Suntouch is electric radiant floor heating. I installed a similar system in our master bath, although after moving in my wife found out she liked cool feet better than warm!

The Suntouch thermostat is not a conventional HVAC thermostat (24v operation), but handles the 120v high current to the floor element as well as sensing the floor temp via a thermistor. More than likely a power surge took out the electronic chip/brain in the thermostat. Does another brand floor-heat thermostat use the same thermistor value that is embedded in your floor tile? We simply don't know. You likely don't have a choice but install another Suntouch thermostat.

It is possible that the electrical noise/surges when power came back on is what blew the thermostat electronics. I would suggest as a minimum that you install a breaker-style surge suppressor in your electrical panel.

Thank you, I appreciate your reply. I didn’t know a surge protector was a “thing” I could install on a breaker panel. I’ve only known of them on power strips or I suppose a GFCI outlet does the same sort of thing?

working life? I'd guess the company isn't involved in the R&D of the controller and outsourced the engineering and design to another company, and wanted something that worked but was cheap. This is nothing new and common with small companies, but larger companies in HVAC usually have a large engineering department with ongoing Research and development to make their products more reliable, better, and of course cheaper to build.

Your electric floor heating is a simple system, and the controller can be simple or as complicated as they come. The basic requirements to control your radiant floor is a controller which is compatible with the floor sensor already installed, which is a 10K NTC thermistor (and the most common temp sensor you will find), and can switch the voltage and current your floor draws, and finally control the temperature by turning on and off the voltage to the heating wire. Simple.

You can use any controller on the market with a sensor input which is compatible to a 10K NTC thermistor (which is in the floor) and can handle the current the floor draws. Simple again and a easy DIY project just following the simple user friendly wiring diagrams with the controller. Everything else that comes with the controller are bells and whistles, such as a timer, setting up 7 day programming, Wifi, touchscreen... and are options.

You can buy a basic Honeywell controller with 7 day programming for $70. Thermosoft has a line of controllers for floor heating from $100 to $300. and there are many more brands to pick from. If you want to turn on the heater from a phone 50 miles from home it's your choice but you're going to pay more for the thing.

Why couldn't you use a 120V thermostat which senses the temperature in the room, not in the floor?

Thank you, I’m thinking about using the Suntouch nonprogrammable thermostat since I don’t need the bells and whistles…