wireless thermostat

[n0oxy]

There are times when a particular product can solve a problem that you have really well, and this is one of those cases. First a little background. I live in a second floor apartment, it has central air which is a very good thing. The furnace-air handler is in the basement and the compressor is outside. For those who are not familiar with HVAC thermostat wiring, for a standard heating and cooling system there are 4 and sometimes 5 wires. The R wire supplies 24 volts for the thermostat, W is used to activate heating, Y is used to activate cooling, G is used for the fan, and C is the common wire and is used for the return path. I'm thinking that this apartment originally only had central air for heating and window units were used for cooling because in my dining room there was a 120 volt outlet that was originally 240 and since it's next to a window, it may have been used for that purpose. It has been turned back in to a 240 volt outlet and I use it for my 240 volt central vacuums. There are only 3 thermostat wires coming out of the wall, R, W, and Y. This means that I could never just use my fan to circulate air. This is something that I really wanted. While a new wire could have been run, this would have been quite a challenge since I'm on the second floor, but thanks to this thermostat, that wasn't necessary. You attach the receiver to the furnace control board using the typical thermostat wires. The thermostat itself is wireless and communicates with the receiver so you can put it any place you choose. Since it's wireless, I didn't even mount it on the wall, I just take it with me to whatever room I'm in, that way the temperature of that room is monitored. It comes in both programable and nonprogramable versions, I got the nonprogramable version since I wouldn't use that feature. I'm not sure how popular these are but for me it really works well and avoided the need to run new wires.
Mike

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Honeywe...less-FocusPro-Non-Programmable-Thermostat-Kit

 

[madman]

Old homes will typically only have 3 wires for the thermostat. Power, heat, and fan. You'll almost never find a house that has a common wire, excepting new construction, because you never needed it until they came out with smart thermostats.

It's a neat idea. I wish they had one that would let you use any thermostat.

 

[n0oxy]

wires

I understand about the common wire, but I was surprised there wasn't a G wire for the fan. As far as I know Honeywell is the only company that makes a thermostat like this, it was an in-genius idea because it totally eliminates the need to run new wires. You still couldn't use something like a Nest or Ecobee though.
Mike

 

[madman]

See, I'll bet your house DID have a fan wire, that's the point I was making. It wasn't meant to have air conditioning. We already know this because it had window air conditioners at one point in time. The thermostat had power, heat, and fan wires. Instead of running new thermostat wires, they decided to simply use the fan wire for the air conditioning. Because, let's be honest, how often was the fan used? And running a new thermostat wire would've been really hard in an apartment building.

 

[lesinutah]

They

Have smart plumbing systems. There's a pressure gauge that's electronic and smart capabilities. If the pressure goes down it alerts you of a leak. The system was over $5000. I heard about it in an interview and thought who the eff would pay $5000 plus for new water lines. I realized I wasn't interested in a shady company.
I. Sorry if it's off topic. If I'm guessing etethernet lines or data lines to devices is a common wire. I thought they ran fc wifi either wifi or ether etc means no power no thermostat.