I don’t know how long the heater in the east woodshop had been not running but I cleaned out the thermostat tonight and it works now. It might be a good idea to find a better device for dusty environments for that shop.
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The one in FAB Lab wouldn’t come on today either. @jpalschauhan did some troubleshooting without any success
The fablab heater is working now. What appears to be happening is this.
When the little triangular (green) part of the lever is brought all the way to the left, in the off position, it lifts the little (yellow) nub so it breaks contact (red). It takes only a spec of dust to keep it from making contact again. Cleaning that contact seems to get it working again.
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perhaps some kind of enclosure around the thermostat to cut down on dust? there’s that one filtration thing that was in the old woodshop on douglas that hasnt been hung yet. Perhaps relocating the t-stats outside of the woodshops? jus tossing ideas out there.
Might as well just be an on/off switch if it’s mounted outside the space it’s controlling. Likewise, restricting the airflow to the thermostat negates its effectiveness as well.
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Perhaps these would be a better choice for dusty rooms. Though pricey at $90 each.
Thanks for trouble shooting the thermostat.
This may be an affordable solution for dusty shops.
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I wasn’t able to get it to turn on last night (about 8pm-12) either.
Update: attempted to spray it out with some compressed air, didn’t seem to have any effect
Update 2: not even a minute later
I cleaned the wrong contact. After cleaning the correct one it’s up and running 
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Those thermostats might work in the hall. Locate in the hall and put a simple temperature sensor inside the room. You could choose a better spot. That back corner probably causes some weird temperature measurements that have little to do with controlling the temperature. I’ve done this a number of times with great results. Temporary solution is to place a small shelf over the thermostat. Think a 4x6 index card taped to the wall. That would stop dust from settling.
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Seems like a thermostat with a non-mechanical temperature sensor would fix the issue. I’ve been looking at some DIY wifi thermostats for a potential class that might do the trick.
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In the description details, but not in the manual it has a differential listed as “2, 4 degrees”. I don’t see an “anticipator” ( or similar ) so, probably a fixed magnetic difference.
Side note for anyone home brewing a thermostat. If you don’t provide some kind of hysteresis, your thermostat may cycle too often. Adjustable “anticipator” is to make cycle times about 15 minutes under normal conditions.
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That’s not particularly funny, but it is hysterical!