Why is my thermostat program not working??

[Arjay12345]

Hi

Newbie here. I have a wireless thermostat installed but cannot get the programming to work. Using my TV navigator, I have defined the temperatures required throughout the day. (This is correct yes? i.e. it's not like a conventional program where I simply state the on and off times of the boiler in a day?)

I highlight all of the days of the week, making the box next to each day green, and my programmed timings are shown in the detail. But then when I come out and go back into programming, the boxes are off again. Have 'enabled' within the programming too.

What am I doing wrong?

And then, once I have managed to make the program stay live, what settings do I leave my termostat on? Leaving it on 'Heat' keeps the boiler running constantly, but do figure that's because the program isn't active.

Thanks

Arjay..

[smarch]

Hi

I have a thermostat as well. Since the day I got it installed, it has never worked correctly. At points it will work flawlessly for months, then just stop. Wont turn heat off regardless of what temperature is set. Wont turn A/C off until it's a fridge in my house, and wont respond to my program. Magically this lasts for amonth or two and then starts to work fine, could be for months more. Most recently mine has reached the desired temperature and then decideds to cycle the fan on and off for abut 45 minutes? I have an excellent installer/programmer that simply stes "yup thats what they do"

Unfortunately this is my experience. My opinion is the thermostat to be unreliable, just doesn't work right, using old technology and is way over priced.

[TexasBill]

I have three heat pumps.

I have three main thermostats and two additional "zones" that control heat or cooling based on opening or shutting a duct.

I have had TWO thermostats that went bad. I now have 5 that work flawlessly - they do NOT work like your installer is telling you - that is a defective or improperly set up or installed thermostat.

That CAN and DO work correctly - (when they are done right) I can attest to that. Mine have been installed and working since June 2011. They do seem to have a rather high "failure/defective" rate compared to other thermostats I have encountered.

If this were my situation I would hold someone's feet to the fire - this is NOT acceptable behavior for such an important part of the house.

Bill

[CFUG]

^And with that said, I would not bother with the C4 stat. There are many stand-alone solutions with remote sensing built-in and web-based programming. Integration into C4 is not needed- it is down to "added feature" status. Control4 could change that but who knows what they are thinking with the future of this product.

[TexasBill]

^And with that said, I would not bother with the C4 stat. There are many stand-alone solutions with remote sensing built-in and web-based programming. Integration into C4 is not needed- it is down to "added feature" status. Control4 could change that but who knows what they are thinking with the future of this product.

For some it is an "added feature" - for me it is really a requirement - I need to have the house know when a 12 foot door/wall is open and shut off the air or heat automatically. I like being able to easily set temperatures based on the alarm status, or occupancy status.

During the cedar season I have the house turn on and off the fans (electrostatic filters to remove pollen) every two hours.

When I turn on a movie the temperature in the theater drops to 68-70 degrees in the summer and a little more in the winter <grin>.

For me the integration of the thermostats with the heated floors (we have tile throughout the house) and the fans is really more than an "added feature" - it was required.

Bill

[CFUG]

Not to dispute any of that but how would you deal with all of those requirements if Control4 or their stats were not avail.? I mean, come on, heated floors have been around longer than HA has.

[TexasBill]

Not to dispute any of that but how would you deal with all of those requirements if Control4 or their stats were not avail.? I mean, come on, heated floors have been around longer than HA has.

And that was my point - why would I WANT to deal with it the old way - of separate remotes or separate programming.

I had Honeywell thermostats before in my last house - four setbacks per day and only Weekends and weekdays that you could set? NOTHING in those could be conditional - meaning if I am on vacation it does not automatically set to a vacation mode -

You are ABSOLUTELY right that all of these could be controlled separately - but why would I want to do that when I can have it integrated.

I just wanted the OP to know that it CAN and DOES indeed work and is worth it. (IMHO)

Bill

[C4Programmer]

Arjay,

You most likely have a communication issue. If the program is not sticking then your Tstat has lost communications. You may need to add some Zigbee devices to strengthen your mesh. If you have a dealer they can confirm that with the dealer utilities and tools, by looking at outbound failure rates. If the device has a high reboot count then you have a wiring issue, another tech at our company found the HVAC installer installed the capacitor at the thermostat and that caused the communication issue. The capacitor is supposed to be installed at the furnace not the tstat. It may also be that all your devices are not on the same firmware. I had a client with this issue, and it turned out the Tstat would identify but later loose connection.

Hi

Newbie here. I have a wireless thermostat installed but cannot get the programming to work. Using my TV navigator, I have defined the temperatures required throughout the day. (This is correct yes? i.e. it's not like a conventional program where I simply state the on and off times of the boiler in a day?)

I highlight all of the days of the week, making the box next to each day green, and my programmed timings are shown in the detail. But then when I come out and go back into programming, the boxes are off again. Have 'enabled' within the programming too.

What am I doing wrong?

And then, once I have managed to make the program stay live, what settings do I leave my termostat on? Leaving it on 'Heat' keeps the boiler running constantly, but do figure that's because the program isn't active.

Thanks

Arjay..

[Arjay12345]

Thanks all.

Firstly, as I said, I'm a newbie, and only found out about HA and its reletive affordability by accident. I liked the idea and all the integrated possibilities and hence decided to install such a system. If I wasn't able to integrate everything, then I've invested a lot for all the wrong reasons. Like TexasBill, I *want* it all to work together. I'm glad to hear that it *can* work.

If the actual units are prone to failure, than that too is an issue and I'll speak with my installer (if I can ever get hold of him..)

C4P - thanks for the detail. The therm is in the upstairs hallway and hence surrounded by 4 light keypads and the HC-300 is almost vertical on top of the therm on the floor above. Everything else seems to work fine and I've never had a problem with pressing buttons directly on the therm not registering.

What I'm still unclear of is whether, whilst programming, I am clicking the wrong button or using a wrong sequence to program that is meaning that the program is not saving. I've read through the notes that come with the therm, but I don't find them brilliant.

Is anyone able to write out step by step (i.e. in 'for dummies' style) what you click/change in order to enforce the program? Hopefully this will result in me realising I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks

Arjay..

[TexasBill]

1. Find the thermostat under System Design and left click on it

2. view/edit schedule and set it up (set up vacation as well while you are at it)

3. I did NOT have to do anything on the advanced device configuration BUT you MIGHT...

4. do you have heat pumps or normal heat and air? You MUST make sure that yout thermostat is configured to be able to control your type unit correctly

Now - believe it or not - there should be NOTHING that you have to do to have your thermostat handle your schedule - You should NOW be able to set temperatures remotely or manually - you should be able to programatically control your thermostats as well -

For example -

I have a variable for our downstairs called "Guest" - if it is set to true then it follows the schedule - if it is FALSE then it uses the vacation mode - the downstairs is our guest quarters. The variable resets to FALSE every morning at 11 AM.

I already stated that we have a 2 hour on and 2 hour off fan variable during cedar season to reduce pollen in the house.

When doors are open for more than 20 minutes the thermostats automatically turn OFF totally and then upon the closing of the doors it turns on again and resumes schedule.

Guesses (I am also a newbie so take these with a grain of salt) as to why yours is not working:

1. not connected correctly to your heat pump/air handler

2. needs to be programatically upgraded (your dealer can do this)

3. something is interfering with it's communication to the mesh (already stated)

You said that you did this with your TV navigator - I did not do that - are you able to do this in Composer HE? Try it there and see if you get a better response?

Thanks,

Bill

[sweeper154]

FWIW, I think I'm having the same issue as Arjay. When I click on the "Comfort" button and then the zone that I want to control, there's a "Program" button. I can select the days that I want the program to run but once I click on the "Close" button, it doesn't seem to save my choices. When I go back to the "Program" option, all of the days are again unselected. I'm doing this from my Touchscreens. Is there something that my dealer needs to do to allow me to save the programming?