How to retrofit this existing wall-heater with an external thermostat

heatingretrofit

My house has several wall-mounted gas heaters.

All but one of them have external, easily accessible thermostats. However, the one that happens to be the most used has no remotely mounted thermostat, to change the temperature you have to open the cover at the base, and adjust a knob at the base of the heater.

Is there any way to retrofit this heater with a simple remote thermostat? Ideally, I'd like something really simple. All the other heaters I have just use contact-closure (e.g. 2 wire, I think) thermostats, not the programmable electronic kinds, and that's all I really want for this heater too.

The heater doesn't currently have any connections for electrical, so an Ideal solution would not require any electrical power. However, I'm not sure if this is possible. I can run power to the heater if I have to, but I'd sure like to avoid any drywall work.

Heater pictures:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Edit – More Information:

The whole burner assembly is completely separate from the actual heater. It looks like the whole burner, with valve assembly, can be separated from the heater with the removal of just two screws.

Anyways, the heater model is a Williams 35 GV-C-5T NAT (I think. See picture):
enter image description here

The burner assembly and valve is a RobertShaw Grayson 7000 SRLC:
enter image description here

Of note is that on the instruction plates in the heater, there are several diagrams that show a similar valve that supports a remote thermostat:
enter image description here
enter image description here

However, in both cases, the images are for a 7000 M VRLC or M VRCLC, while the heater I have is a S RLC.

Best Answer

I think what you have is a mechanical thermocouple sensor that is connected to the regulator. This is the same as one would have in an RV. They do not use any electricity, and the thermostat is part of the gas regulator. The only remote I am aware of would be a remote thermocouple. I'm not sure if your unit has a removable sensor. If it does, then you can place the sensor elsewhere, but you will still have to set the desired temp on the dial in the unit. There is no actual remote thermostat for this type of unit that I am aware of.

Related Topic