On 6 May 2006 04:45:50 -0700, wrote:

While I'm sure you can figure out a way to do this, I doubt it's worth
all the trouble, such as trying to decypher and wire into the
electronicc ontrols of a brand new furnace. As noted, the burglar
alarm has the ability to monitor temp. As long as the temp to set off
the alarm can be set to just below the temp you keep the house at, say
3 to 5 degrees, I don;t see where the furnace alarm is going to give
much additional benefit. If the alarm doesn't allow a temp you like,
but has external inputs, I'd just hook up a termostat to it.

I see 2 scenarios. One, it's winter and 10 degrees outside and the
furnace fails to start. The only thing you gain with the furnace alarm
is the time it takes for the house to drop 3 degrees, which might be an
hour or two at most, which hardly seems worth the trouble, as you

I should have said that I plan to go away next winter, for maybe 2 to
4 months, for work, and plan to keep the house at one of the
temperatures we've talked about here. 50? 48? And the temp was to
be that high on the theory that it might be colder by some of the
pipes than it is at the thermostat. 45? 43?

And I'll be depending on a friend yet to be chosen to come, figure out
what is wrong, and fix it. Whichever friend I enlist, I'm afraid
he'll do it but will take too long. Maybe I should drain the pipes,
and put antifreeze in the toilets and drains, but I figure the furnace
lockout notification will be useful even on other trips of a week or
so.


RBM is right about the potential problems in the other parts of the
heating system, but in all but one case, it was the red button that
needed pushing, sometimes for no special reason that I could find. I
also once ordered fuel just before a trip, and gave them my credit
card number and the fuel never came. That time, I didn't run out until
2 weeks after I got back.

That one case was a 3-day power failure, the only one more in 23 years
that lasted more than 28 hours. If the house temp hadn't been 68 to
start, maybe it would have gotten freezing cold inside. But the
alarm comes with built-in power failure notification.


still have quite a bit of time before anything is going to freeze.
Or other scenario is it's Fall and 40 outside, in which case it may
take 6 hours to drop and trigger the alarm. But, in that case, you
have days to fix the furnace.