We have Nest thermostats in both heating zones of our house (upstairs and the main floor), and hot water baseboard heating. We (like many in New England) prefer cooler indoor temperatures in the winter in order to wear sweaters and not melt. Usually we have the heat set to 65 during the day, cooling down to 60 overnight. Sometimes on an evening at home, we'll light the wood stove and that brings the temperature up to 70 - 73 in the main floor. We prefer to keep the temperatures overnight cool for sleeping, and our dog moves between the floors several times per night (no idea why, but if you close the door overnight she will make sure you do not sleep).
We have had a couple occasions over the last two winters where we have a pipe freeze when it's <15 outside and 60 or higher indoors. It's not the normal scenario where you worry about pipes freezing! What is happening is that the indoor temperature is high enough that the heat doesn't kick on between say, 4pm and 5am and that is long enough that stationary water in an exterior wall can freeze if it's cold enough outside. Yes, I know there are some issues with how the house was designed that would prevent this from happening, but it was philosophers who built the house and it is otherwise lovely.
What I really want is a thermostat that is smart enough to do:
if (outdoor temperature < 20F), then (turn on heat for ≥2 minutes/hour)
The nest thermostat app can't do this, unless there is some mystery setting. It doesn't seem that hard to implement. Is there any workaround to make this happen?
