@@mkrchnak5269 lol, you dont give up anything. Another clueless fool.. My smart thermostat does only what I tell it to do. That tinfoil hat looks funny.
I am looking for the old cloth wire and not finding it. I also prefer the good ole fashioned round Honeywell thermostat with mercury switch which I MIGHT find on E-bay. But as for cloth type thermostat wire, not finding it at all. They get rid of good stuff and replace it with junk, and leave us with junk. And batteries in a thermostat when there are low volts wires available, totally ridiculous.
ALWAYS pull the wire UP, pulling down will get stuck in a small hole with the crap and debris inside the wall. This is very important in older homes with plaster lath walls!
I got lucky when i added a smart thermostat, i didnt have a common wire connected, old thermostat used batteries, luckily i had an extra wire that was unused and i was able to find output on the furnace that was always 24v/common (didnt have a terminal for it), this saved me alot of pain as the wire had no play and couldnt tell if it went into the ceiling or if it went into the underside of the home (and being mobile home, both areas are not accessible as i would have to cut a hole in the ceiling or get under the trailer and open up the insulation under the beams.)
I used a nest (2nd gen) where I used to live. I had only heat (oil) just a red, & white wire. The nest thermostat worked without a common wire and seemed to get charged for winter once the thermostat had constant activity from using the furnace. I found that it ran out of charge during the summer when there was no activity with the furnace. I then charged the thermostat by the micro USB port on the rear, off the wall, then put it back. The charge lasted quite a while and was OK till winter came. Some time later I added a 24V adapter that became my common wire.
Yeah, some of those smart t-stats are tricky and 'steal' a little power through the R&W or R&Y leads when powering the heat/cool. As you mentioned, they can only do this when there's a call for the unit to run. Always better to have a C wire if possible, so it doesn't die unexpectedly.
Replacing the wire is easy if the guy installing the previous thermostat wire didn't staple the wire inside the wall. Mine was of course, then you have to try to fish a tape through the wall.
If your replacement Thermostat is smaller than the old one, a trick you can use is to use a picture frame that is bigger than the old thermostat. You can mount some cork or decorative wood in the picture frame and mount the thermostat to that. Mount he whole thing to the wall.
That would look Hal assed . Cut a square hole. Place a 2x4 inside the hole and hold in place with a couple drywall screws, the insert a square piece of drywall and screw into the 2x4 and patch over with drywall tape and joint compound.
I just downgraded mine to a "dumb" thermostat because the "smart" thermostat kept messing up. Now it works flawless and how much control do you really need?
I'm debating this....only that I would like to be able to control the temp from my phone. Looks like I'm going to have to run a new cable since they only ran 2-wire. Don't feel like crawling in my ceiling... might just go with a dumb system.
I purchased a plug in, alternate current, 24V converter and ran wires to the smart thermostat. I plugged it in to the closest outlet to the thermostat needing a run of only like 4 ft of wires. It was a lot easier than trying to pick up 24 Volts from the Air Conditioning unit.
@@tracer740 no it is against the electric code. Thermost wire is not susceptible to noise. though Data wire Cat6 cable Rg6 or speaker wire you could pick up noise or reduce bandwidth.
@@ericfraser7543I'm sorry but I am missing your point. Are you inferring that the thermostat functions are transmitting 'radio' wave signals in their operation?
Depends on the wire’s insulation barrier rating. The wire’s insulation barrier must meet or exceed the highest voltage. The guy in this video is a hack and therefore not a good idea to follow any advice in this video.
Hey Jesse, thanks for the kind words. Nobody is begging you to stay subscribed to this channel. Wish you the best elsewhere and don’t let the door hit you on the way out ✌️
Call a hvac technician before trying to install a basic thermostat or a smart thermostat. I'm a technician its not worth the headache or the blown 3 amp control board fuse.
Exactly… and if you do decide to make a attempt take pics of the wiring prior! It’s a pain when the wire colors for some reason don’t match the standard color chart and now you have to go up and down into the attic or stairs to trace what wire went where. Especially if there are splices along the way for some odd reason and changes colors. And keep your receipt and box just incase you have to return it.
@@NYEK_GTR_ one can absolutely never assume the colours match - original installers at time of construction use whatever wire they have - mine is brown orange yellow green red blue - 6 wires - but no white lol - no choice but to check the terminals in the furnace and humidifier (along with taking photo of current screw terminals on the wall thermostat)
I live in an apartment and my setup is an older one. Ended up finding the wiring diagram online for the system. Saw that they never hooked up the C wire at either end. Was able to connect it up and it was perfectly.
Nice fishing. What gets me is the installer didn't take the time to pull the clean wire to the thermostat like you did. Since it wasn't stapled down it was an easy fish up the vertical chase. It really gets me when so called "licensed HVAC technicians' take short cuts. There is a movement now for DIY to install their own mini-splits and split system heat pumps and the 'pros' get really defensive. Like all industries they have nothing to fear. In fact, they should embrace this since so many DIY will be calling them for repair once the systems break down after several years. It's not like they are renting VHS tapes and can get disintermediated
Force air/gas furnace, central AC. My control board has no yellow (Y) spot on it. Y from t stat connects to red going to AC doesn’t go to furnace board. W from AC connects to C on control board. From T Stat, R to R board, W to W board, G to G board. C on board only goes to W on AC wiring. My T stat wiring has 5 wires with B not used on either end. Do I just connect T Stat blue to the C board and good to connect smart T stat on wall?
In my case, the C wire was in the wall but tucked away from the other four wires. It also was not connected at the control board. All that I had to do was connect it on both ends. However, I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't pulled the other wires out a few inches at the thermostat end.
I really hope that when the wires are shown shorted together old and new that the power is off or that the wires are disconnected at the control board. Otherwise you might short out hot and common. Never mind I just realized that common wasn’t hooked up. So actually no shorts are possible. But it’s still best practice to have power off or disconnected while manipulating the wires.
Im stumped. Trying to install a smart tstat that requires a C wire. Ive got 29V from R to Y, G, O at my tstat. My R to C has 29v at the heat pump unit. I ran a blue wire from the C terminal at the heat pump unit down to the tstat. The other end of the same blue wire that reads 29v at the heat pump only reads 16 to 17v at the tstat end of the wire. WTF? What would cause the wire to lose 10 Volts? Its no longer than 7 feet of length (at least that's the physical distance from the tstat to the bryant heat pump unit on the roof. The connection to the C term is solid. There is continuity. Somehow, as that blue wire is snaking through the drywall down to the tstat it is losing 10 volts. I can't explain that. I tried a different wire, and same result. 17 volts. Makes no sense.
Tip, buy Sensi. No C cable needed. 2AA last over a year. Won't be dead in 2 years if you are unlucky with Lithium-Ion battery, not replaceable (Gen 1). Able to use on Apple and Android
Tyvm for this. We just moved into a beautiful 90 yr old home and I have been working for month upgrading everything to modern. Just got to the thermo and realized getting the nest maybe impossible but now I see it’s not. Ty
Here's a tip: don't wait to change your batteries in the thermostat. House was freezing when I got home in the morning. Not only did the rayovac batteries die (I don't remember seeing a warning) but they leaked. I had to scrub the terminals before the new batteries registered. Probably going to change same time as smoke alarms from now on. Any tips on work hardened wires? It looks like I have a 5 wire setup but they do not flex at all now. That was a great tip on running new wire.
So I installed two smart thermostats.. downstairs one yesterday.. it's working. I did my upstairs one today.. same set of wires and same steps.. wires (RGYWC).. but upstairs no working. WTH?
Why couldn't google include an easy connection within the $300 Nest Kit that I purchased even if it meant I needed to buy a separate transformer. This is a common problem that leaves people wanting to toss this $300 out a window but don't because it is $300. I don't want to become an HVAC expert. I've replaced thermostats before- straightforward.
Personally I think having any control of your home rigged to wifi is just absurd… I’m sticking with my digital non programmable … if I could find nice Mercury ones I’d have those.. I’m so sick of technology just ruining every aspect of everything it touches… now I know it’s gunna sound crazy… but I’m not anti technology… I’m just anti messing with a perfectly functioning system and complicating crap
.Just got a new upstairs unit and overnight the fan started to make a lot of noise at the condenser. I've learned after calling my AC company, that the fan started running backwards. They said If I turn it off and start it again it will reverse itself. Well, I had them come back and they found out after troubleshooting the electrical, that the Nest wiring was missing the common wire. So he told me they did a common fix for it to run , but he recommended new wiring as you demonstrated. I told the AC guy that I'm a handyman and I will run the wiring. He was OK with it. YOU have saved me $125! Thank you very much for such an informative video, it answered all of my questions.
MY FURNACE DOES NOT HAVE A CONTROL BOARD...(FROM 1975),...JUST A LOT OF WIRES WITH WIRE NUTS AND TAPE, LOTS OF THEM...THERMOSTAT HAS 4 WIRES, NO BLUE WIRE...CAN I JUST USE THE GREEN WIRE IN THE "C" SOCKET WITHOUT TOUCHING ANYTHING AT THE FURNACE?
Well this was best example of wires video I found , however my thermostat had 4 wires 2 red , 2 white. Lennox furnace the wires are tagged G, Y , W, RH. No wonder I can't figure this out. Lol
My furnace has a wire connected to the C, it’s white, along with the W wire. At my thermostat I only have 4 wires, connected to Y, W, R, and G. Where does my common wire go? Is it possible it got stuck behind the wall? My thermostat is working without it… Is it wise to have new wire run through as shown in the video?
Have 4 wires in old thermostat. Green, blue,white, red.....all go to corresponding color...however the blue wire is actually in the "Y" spot on thermostat and also where it goes into furnace it is in the "Y" spot....on my new nest thermostat should I put blue into the "y" position also?
Step one in troubleshooting Nest thermostats is throwing it in the trash, they are garbage... They fail a lot, and when they do, it tends to be in a way that wastes a lot of energy before it is noticed. They still have not figured out how to control emergency heat properly on heat pumps with electric supplementary heat. If you want to run just the fan for a while without heating or cooling, like to thaw an indoor coil that has frozen over, the thermostats also insist on turning the cooling on. Airwave, the dumbest thermostat feature imaginable in non desert climates, is turned on by default, with no prompts at all about it in the setup. Ecobee thermostats are better in every way, other than not being round, even Honeywell WiFi thermostats will give you a less troublesome service life, and both are designed to actually control HVAC equipment correctly.
unrealistic.. 22 years of commercial tech in NYC... ez fix is use the resistor fuse that comes with t-stat.. cause ur not gonna run new wire 20 floors up... this is only reidentil application
I recently replaced an exterior GFCI outlet with 3 additional outlets daisy-chained down the line. The original installation did not leave ANY extra wire...not even the 6" required, so I was literally in a bind. Finding your videos was a game-changer for me. You are very detailed, but concise. Thank you so much! After ordering some extra wire and some Wago 221 lever nuts, the job was a snap. 😊 Now, my 20 year old programmable thermostat has died and I was looking for a video to help me with the replacement...and there you were again! Before I begin this job, I definitely need a new wire cutter/stripper. Which one would you recommend? Thanks again!
"Upgrade"? I think not. The old thermostats from the 50's to.the early 70's are bulletproof and last forever. Don't need some Chinese computer piece of shit
Hey I had my old thermostat 4 wires . Red for 12v, Green for Ground, white for D and Yellow for C . I connected W for white , Y for yellow, G for green and R for red but I have no power now
You set a really bad example by poking around and illustrating with an all metal screwdriver. You are dealing with electricity and probing around with metal is a real no-no.
