We have a gas fireplace. It supplies most of the heat to the house. It's only a few years old but it has a real clunky control system(Valor Plus).
There is a battery-operated box beneath the fireplace. It turns the fireplace on and off and adjusts the flame level.
There is also a remote control. It controls the little box which controls the fireplace. The remote has a thermometer and in theory it can be mounted on the wall and used as a thermostat.
The reality is that the remote control is so difficult to use that we just turn the fireplace on when we are cold and turn it off when we are too hot - hopefully we remember to turn it off when we go to bed.
Ideally, I would simply replace the remote with a Nest thermostat. It would be easy to program the heat the way we want it. Unfortunately, to my understanding, a Nest thermostat only works when it is wired directly to a heating system.
The other option would be to wire a Nest thermostat into the box at the bottom of the fireplace. But that's a lousy place to put a thermostat.
Am I misunderstanding how a Nest Thermostat connects to things? Has anybody had a similar problem? Can the little box at the bottom of the fireplace be replaced with something more Nest-compatible?
Thanks for any advice and ideas,
Wayne Hajas
