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In order to adjust the heat anticipator, you must first know what it is. The heat anticipator is the electical device, which controls when the furnace blower turns on and off. These are found on the large majority of mechanical thermostats.

The basic idea is that the heat anticipator, literally anticipates the point at which a room will be at the desired room temperature.

For example, if you wanted your room to be 70 degrees, rather than turning off when the thermostat detected 70 degrees, it will turn off when it expects the entire room to be at that temperature. Because of this, it is sometimes best to place a thermostat in the coldest part of a room so that it can ensure that it is properly heating the house. Placing a thermostat next to a vent, will mean that it will require being turned up substantially higher in order to produce the same effect.

The anticipator is a relatively simple device. It is basically a coil, which is topped with a disk, which has a simple wire connected to it. On top of the disk, you will notice a small adjustment arm which actually touches the wire. Depending upon it's position and contact with this wire, it will determine how hot the wire becomes, which will ultimately tell the coil when to turn off the blower.

In order to know if your anticipator needs adjusting however, you need to pay attention to it. If your furnace is turning on and off frequently, or if it keeps running as if it can never reach the desired temperature, this is normally a sign that your anticipator is out of adjustment. This of course generally results in calls to a heating expert and expensive house calls. However, with a little bit of knowledge, it is an easy fix.

In order to obtain access to the anticipator, you will have to remove the cover to the thermostat. Once it is removed, you will be able to see the anticipator disk in the middle. On this disk, there will be marks and the writing longer printed on it. Look at these marks as they will help you to determine how to adjust your anticipator. If you are noticing that your furnace keeps turning on and off, then you need to adjust it to longer. If it is running constantly adjust it to shorter. After you do this, let the furnace run for several hours in order to adjust to the new settings. If after 4-5 hours it is still doing this, then attempt to adjust it some more. If you keep adjusting with no change, then it is a sign of a bigger problem and time to call a heating professional.

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