# tampering with a thermostat



## ColdNH (Mar 5, 2013)

So a person i know, has this issue,

The powers that be in his office (the women)(and men that act like women) like to set the thermostat to 75.

No joke, it gets near 80 at his desk. It hit 77.4 yesterday. The women don’t mind cause they wear open toe shoes and skirts. meanwhile it’s the dead of winter here and he is stuck wearing long pants, socks and shoes.








Long story short,

Friend is wondering if its possible to tamper with the thermostat so that the dial is basically not functional and the heat is permanently set closer to 70. This way co-workers can fiddle with it all they want but it wont matter...

all other avenues have already been explored.


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## Jack Straw (Mar 5, 2013)

I had the same problem, I kept finding rooms above 80. Our thermostats have a lever on the side that moves up and down to control the setting. I went though and put a self tapping screw in the back of the t-stat so the lever can only go up to 72. It's been working great. You could also place something warm like a light fixture near the t-stat.


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## ironpony (Mar 5, 2013)

disconnect the existing stat
rewire to a fixed temp bulb stat next to existing stat, the are usually just a square box
they can then fiddle all they want and no temp change
change bulb in stat in summer to accommodate A/C temp


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## heat seeker (Mar 5, 2013)

Can you close/open air vents, or close off certain ductwork? I did a midnight "duct adjustment" at work once, but the problem was the opposite - we were freezing, even in the summer!


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## begreen (Mar 6, 2013)

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ecatalog/N-1z0dmmo


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## MasterMech (Mar 6, 2013)

begreen said:


> http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ecatalog/N-1z0dmmo


 
Yup, got a bunch of those at work, only maint. and electronics guys have keys.  Makes us real popular with the women folk.


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## flyingcow (Mar 6, 2013)

Why don't you try wearing skirts and open toed shoes? Might work. You never know..........


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## Jack Straw (Mar 6, 2013)

flyingcow said:


> Why don't you try wearing skirts and open toed shoes? Might work. You never know..........



Pics or it didn't happen...........


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## flyingcow (Mar 6, 2013)

I used to work for an HVAC company. After installs we might get complaints like what your talking about. We knew the system was balanced right, but we'd go back. Take Arthur with us. Arthur was an old pro, he done/seen it all. He'd send me up on the ladder, with a balancing hood, to verify it was still balanced correctly. Have me pop a ceiling tile or two. Stick my head above the ceiling for a few minutes(not do a darn thing). Then have me hang short streamers off of the ceiling vents. Most of the time the women were happy after that. The combination of having the "old experienced" guy with us and the streamers took care of it. Arthur enjoyed flirting with the women. The women enjoyed it. All was happy.


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## FanMan (Mar 6, 2013)

Reminds me of a place I used to work.  The company put the engineering office in the room that had been the computer room for the previous occupant, so it had a _serious_ cooling system.  At one point they promoted a guy from the shop downstairs to be a draftsman.  Not only did he like it hot, he was one of those guys who was utterly convinced that pushing the thermostat to 90° would heat the room faster than just putting it to the desired set point.  No matter how many times we explained the function of thermostats, he just didn't get it.  He had some other weird ideas, but this isn't the place for religion or politics... anyway, to make things worse, his desk was right next to the thermostat.  We all took a perverse pleasure in setting it back down to 50° or so whenever he left the room or his back was turned.


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## peakbagger (Mar 6, 2013)

I used to install a Honeywell thermostat that had temporary overides on the front plate but couldnt be permanently changed without a password. I also resorted to installing a secondary  Tstat in the return air duct that would overide the main thermostat. I never did find a thermostat that I could offset the display by a set amount so it read a couple of degrees one way or the other.

I have found over the years that many systems are in desperate need of balancing and if the air flows are way off some folks get to much air flow and tend to want it hotter, slow down or redirect the velocity and it can help.


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## firefighterjake (Mar 6, 2013)

I wish I could tamper with the thermostat in my office . . . I cannot tell you how many times this year that the air conditioning was running . . . nothing like working with a jacket on the entire time.


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## bmblank (Mar 6, 2013)

AC on all winter and heat on all summer where i work. Hvac guys come out a couple times a year at our request, but they always say its running fine. 15 degree temperature swings between locations in the office don't help.


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## brian89gp (Mar 6, 2013)

They have fixed temp thermostats.  They also have thermostats where you can set the min and max temps and to change them out of that range requires a pass code.


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## semipro (Mar 7, 2013)

He could build a nice (ventilated) box to cover the functioning thermostat and mount a dummy battery-powered thermostat on the face of the box.
If he could get to the guts of the thing he may find trimmer potentiometers inside that are used to calibrate the unit.  Adjusting these one way or the other may provide an artificial offset. There may be trimmer pot in there to adjust cycle timing.  Adjusting that won't solve his problem. Some shots of what trimmer pots look like below.


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## Hearth Mistress (Mar 7, 2013)

MasterMech said:


> Yup, got a bunch of those at work, only maint. and electronics guys have keys.  Makes us real popular with the women folk.


There isn't one yet I haven't been able to adjust with a staightened out paper clip or pair of scissors through the side vent holes. Cold women will get warm, even if t eans setting fire to the empty desks 

My guys thought they were funny and printed 74.5 on a clear label, slapped it on the front and disconnected the thermo (re-ran it to a not so public place) and everyone thought it was on.

I just came home from a biz trip in CT and the hotel had the digital thermostats settings locked on "heat" and while you could set it as low as you wanted, anything entered over 75, reverted to 68. It was really windy and snowing and being used to warm to my bones wood stove, I just couldn't get warm. It was a honeywell box but who knows how they had it set up.


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## brian89gp (Mar 28, 2013)

Wire one of these to the heat wire then wire up the power to the thermostat.  Thermostat still shows a number, relays click, but doesn't control the heater anymore.

http://www.icmcontrols.com/THERMOSTATS-DRY-OUT-Prodlist.html


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## cygnus (Mar 29, 2013)

brian89gp said:


> Wire one of these to the heat wire then wire up the power to the thermostat.  Thermostat still shows a number, relays click, but doesn't control the heater anymore.
> 
> http://www.icmcontrols.com/THERMOSTATS-DRY-OUT-Prodlist.html


that's a great idea.  I had no idea something that simple existed.


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