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Ecobee v1 to Nest v3

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Deal Addict
Jun 16, 2009
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Vaughan
Funny I recently UPGRADED my Nest V3 BACK to Ecobee V1.
OP you should have a common maker close to the furnace terminals. The device you see in your tstat that is connecting Y and R is known as diode.
Ecobee V1 is the best Tstat atleast IMHO. Coloured screen, FAN can be left ON permanently, 7 days weather forecast, Outside temp on same home screen.

https://mythermostatreviews.com/ecobee3 ... -kit-work/
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May 23, 2009
3681 posts
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Mississauga
kittypink wrote: So just an update if anyone cares.

I thought that everything was fine wiring it up the way I did. The heat works and the fan works, although everything was taking so long. It was taking an hour to bring up the heat 1C and I thought maybe that was normal. We just moved into the house in the beginning of January and just getting use to what is "normal" for this house. I told my husband that I was concerned, but as with everything, he just shrugs if off and thinks I worry too much.

So we now have the Nest running for about 3 weeks. On average, the furnace runs 12+ hours a day, which I thought was a lot. I have the heat set at 22.5 during the day and 20.5 at night.

Yesterday, I was setting up a window mount bird feeder and happened to look down and noticed that my AC was running!!! Face Screaming In FearFace Screaming In FearFace Screaming In Fear

It turns out that the AC and furnace was both running at the same time. I have since turned off the circuit for the AC and have a HVAC guy coming tomorrow.

What do you think the chances are that I completely ruined my AC?
Not good news and being 3 weeks is very very likely your compressor is damaged.

This is one of the reasons I flip my A/C breaker off in the fall. No accidental turn on of the outdoor unit.
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Aug 22, 2011
41792 posts
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Center of Universe
kittypink wrote: So just an update if anyone cares.

I thought that everything was fine wiring it up the way I did. The heat works and the fan works, although everything was taking so long. It was taking an hour to bring up the heat 1C and I thought maybe that was normal. We just moved into the house in the beginning of January and just getting use to what is "normal" for this house. I told my husband that I was concerned, but as with everything, he just shrugs if off and thinks I worry too much.

So we now have the Nest running for about 3 weeks. On average, the furnace runs 12+ hours a day, which I thought was a lot. I have the heat set at 22.5 during the day and 20.5 at night.

Yesterday, I was setting up a window mount bird feeder and happened to look down and noticed that my AC was running!!! Face Screaming In FearFace Screaming In FearFace Screaming In Fear

It turns out that the AC and furnace was both running at the same time. I have since turned off the circuit for the AC and have a HVAC guy coming tomorrow.

What do you think the chances are that I completely ruined my AC?
Ouch.
As a habit during the winter, I flip the fuse upside down at the receptacle during the winter to ensure it never turns on at all.
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Jul 4, 2009
1685 posts
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Windsor, ON area
newlyborn wrote: Funny I recently UPGRADED my Nest V3 BACK to Ecobee V1.
OP you should have a common maker close to the furnace terminals. The device you see in your tstat that is connecting Y and R is known as diode.
Ecobee V1 is the best Tstat atleast IMHO. Coloured screen, FAN can be left ON permanently, 7 days weather forecast, Outside temp on same home screen.

https://mythermostatreviews.com/ecobee3 ... -kit-work/
Thanks newlyborn, that link was exactly how the old Ecobee was wired. My biggest mistake was removing the jumper and not understanding exactly how it correlated to the furnace end of it.

@bubuski & vkizzle
Yeah, turning off the AC circuit is an awesome idea. It never even occurred to me as something to do, but I will from now on.
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Oct 14, 2010
1879 posts
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Barrie ON
kittypink wrote: I see the wires as C RH G and W and Y together. So I wired it to the Nest as C RH G and I took out the W/Y coupling and just attached it to W. So now I have heat, but no cooling. Should I put the coupling back together and put the Y part to the Y?
kittypink wrote: So just an update if anyone cares.

Yesterday, I was setting up a window mount bird feeder and happened to look down and noticed that my AC was running!!!
In your first post you said that you had no cooling, and now you have both cooling and heating at the same time. What did you do after making your first post. Did you reinstall the "coupling". I'm sure that your problem has to do with the "coupler" because the W and Y terminals from the thermostat are used to activate the heat and cooling respectively.

Did you follow my suggestion in post #9 to check if there was also a "coupler" device connected to the white wire in the furnace?
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Jul 4, 2009
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Windsor, ON area
Rick007 wrote: In your first post you said that you had no cooling, and now you have both cooling and heating at the same time. What did you do after making your first post. Did you reinstall the "coupling". I'm sure that your problem has to do with the "coupler" because the W and Y terminals from the thermostat are used to activate the heat and cooling respectively.

Did you follow my suggestion in post #9 to check if there was also a "coupler" device connected to the white wire in the furnace?
I didn't change anything since my initial wiring. I took out the W/Y coupling and just attached it to W. On the Nest app, it only shows heating, so I thought I only had heating. So, although it only showed heating, it was actually calling both heat AND cooling, but I didn't know until I physically looked at the AC.

I did look at the coupler device on the furnace side and to me it looked like the same amount of wires going in and out, but I must have been confused, it was a jumbled mess.
Now I'm just letting a professional look at it. I honestly didn't think the mistake would be so costly. I thought it would be an easy and quick install, and the worse that can happen is that it wouldn't work, and I'd just reinstall the old thermostat back. Never did I think that it would call the AC to run while the heat was running. I didn't even think that was even possible.

And the funny thing is, I'm in IT. I do all the basic wiring in the house, all the network cable runs, entertainment setups. I do tech support for all my family, so installing a thermostat...how hard can it be, right?
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Oct 14, 2010
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kittypink wrote: I didn't change anything since my initial wiring. I took out the W/Y coupling and just attached it to W.
Well I believe leaving out that device is causing your problem.

In post #9 I theorized that the device converted the 24 volt AC supply into positive DC when requesting heat, and negative DC when requesting cooling. The DC voltage was sent to the furnace on the white wire. At the furnace the plus or minus DC voltage was directed to either the cooling or heating terminal of the furnace (the W or Y terminals).

By leaving the device out of the thermostat you are not sending DC voltage to the furnace, but rather AC voltage. When the AC arrives at the furnace the "coupler" in the furnace will now send voltage to both the W and Y terminals. The result is you will have both heat and cooling at the same time.

The solution is to reinstall the "coupler" into the thermostat. You have probably done little damage to the AC compressor, because it probably runs 12 hours/day during summer heat waves without damage.
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Jun 16, 2009
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Vaughan
AC should never run below 0 temp. It is not same as running it 24 hrs in summers. Refrigerant can migrate underneath oil in sub 0 temp. Best advise for OP is to turn the AC off from the breakers and keep the furnace going with same tstat. Have technician out in June end when AC can be tested properly.
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Oct 14, 2010
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Barrie ON
newlyborn wrote: AC should never run below 0 temp. It is not same as running it 24 hrs in summers. Refrigerant can migrate underneath oil in sub 0 temp.
That may be true, as I know very little about AC units. I suppose if the compressor was running over 12 hours/day that the oil and refrigerant would remain fairly mixed though.

I have read many posts on the Internet regarding people who want to keep a freezer in an unheated garage. I have not seen any replies that stated this would be detrimental to the freezer.

As you suggested, the OP should no longer run the AC unit until the warm weather returns. But rather than call a tech out to inspect it, I would recommend that she just run it normally until it does have a problem, which may be years away. There is no sense it getting something fixed if it ain't broke.

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