Wiring a thermostat to a Lopi Pioneer...

[rwthomas1]

The dealer threw a Honeywell CT87K in the box when I purchased my Lopi Pioneer. Given the cooler evening we have been having I'm still using the stove. I would like to wire the thermostat so I can just leave it on overnight but not overheat the house. There are only three wires on the CT87K, and a two wire setup is wired to the red and white terminals, that isn't the problem. The question is how do you set the rate cycle switches? There are 4 settings, Steam/gravity, High efficiency warm air, gas/oil warm air and electric warm air. I'm guessing that these control the temp swing? The question is, which setting to use? Any help appreciated, TIA, RT

 

[Don2222]

Hello rwthomas1

If you are talking about the switch in the diagram below, that has nothing to do with Swing Setting for a wood pellet stove and I would not bother trying to use it.

 

[Don2222]

Hello rwthomas1

I have been testing pellet stoves with T-stats. Lowes has the LUX TX1500U that works really well with a wood pellet stove and I highly recommend it!

See more info here:
T-Stat manufacturer's are finally adding pellet stoves to their instructions to say it will work with them. Unfortunately there is a difference of any T-Stat with the millivolt capability that do work on pellet stoves and T-Stats that work and have a high enough "Swing Temperature" Setting to really work well with a pellet stove's Auto On/Off. The high Swing Setting keeps the pellet stove from short cycling! This means turning the pellet stove back on before it has completed the shut down cycle! Sure it works but it is hard on the igniter and uses more pellets!

So the must have feature is a "Swing Setting" from 1 - 9. Each number represents 0.25 deg F that the actual room temperature can be either higher or lower of the set point for the T-Stat to open or close!
Example:
Swing Temp of 8 is 2 Deg F. So the if the T-Stat is set for 70, then the T-Stat will turn the pellet stove ON when the room temp is below 68 Deg F and OFF when the room temp is above 72 Deg F.
This gives the stove ample time to startup and shutdown!

Now for the Shop or WorkShop. In this case I want to control WHEN I want to turn the stove on and when I want to turn the stove off. So if I am not there it does not come on automatically. If I have to leave, then I can turn it off and it will stay off!

I tried the Digital Non Programmable LUX DMH110 with a max Swing Setting of 3 and it did not cut the mustard. Good manual job for the shop but did not work with a pellet stove! It short cycled the Quadrafire and the Pelpro so, not the stove's fault it was the T-Stat. 0.75 Deg F of swing is NOT enough.

So finally today, I found at Lowes the LUX TX1500U. This is cool. It has the 1 - 9 Swing Setting and I like # 8, and even though it is a 5-1-1 programmable T-Stat there is a Dip Switch to turn it into a Manual T-Stat! Cool, it cuts the program stuff out and can be used manually and very easy! Great for the workshop1

However if you do what the Program stuff it can be switched on for your home or whatever you wish!

See pics below:
Red Arrows show where to connect the two wires from your pellet stove.
RH and W1 and leave the jumper there! Simple if the diagram does not confuse the Heck out of you!
Also dip switch 2 up will set the T-Stat back to manual from the default.
Clic to enlarge