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Single pole thermostat in baseboard heater constantly use electricity?

Single pole thermostat in baseboard heater constantly use electricity?


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Old 02-05-13, 09:56 AM
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Single pole thermostat in baseboard heater constantly use electricity?

I found that there is always a current present in single pole thermostat ...does it mean it always consumes electricity even though its on lowest setting?

We have a base board heater with single pole thermostat with only low and high setting...
 
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Old 02-05-13, 10:09 AM
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How did you determine there was always a current present? You didn't use a non contact tester did you? Correct way would be an Amprobe.
 
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Old 02-05-13, 10:23 AM
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I found that there is always a current present in single pole thermostat ...does it mean it always consumes electricity even though its on lowest setting?
A thermostat must always have power available in order to function. Most often, this is 24V control voltage, at milliamps.

The display on a thermostat that has that will consume a tiny bit of power. But the only time your meter will really spin is when the thermostat closes and sends power to the actual load - the blower, boiler, or heating element.

What type of thermostat do you have, and what is it controlling? And, as Ray asked,
Originally Posted by ray2047
How did you determine there was always a current present?
 
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Old 02-05-13, 10:51 AM
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We have single pole thermostat with only low and high setting ..i.e. off and on not possible...
 
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Old 02-05-13, 11:16 AM
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Is this an electric base board heater? That was my assumption.
 
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Old 02-05-13, 11:36 AM
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Yes it is electric baseboard heater I think its from King
 
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Old 02-05-13, 12:35 PM
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We have single pole thermostat with only low and high setting ..i.e. off and on not possible...
That must get really hot in August! How do you set the temperature on the thermostat?

I'm not sure why you would want to turn a thermostat off. It wouldn't work if you did that. Is this an in-line line voltage thermostat?
 
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Old 02-05-13, 12:50 PM
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Thermostat is on the baseboard heater itself

Thermostat is a temperature dial type with low/high
it is a part of baseboard heater ....its on the left side of baseboard heater
 
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Old 02-05-13, 01:27 PM
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Again, how did you determine there is always current?
 
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Old 02-05-13, 05:56 PM
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240 volt baseboard heaters are sometimes controlled with single pole thermostats. In a case like this, the thermostat can be turned down or the thermostat may not be calling for heat, but you will still show 120 volts on both the line and load side of the thermostat. When the thermostat is in the open position, the voltage measured across the line and load terminals on the thermostat will read 240 volts. One leg of the 240 volt circuit is feeding through the element back to the thermostat.
 
 

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