We recently had some work done on the house and the contractor ran a new wire for the thermostat for the main floor of the house. When he connected it to the existing furnace wiring, something got screwed up. When we turn on the heat on the main floor, the heat in the basement comes on as well (different thermostat). When we turn on the heat for the basement, only the heat in the basement comes on.

This is the wiring I have...

Therm1(u) - Red, White
Therm2(d) - Red, White
Furnace - White, Red, Green, Blue
Honeywell(u) (V8043E1020) - Yellow1, Yellow2, Red1, Red2
Honeywell(d) (V8043E1012) - Yellow1, Yellow2, Red1, Red2

There are no markings on the 2 yellow or 2 red from the Honeywell boxes.

Current connections...

Furnace White to Red1(Hu), Red1(Hd)
Furnace Red to Red2(Hu), Red2(Hd)
Furnace Green to Yellow2(Hu), Yellow2(Hd)
Furnace Blue to Red(T1u), White(T2d)

T1u Red to Blue
T1u White to Yellow1(u)

T2d Red to Yellow1(d)
T2d White to Blue

Honeywell(u) Yellow1 to White(T1u)
Honeywell(u) Yellow2 to Green(F), Yellow(Hd)
Honeywell(u) Red1 to White(F), Red1(Hd)
Honeywell(u) Red2 to Red(F), Red2(Hd)

Honeywell(d) Yellow1 to Red1(T2d)
Honeywell(d) Yellow2 to Green(F), Yellow(Hu)
Honeywell(d) Red1 to White(F), Red2(Hu)
Honeywell(d) Red2 to Red(F), Red2(Hu)

Any thoughts on what's wrong?

Thanks!!!
Ed

 

Hi Ed, I'm gonna study your write up and get back to ya later this evening.

In the meantime, let me ask if you own and know how to use a multimeter?

 

I just sketched up a diagram according to your description and I see nothing at all wrong with the picture! Let me double check it again...

When the upstairs thermostat is turned up, do you actually hear both zone valves opening?

Is the basement zone valve possibly stuck open ?

There is a lever to manually open the zone valve. If the valve is opened by a thermostat, this lever will move FREELY. If the valve is closed, you will feel the resistance and hear the whirring of the gears as you push the lever.

Did the contractor do ANY other wiring on the system?

How about that multimeter?

 

I posted this in another thread just yesterday. It's a very basic zone valve diagram.



The MOTOR leads are YELLOW. The ENDSWITCH leads are RED.

The TRANSFORMER in the diagram is the BLUE and GREEN wires coming from your boiler.

Where is says "TO AQUASTAT" in the diagram is your RED and WHITE wires to the boiler.

 

NJ Trooper - After getting the wire layout together and posting the message yesterday, we turned the heat on last night. Guess what - no problems. I wonder if there was a loose connection that was reconnected when I moved things around.

I did see that diagram on an earlier post, but wasn't sure which color was what wire - thanks for the explanation.

As for the multimeter, good thing we didn't need one since A) I don't have one and B) I don't know how to use one (although, I could probably figure it out).

I appreciate all the work you put into your responses.

Thank you!
Ed

 

You're welcome Ed, glad it started working!

(I asked one of my gremlins to sneak in and fix it while you were sleeping! )

Let us know if you have any further problems...

 

NJ Trooper -

I'm like a bad movie, I keep showing up on re-runs.

Just checked my heat downstairs (take us a while to use different parts of the house). The downstairs heat doesn't come one (upstairs is fine).

I'm assuming something still isn't right (a pretty good assumption). Since I seem to have the wires connected properly, I want to go forward with the multimeter. I can get one from my brother-in-law.

What am I supposed to do and check for?

Should I drop the multimeter and just try unwrap and rewrap each connection?

Thanks!
Ed

 

Not unless you want to break it! [wisea55 answer!]

Meaning that the pipes don't get hot, or the boiler simply doesn't fire up when you turn the thermostat all the way up?

It wouldn't hurt to remove the wire nuts one at a time and inspect carefully for broken wires. Sometimes the solid wire can break, but the wire stays in the twist... hard to find sometimes... bright light, 3.0 readerz...

Depending on the answer to the above though, you might have a flaky zone valve head.

So let us know that first and then we'll talk about using the meter.

 

NJ Trooper - next time I promise to do something before I post my problem.

I checked each wire nut, everything looked fine, all clean wires and twists. After checking, I turned on the heat for the downstairs, the furnace kicked on and we had heat on this level only.

I turned off the heat for the downstairs, let the pipes cool and then turned on the upstairs heat. We were good to go there as well. Everything working as it should be.

Once again I appreciate all the help you've given.

Thanks!!!
Ed

 

The answer to this question may be important in the future.

Ed, the fact that it works, and then doesn't is not giving me that warm fuzzy...

Did you find any connections that appeared loose, corroded, or otherwise suspect?

 

NJ Trooper,

Everything has been fine since I check the wire nuts. I'm thinking it was just a loose connection. The furnace is about 5 years old and has newer wires; the downstairs thermostat is about 8 years old with newer wires; the upstairs thermostat has a brand new wire. No corrosion on these.

When the systems were NOT working, the furnace wasn't firing up and no hot water running through the pipes. When the furnace fires up now, hot water runs through the appropriate pipes (and not the other).

Thanks!
Ed