is this a fire hazard?

[jantonio]

I recently replaced my old low-voltage thermostat with an electronic thermostat. During the process of removing the old thermostat, the common wire, the one that supplies power to the old thermostat, fell into the wall. Right now the only option I think I have to retrieve the wire is to open up another hole in the wall which I wish I could avoid. If I just left the wire in the wall, would it have the potential to spark a fire? The end of the wire hasn't been taped up or anything.

[Joseph Meehan]

Likely no need to open up the wall. You still have at least one wire, right? Try going down to the other end where the wires connect to your furnace. Record where they are connected and disconnect them. Attach a new cable to the old wire(s). Use the old wires to pull the new ones. Of course this will not work if the wires have been stapled inside the wall but more often than not they are not.

Before even doing that, I would try to capture it from the access you already have, maybe enlarging the hole slightly as long as the new fixture will cover it. There are lots of tricks depending on the situation; I like a hooked stiff wire myself.

[RBM]

[stretch]

Are there just two wires goyng to the thermostat? If there is a cable, often there are spare wires in the cable. (The electrons don't care what color the wire is, the colors are there to make it easy to remember what wire is connected to which terminal.) Use one of them and connect it at both ends, abamdon the other wire in the wall. Otherwise use one of the remaining wires to pull a whole new cable up.

Stretch

[Jeff Wisnia]

If I read you correctly and you don't need and are willing to abandon that wire, then why didn't you just disconnect it at the other end and fughedid?

Jeff

[Stormin Mormon]

I've had good results pulling a wire down from the living room to the cellar. Do you pull up from down?

Riddle: What goes up the chimney down, but won't go down the chimney up?

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounded like two individual wires, and both needed for operation of the device.

[Backlash]

Umbrella.

RJ

[RobertPatrick]

Jeff Wisnia wrote in news:Ur-dnbg5zO008xPfRVn- [e-mail]:

You mean both wires aren't wrapped into one? That's kind of weird. I have the 2 wire type and that come from the basement together.