Furnace Issue or Thermostat ?

[Lakeboater]

Originally Posted by PeterG

Regardless of solution to thermostat vs furnace, you might take this opportunity to replace Honeywell with a Nest or similar internet-connected thermostat. You can monitor and control heat from Massachusetts, including calling you when furnace fails, preheating house for arrival, and lowering temp after you return to Mass and realize you left heat on.
The Nest thermostat will call you if heat doesn't come on when it should? How do you activate this feature?
Only weakness of Nest (assuming your system is compatible) is that it will not warn you of a power failure. We supplement ours with a separate temperature alarm that requires only a working phone line.

Stay warm!

The Nest thermostat will call you if heat doesn't come on when it is supposed to? How do you activate this feature?

[Denis D]

We have had a Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat at home for a few years. Any time it loses connectivity to Wi-Fi, it sends us an Email advising it lost connection. It sends another Email when it reconnects. It has the same remote ability to change any setting from a smart phone.

It cost $100.00 when we bought it compared to $250.00 for the Nest. The only function it doesn't have compared to the Nest is the ability to sense when someone is or isn't home and adjust the temp setting accordingly. Since we would never use that function anyway, the Honeywell was a no brainer.

Denis D

[Slickcraft]

Our mini-split heat pumps at home and on Welch use wireless thermostats that use Honeywell Red Link technology. The in home internet gateway is a Honeywell product logged into a Honeywell server. You can control the thermostats from a PC or mobile phone.

As Denis noted you can set email notifications for loss of connection. There is an ambiguity as the loss could be only the internet being down (but the heat is still on) or it could be a power outage. You can also set notifications based on temperature being either above or below selected points.

For a residence that depends on heat that is left vacant for periods of time in the winter I would either 1. have the wireless system plus a separate low temp phone alert or 2. winterize and shut down.

[Biggd]

I installed a Sensi wifi T-stat this year. Very basic but works great. It will send me an Email if temp falls below 45. I keep the heat at 50 and when we are on our way up I can turn it up to 65 so it's toasty when we get there. I have a programmable at my house in Mass and I'm going to toss it. I just ordered another Sensi from Amazon for $125.

[dpg]

Is the home forced hot water? If so the zone valve may have been stuck open continually moving hot water through the pipes...Ask me how I know.....

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by Lakeboater

The Nest thermostat will call you if heat doesn't come on when it is supposed to? How do you activate this feature?

No quite, but close. The Nest will send an alert to your cell phone when the temperature in the house falls below your preset "Safety Temperature". Check the Nest website or play with your thermostat or phone app for specific instructions.

[BroadHopper]

I have the old round Honeywell thermostat. I finally bite the bullet and bought a wireless thermostat. Home Depot had a one day sale for $149 (online). There is a form you fill out the receive $100 credit from the state. So I can swallow that.

A call to Nest support and they did a fantastic job of answering all questions so I should be good to go! You can use two wires instead of three and the span is .5 instead of one. My boiler request for a .1 span (Rinnai). They will be glad to remotely program the Nest to .1.

[Lakeboater]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

I have the old round Honeywell thermostat. I finally bite the bullet and bought a wireless thermostat. Home Depot had a one day sale for $149 (online). There is a form you fill out the receive $100 credit from the state. So I can swallow that.

A call to Nest support and they did a fantastic job of answering all questions so I should be good to go! You can use two wires instead of three and the span is .5 instead of one. My boiler request for a .1 span (Rinnai). They will be glad to remotely program the Nest to .1.

I thought that the third wire, the C wire, was to give constant power to the Nest so that it charges it's battery all the time versus just when the heat is running with only 2 wires.

[BroadHopper]

According to this article there may be sufficient voltage to keep the battery charged. If not, I can send it back.

https://nest.com/support/article/Whe...-common-C-wire