Just in Case - Programmable Thermostat Failure

[JW]

I have just installed a Hunter programmable thermostat which operates by a battery. While this inexpensive unit works beautifully, I am curious, just in case the thermostat breaks or run out of power (let's assume I have no backup battery in my home) in the midst of a show storm in Feburary, is there a way I can wire something up to turn on the furnance and get heat instantly ?

I remember seeing the following wire connections (please correct me if I remember incorrectly) :

G Y Hc Hr B W

Can I jump any two of these terminals and gets heat ? For your info I live in a new house which has a electronic ignition furnance and a central a/c unit.

Thanks in advance for a knowledgable answer.

[oldal4865]

Yes. As long as your furnace has power, you can "go manual" by jumping two of those wires.

Sorry, I'm not going to drag out the manual on my Hunter to find out which two. I just have a basic high efficiency furnace.

FWIW: my inexpensive Hunter works much better than my expensive, fancy Honeywell. The expensive Honeywell couldn't be adjusted to compensate for the lag the high efficiency and electronic ignition brings to the furnace cycle. The Honeywell had some bells and whistles which ended up oftentimes shutting the furnace down after 30 seconds of operation. I couldn't adjust it to delay it's pre-act control to compensate for the no-heat while the high efficiency and electronic ignifition was doing its thing, i.e.. . .30 second of fan-no attempt to ignite. . . then spark. . . then heating the pilot light safety bulb . . then finally lighting off the furnace.

Regards Old Al

[Stormin Mormonn]

I see you cross posted to alt.hvac

The fellows over there jump all over themselves to reply to questions such as yours.

[Steve Smith]

They're going to flame him good for admitting he just installed a Hunter stat. They seem to have something against them...

That being said, "RH" jumperd to "W" fires up my furnace.

--- Steve

[Noon-Air]

Could it be that you don't know WTF you are doing when trying to correctly program the Honewell?? Could it be that you didn't do the installer set-up programing on the Honeywell??

[CBHvac]

THen you had something programmed wrong...but wait..thats right..the full instruction manuals are not always in with the consumer line of Honeywell stats.

For the record, when some cheapo asks me for a thermostat, we keep about 5 LuxPros on the vans....we GIVE them away...they suck that bad. We also tell them when they are ready for a real stat, the Honeywell will be cheaper than the one that HD sells, INSTALLED. and programmed correctly. BTW...those stats we keep on the truck....they rotate...about every 4 weeks or so, all the originals are back on it..with Honeywells or Robertshaws in their place.

To the OP, your post originally sounded like you mean no power, therefore, Pauls reply to you sounded right. However, IF you have it wired right, and since no one on the internet can tell, all we can tell you is that RC and RH in a single transformer system will be jumpered together, and W, will work....but, you will have no way of controlling the temp, and for that one reason alone, it would have been smarter to spend the extra $10 on a Robertshaw....since they can be had for about $40..digital, and no need for backup battery.

[profft]

That would mean actually having to read the instructions, OMG noone does that unless all else fails.

[Bob M.]

You could play with the wiring and get the furnace to turn on, but isn't it much easier to keep several spare batteries in the refrigerator so you don't ever have a condition where the thermostat is out of power? Now if it does break, then spare batteries won't help. In that case, what about the old thermostat that the Hunter replaced? Hook it back up and forget about the programmable unit until you can get a replacement. While you will have to set the temp back manually at night and higher during the day, at least it's properly controlling the furnace and you'll be comfortable.

[TURTLE]

this is Turtle.

The reason you have a time setting on the hunter thermostat is the hunter thermostat are 90% sold to home owners and don't know how to set the time in the gas furnaces but can read the hunter instruction to set the time with the thermostat. The reason the Honeywell thermostat does not put it in the thermostat is honeywell mostly is sold to professional hvac people and they know how to set time in the furnace and don't need a second timing setting in the thermostat. I personally don't like time setting in the thermostat for it is setting the time with the thermostat and then still has to wait for the furnace timing system to start , too. When your running two timing system on a furnace. Your odds are great that one will burn the other one out and neither will work. If your going to use the timing on the thermostat. you need to go in the furnace and turn the timing system off and not have two systems fighting each other. Personally i like the 120 second timing set.

The problem you described is the two systems fighting each other. If you got it to work , you got one of them taking control and over riding the other. Now if the furnace timing system is the one your over riding. your odds are good in the next 5 to 10 years the timing system of the furnace may fail and it so it will shut everything down till you change the control board.

TURTLE

[Steve Smith]

From the side lines this thread is actually kind of humourous. :)

Actually, I have seen these, but they're insanely expensive so the thought that the OP has one setup was dismissed. I have actually seen an 'off-grid' (solar, wind + backup generator) system first hand, and they're a damn cool idea. A very expensive idea, but cool none-the-less. :)

To be honast, I thought the same thing on first read, but then I thought that no one would be dumb enough to think thier furnace would run without electricity. Then again, after reading some of the post on a.h.r. I should know better by now.. :)

It's all the gas, oil, solvent, and refrigerant fumes... it fries the brains.. :) Plumbers are the same way, sniffing ABS solvents all day. :) (this is a joke)

Frankly, I'm beginning to think that the OP was in fact a very clever troll. He posted to alt.hvac, a group known to roast those who admit they've installed store-bought stats, and even stated he was worried it might break, just to start the fire.

-- Steve

[Zemedelec]

I'm a compulsive instruction-reader. Nevertheless, I can understand people who aren't--a lot of instruction booklets must have been farmed out to nations who have a grasp--but a desperate, slipping grasp--on English as a second language. Either that, or a lot of the people who write booklets dozed through English Composition 1-1.

zemedelec

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

hang around and you see some stuff.

TURTLE

[JW]

Steve,

This is the one who posted the question.

So it is RH to W. That is what I need to know. Thanks a lot.

J

[Oscar_lives]

Just wirenut them all together to test out the system.

[Oscar_lives]

What happens if the power goes off and the refrigerator gets warm?

[profft]

Never made any sense to keep batteries in the fridge to me, dem dar lectrons don wanna flo when dey getz kold

[Noon-Air]

only gonna get warm if the light stays on when you close the door.

[EL]

Did you get a reasonable answer yet?

Boden

JW wrote: