We have a natural gas fireplace in our home. It has a battery operated controller on the wall where we can adjust temperature, turn it on and off etc...my question is...
Where would the sensor for the fireplace be located? What would it look like?
I am asking because alot of the time the temperature it says it is, it sure as heck doesn't feel like it. For instance, we will set it for 76 degrees. So when it hits that temperature, it will automatically shut off. Quite often, we'll A.) wake up or B.) get home or C.) just go downstairs and it will say that the temperature is what we set it for. However, it feels like it is much much colder. Or On really sunny days, the temperature will go up w/o the fireplace even kicking on.
We have one w/ a vent that goes outside, attatched to the house. A smallish metal box.
At first we thought the sensor was there and then we thought it might be the temperature control thing because we have a lamp sitting on a table that sits right below it. But we aren't sure.
It sounds to me like the thermostat is in the controller. The fact that it takes a battery suggests that it works like the remote control on your TV, etc. The gas valve is remotely controlled by the action of the thermostat that you can adjust. If the lamp sitting close to it is giving off heat that will obviously cause the fireplace to react to a false indication of room temperature. The fact that on warm sunny days the thing shuts down suggests that it's doing what it should.
Thank you, Frank. You were right, the thermostat was in the controller. We had to have a leak fixed yesterday and asked the repair guy. He agreed that that was where it was. He also said it was a poor location for the controller to be because he said that even the poilet light for the fireplace gave off enough heat to screw w/ the thermostat. He guessed about a 10-15 dgree difference.
