CraigT wrote:

Yes, I realize what I'm asking for will mean that my furnace/AC will
be running less efficiently, but I'm willing to give this up for
comfort.

(...)

and when they were set to their most sensitive settings which caused
the furnace/AC to cycle more neither cycled as much as I wished they
had. Is there a brand or maybe a particular thermostat out there
that is known to be more sensitive than others?

Look. Here's what's going on. I'm going to focus primarily on the
furnace side for now, not the A/C side.

You have a furnace in your house that probably puts out more BTU's of
heat than it should. In other words, your furnace is over-sized for
your house.

What this means is that it can over-heat your house and make you
uncomfortable just at the point when the thermostat tells it to shut
off. Then as your house cools down, you are again uncomfortable by the
coolness just at the point when the thermostat tells the furnace to turn
on.

To deal with this, you have 3 options - which can be employed either
individually or in any combination:

A) have the furnace put out less heat when it's on. I personally dial
down the gas input to my furnace so as to modulate the intensity of the
flames (exactly what you do with your barbeque) so that my furnace runs
longer and this leads to a more even heat for the house. This works
well for older furnaces that ARE NOT computer or
electronically-controlled (these are typically 30 to 35 years old) and
it can also work well for furnaces that have electronic ignition but are
otherwise NOT REALLY computer-controlled (25 to 30 years old) and are
likely to NOT be condensing (ie - high efficiency) type.

B) the "hysteresis" or the "span" of the thermostat can be changed (in
your case - reduced). Some thermostats have the ability to set the
temperature spam between when the furnace shuts off and when it comes
back on. This is typically either 1, 2 or 3 degrees F. Sometimes this
setting is a small switch on the back of the thermostat (ie - not
typically or frequently-accessible user adjustable). When you set it to
1, the furnace cycles more frequently, but theoretically will give you a
more even temperature over time. If your current thermostat does not
allow you to set the SPAN, or if the span setting is fixed at either 2
or 3 degrees F, then you want to look for a thermostat that has an
adjustable SPAN, or one that has a fixed span of 1 degree F.

c) run your fan continuously. If your furnace fan is always running,
this will lead to a more evenly heated house and can overcome any
tendency to over-shoot or under-shoot the desired temperature. The
benefits of running your fan continuously in the summer are even
greater, and is the preferred way to deal with keeping or maintaining
the desired temperature during A/C use.

One final thought: Where you thermostat is located in your house may be
the sole reason for your temperature discomfort, or at least play a
major role. This has to do with air currents and circulation and there
might be a better location for it in the house. An extension of this
idea is that the thermal coupling of the thermostat to the wall itself
may be influencing how the thermostat is sensing temperature, and
placing an insulating layer between the wall and the thermostat may
provide the solution you are seeking.