Red is common as well. It's one of the two legs from the transformer. The second leg is switched (W, Y, G) completing the circuit to turn on various components. However, thermostats like Nest that use internal batteries but need to top them off with power. Without the second common to continually power the thermostat, the thermostat can only recharge when Y, W, or G are switched on. If you don't use heating or cooling for a while you'll find a dead thermostat. A workaround is to occasionally spool up the fan to charge the thermostat. Usually not a problem.
@@EverydayHomeRepairs putting in the fifth wire (or more depending on system) is the best way to go, if you can pull it easily like in your video. Most people just don't realize so they get the surprise dead thermostat!
Do not buy a nest. I'm a HVAC service technician and I can't even begin to tell you how many problems I run into with this thermostat. Google has no clue what they are doing and neither does this amature.
Nest sucks. It's constantly telling me that it knows better than me what temp I want. Then when I go on vacation it drops my heat to safety heat (which isn't a safe temp). Next time I get my furnace serviced I'm having them replace it with something else. The nest is just a pretty looking gimmick.
What I didn’t understand from this video is what if you have two thermostat to connect to, do you need to run two different wires to those thermostats and secondly, if you reused your current thermostat, why did you replace the wire? just because they were spliced up using a tape!!!
I have had this nest learning thermostat for over 3 years and it does save you money but it rarely turned on the second stage heating or cooling. Now this year it seems that my air conditioner compressor will not turn on at all. I am no expert by any means but I have been told that the way this thermostat is designed to work without a C wire and internal jumper for thr RH/ RC can cause major issues like mine to occur
My furnace only has two wires coming up into my thermostat. I want to add a thermostat that I can use with an app and the furnace company says I cannot run the three wires to the furnace. This is for heat only. What is the device that I can use in the middle as an adapter so I can have three wires coming to the thermostatmaking it adoptable to a app?
I would say regardless of what the compatablilty chart for the Nest learning 3rd Gen (the more expensive one) says just get a C Wire installed or use an external C wire adapter. 2 wire systmes are too hit or miss in terms of issues arising, Just ignore and just make sure you have a C wire
The last 15 seconds of the video where you talked about using a wall switch face plate was worth the whole video. Never thought of that yet so simple and easy to do. 👍👍 I used your technique in an apartment I have in another state where I installed a "Sensi" remote thermostat. I can see the inside conditions and control them from 550 miles away with my phone. I've used it for over a year without any problems. I had an issue with the common wire missing which wasn't connected before. But now it is and working fine.
I currently have a 2 wire, tstat, looking to upgrade to a smart tstat for heating only. My furnace has a "Com 24v" terminal. So would I just need to run a new 3 wire cable from tstat to my furnace and land on common terminal in furnace? Then I'm good to buy any newer smart tstat?
Please, always call a professional. You also didn't mention package units or heat pumps. As I tell students, the color codes for control voltage is a suggestion and always triple check. Also go with 7 wire for future updates, too.
@@Locdduong Yessir. They do not always communicate correctly with the Indoor or outdoor equipment boards. The best I can explain it is try installing a Mac Circuit board into a PC Windows system. I'm sure some people like them, but from a service aspect Ive removed lots of them because they failed to work properly or at all. Customers often complain about its intelligent adaptive recovery is way off and does not heat or cool the house correctly and comfortably due to their inexperience in writing proper algorithms into the program. In communicating systems, if you like that kind of thing, go with the one matching the equipment since they were designed to operate together. Other - wise Honeywell all the way! IMHO
My nest thermostat worked for about a year then suddenly gave e298 error. I have 4 wire, no blue. I gave up troubleshooting and bought honeywell programmable.
I don’t agree but I do at the same time. I’ve installed well over 100+ nest thermostats and came across soo many issues but mostly compatibility issues. The learning thermostat has a lot of features that customers don’t look in to and think they are having problem when it’s literally a simple fix by a click of button I.e. the learning feature that I turn off 90% of the time bc it confuses customers (in the nest sense setting). The C wire is a common issue bc a lot of homes here in NY (not sure about other regions) don’t have one. There are about 4 ways around it. Heat only systems tend to work fine as long as they have 24v-26v. Ac only zone will need a C wire. And single fuel systems will need a C wire as well. Old zone boards for example such as a ewc ncm300 won’t work. But newer boards like a Honeywell hz311 etc will work. They are great when they work, but a headache if the home isn’t compatible lol. So usually I get appointments bc an HVAC or Plumber or electrician tells the customer get rid of it and the customer calls my company to for $100 to double check. And if it isn’t compatible we refund them the $100 charge.
