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Don't forget to check those thermostat batteries!

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james_s:
I do think it's stupid for a thermostat to need batteries. The common wire should have been standard decades ago, ever since electronic thermostats became popular. The power transformer is already present in the furnace, the only thing needed is another wire.

I do love my smart thermostat, I can adjust it from my phone and it integrates into Home Assistant. I can adjust the heating/cooling from in bed or on the sofa, it has a big backlit display that I can read from across the room, I can check to make sure I shut off or turned down my heat when I go on vacation and I can turn it back on when I'm heading back home so the house is comfortable when I get there. Having had that convenience I'd never want to go back.

wraper:

--- Quote from: james_s on December 24, 2022, 02:05:29 am ---I do think it's stupid for a thermostat to need batteries. The common wire should have been standard decades ago, ever since electronic thermostats became popular. The power transformer is already present in the furnace, the only thing needed is another wire.

I do love my smart thermostat, I can adjust it from my phone and it integrates into Home Assistant. I can adjust the heating/cooling from in bed or on the sofa, it has a big backlit display that I can read from across the room, I can check to make sure I shut off or turned down my heat when I go on vacation and I can turn it back on when I'm heading back home so the house is comfortable when I get there. Having had that convenience I'd never want to go back.

--- End quote ---
It's not stupid. Cable is the best when system is installed before interior finishing is made but after the fact it becomes very prohibitive. For example I installed 10 wireless room thermostats in my recently purchased home. Even though there were cables in the walls, some idiots installed all (floor temperature driven) thermostats 20cm away from the floor and near doors :palm:. So it was either ripping the walls to extend cables to normal location and height, or using wireless thermostats. I did not use Duraclell and Energizer alkalines which were included but instead purchased a bunch of IKEA LADDA LSD NiMH batteries. Alkalines would last at least a few years but I did not want to deal with broken thermostats if alkalines leak.

james_s:
But I'm talking about when the system was installed. Houses built 35 years ago when electronic thermostats were becoming common should have enough conductors to have a C wire, and yet even many recently built houses lack it. The difference in cost between 3 or 4 conductor and 6-8 conductor thermostat cable is negligible.

floobydust:
It IS stupid to have battery powered thermostats. Here with temperatures far below 0°C, no heat for many hours can cause plumbing/water pipes to freeze after the home cools down. People have rural properties, leave on a vacation etc. and they are not always attended.

Berkshire Hathaway, instead of making a reasonably reliable Duracell product, have an armada of lawyers to defend their shit leaking batteries against the damages they cause. Duracell are the least reliable battery in the business.

google Nest used to sorta work without 24VAC power, but no longer. Nest does not operate without a "C" wire, the lithium battery cannot power it for the duration the demand triac/relay is on, it seems to be only for the WiFi chirps.
Because this screws consumers with 2-3 wire thermostat installations, they offer a "C wire adapter module" that uses all lines to parasite steal enough to make up a pseudo C wire.

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