 2 flames on the display.   Does it maintain slight heat by on-off? or does it actually send less wattage to the unit?  

Is the constant cycling safe and normal?

Also note that at 5 flames it heats up just like the it used to..  makes the noises until it warms up then stays on until reaching desired temp..  (not every 15 seconds as when it goes down to partial power to maintain)

Thanks


----------



## nealtw (Dec 9, 2015)

I don't have answers for your questions but I would question replacing a 2 pole switch, with a 1 pole switch. So when you turn off the Tstat, there is still power at the heater.


----------



## Dan64456 (Dec 10, 2015)

nealtw said:


> I don't have answers for your questions but I would question replacing a 2 pole switch, with a 1 pole switch. So when you turn off the Tstat, there is still power at the heater.



The heater is on its own breaker circuit.. 15amp, 240V.. so it can be turned off at any time, especially off season.  The instruction manual clearly shows wiring instructions for 4 wire and 2 wire setups, so I assume it's safe and expected.


----------



## nealtw (Dec 10, 2015)

I understand that and I don't know the rules. It just dosn't sound right.


----------



## Dan64456 (Dec 10, 2015)

nealtw said:


> I understand that and I don't know the rules. It just dosn't sound right.



Gotcha... Well I can attest to the fact that it does work right, and keeps the right temperature better than it ever has..  It's just the constant on-off that has me worried.  The slight metal pinging noises it makes when it heats up and shuts down.. It just does it too often when at operating temp and I wasn't sure if it was normal..  or how often it should be doing it..


----------



## slownsteady (Dec 10, 2015)

not sure of all of them, but some tstats have a setting the governs how much the temperature in the room can vary before the heat kicks on. Maybe that yours is set to a very strict setting.


----------



## Dan64456 (Dec 10, 2015)

slownsteady said:


> not sure of all of them, but some tstats have a setting the governs how much the temperature in the room can vary before the heat kicks on. Maybe that yours is set to a very strict setting.



You're thinking of the "Swing Range" setting..  Usually on gas furnaces it's set to 1 or 2 degrees F..   This unit says +-.27 of a degree F..(and not configurable) so very tight tolerance.. Maybe it doesn't matter on electric heaters the same way it would on a gas unit?


----------



## slownsteady (Dec 10, 2015)

Sounds right. 
So now I'm thinking that there may be a lack of insulation or a draft on the tstat that makes it cycle so often.


----------



## bud16415 (Dec 10, 2015)

Sounds to me like you need a Tstat with a wider or selectable swing temp. I wouldn&#8217;t want it trying to hold +-.27F.

Is there a contactor in your heater the Tstat picks up for heat. I would think you will wear it out in no time turning it on and off 4 times a minute. 

You could wire a timer to the Tstat I guess that would let you set a time for it to cool down until it would allow it to come back on.


----------



## WyrTwister (Jan 1, 2016)

Even w/o a contactor , I would think the tstat would quickly wear itself out or burn itself out .

     Is it switching line voltage or low voltage ?

God bless
Wyr


----------



## Dan64456 (Jan 1, 2016)

:





WyrTwister said:


> Even w/o a contactor , I would think the tstat would quickly wear itself out or burn itself out .
> 
> Is it switching line voltage or low voltage ?
> 
> ...




It's a 240v hermostat with heat sync  and all so I'm assuming line..  Someone elsewhere said it's Normal because that's how it maintains precise temp by keeping the unit from getting too cold..


----------