You cheated by running new wire. My problem is that I have 3 wire and it’s stapled inside the walls. It’s impossible to snake a new wire without cutting holes all over the drywall.
Why limit yourself with only 5 wires. Run at least 18/8 wire. Also, when you use wire stripping pliers to remove the outer brown sheathing it’s possible to nick one of conductor wire and cause a short later on. Use the string inside to split open the brown sheath to expose the wires. If no string then pull one of the wires to do the same thing.
Good grief! Looks like yarn for wires! I wonder if the cover for my Trane thermostat can pop off that easily. Right now its 87° in my house and the cool air won't kick on, fan doesn't shut off when we have the thermostat tell it to shut off, and it wouldn't switch from heat to cold. The screen is incredibly hard to see even with the light on. You have to be at just the right angle, and even then, some of the stuff is too small to read without glasses. I'm looking for something that will make it easier to read and program. Hmm.. I don't know where the access panel is for my unit. My furnace is in a closet sitting over a circulation area that has two vents. I'll have to look at it to figure out if/where access might be. My furnace is only about 3' from the thermostat.
Thank you so much. This video is an absolute godsend. I’ve been sitting on my thermostat for 18 months trying to figure out why I couldn’t get it to work. It’s because my electrician he installed my HVAC system didn’t ever connect to the C wire and I was using an old battery powered thermostat so when I finally got the cover plate off my furnace I was able to get things put together really quickly.
So your old wire has red white blue, so u connected only by splicing ( I BELIEVE it’s called that) the White and red, no more blue. Then u connected the new wires to just the white and red old and used just two colors on new. U used green and yellow, so the red and white went to which color? So now u don’t have any of the old wire?
I have a blue, green, red & what looks white. I had it connected to the nest & a/c would work. Trying to use the heater and it is not an option. Any help please?
This is what I have, running to 80's mercury type thermostat. Your wires are: red=24vac, blue=AC, white=Heater, green=blower fan. Need C=common to power thermostat without batteries. If you live in a house old enough to have telephone connections, this is where you can get (a whole bunch) 18 awg wire. I was installing a Honeywell programmable thermostat (not a smart) in a rental unit. Good luck.
It's easy when you can find the wire behind the wall. In my house, all the wires are "hidden", making the process much more complicated. And the distance from my thermostat to the heater is pretty far too.
I LOVE YOUR VIDEO.... I have a older home with an old thermostat that required a c wire... before returning the thermostat I wanted to keep/ and possibly update my home in the future.. I would have done this and keep my old therm
Lucky you have a nice big basement, lucky you have a basement at all, lucky you didn’t have to crawl on your face to get to the thermostat wire, lucky you can even see your thermostat wire. You’re just plain lucky.
Make sure your house has a basement haha my house is built a slab and has vaulted ceilings so the only way to do a wire upgrade is to rip open the walls patch re-tecture & re-paint HARD PASS.
Yes, please leave a few inches service length on each end! When my furnace and thermostat were replaced a few years ago, they pulled it tight on both ends and there is ZERO free play. It is so annoying, I'm going to have to run a new wire to install my new thermostat.
I have an oil fired hydronic boiler with multiple zones: I have very basic non programmable battery powered digital thermostats installed with 2 wire cable [R, W]. The wires connect to a control panel at the furnace that has a 2 wire input from each thermostat, one for each zone: when there is a call for service it flips a relay that sends 24v to an output terminal that is connected to each zone valve. I"m assuming there is only 3v from the batteries on the Therm - furnace wire. have you ever encountered this situation?
