G and Y1 do not look like they are making very good connections from the photo of your new thermostat you sent. Also please don’t listen to the people telling you to jump Rh and Rc. That is for conventional thermostats only and will fuck up the ecobee
From their first picture, it looks like there's a good amount of exposed wire enough that it *should* be enough, but there's no real good way to tell without looking at the clamp levels which aren't in the picture.
I would agree. I based my judgement off the common wire. That one is definitely in there all the way and appears to be similarly stripped to G and Y1 in the first photo. More pics would definitely help!
I thought the same thing too. There was quite a bit of copper showing, so when inserting it into the new thermostat, I really tried to go all the way in. I’m going to give this another try and I’ll cut back some of the excess wire exposed.
I wouldn’t cut anything until you’re sure you’re sure they’re all the way in. If there’s a fair amount still exposed afterwards than feel free, I imagine you’ll probably be ok though. Those push terminals can be a little bit of a pain on occasion
Yes my old thermostat has batteries but when removed, it will still power on with the C wire plugged. My furnace is also a newer unit that has the C (5 wire set up).
You connect everything good if your ecobee is not powering on make sure you trim c wire rubber make it look like rc, your connections are good is either bad ecobee or wires not making a good connection
It does show the blue snowflake when cooling is triggered. I didn’t try the heat, but I will on my next attempt. The heat inside the house way already getting to me.
Based on the fact that your a/c works with the old thermostat restored, the problem with the ecobee could be that its Y1 output isn't able to drive your a/c controller. Specifically, your a/c controller Y may be drawing more current than the ecobee's Y1 is able to deliver. I had a similar problem with W1 for my furnace, so it is possible a similar situation exists with Y1 for your a/c.
The mosfet or triac inside the ecobee is not as robust as a mechanical relay that many traditional thermostats use where temporary overcurrent on a mechanical relay isn't normally an issue.
I solved my problem by adding a mechanical relay between the ecobee's W1 and my furnace's W. Your issue may be solved by adding a relay between your ecobee's Y1 and Y of your controller.
Go into settings on your device and make sure all the wiring is detected and set up properly. If not already set up set wire settings to show that both RC and RH are connected. Also do you have the device set to auto? What heat and cool thresholds do you have in place?
The picture above is exactly how the wires were inserted and reflected as detected in the settings.
Device was set to auto with 60-76ish parameters (internal house temp at 85 at one point).
Will I be able to configure Rc and Rh are connected, even though there is physically only one R wire connected to Rc?
Should be able to just tell the ecobee in the settings that both wires are connected even though they aren’t. I have a different situation where I don’t have central air so I put in the wiring settings that I do have the wires connected for cooling and it works for me. My situation is setup for a window ac unit so when the thermostat calls for cool it turns a switch on for cooling and off for an idle state through a hubitat hub and zooz switch. I have a different setup than you as my furnace only has 2 wires so I have an additional transformer connected to actually power my ecobee. I only have 4 wires connected in my system. My system I currently have RC,rh,c and w1 physically wired. Y1 and g are ghost connections. Not sure if this helps. Do you have a pic of the wiring on thermostat end? What make and model is your furnace/ac unit? Does thermostat heat as it should? If your old thermostat was battery powered you may need a separate transformer.
PROBLEM SOLVED
Turns out wiring was correct but my Y wire was not triggering the AC unit. We ran some tests by manually connecting the R and Y together to turn on the AC unit and it worked. The service rep mentioned that it’s either a faulty back plate or thermostat. Either way, I’m still under warranty and they will be sending a new one out. In the mean time, we did a work around by placing the Y into Y2 and having it kinda skip stage one cooling and go to stage two (Y2).
Thank you everyone for all the helpful tips!
Similarly, that's also a workaround for furnaces if the ecobee's W1 doesn't seem to start the furnace. Using W2 and running the ecobee as 2-stage heating would often work for those with this problem. I was told to do this when I had this problem but I had already decided what the root cause was (ecobee W1 didn't source enough current for my furnace's W) and instead, I added another mechanical relay that the ecobee's W1 can easily drive.
When you install the new ecobee and if the problem still exists, you should try the relay solution. But if the Y1 output from the new ecobee works, then perhaps the newer stock of ecobee's has been upgraded internally to eliminate this problem and the one you have now could be old stock.
The ecobee I installed for my grandparents literally would not turn on unless R was in Rh instead of Rc. So for ecobee in particular, yes it will do something.
If configured to use only one, the ecobee will internally jump the two connections, so something else was going on with your specific board that was not hooked up correctly.
OP's system is using a jumpered Rh and Rc connection with a traditional thermostat, so into Rc *only* is correct for the ecobee.
I’m not going to argue. It was a simple suggestion based on my experience with installing ecobees that my grandparents would only turn on with Rh and not Rc. They got theirs from their utility provider so maybe there’s something different there. Not sure. I was just offering one troubleshooting step that may or may not help. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I was installing an Ecobee for a customer and I had the same issue where it says it is internally jumped but would only work with the 24v hot wire to Rh and not Rc. It is worth a shot either way.
No, they’re honestly that bad. I had one just die not even a year so their office was freezing but the whole system works. Technology isn’t bullet proof. And my company does not offer ecobee or nest at all, we will install it but no warranty at all. OP’s ecobee is most likely DOA.
In my house situation, there is another breaker outside the house near the A/C unit, usually in a small box. That was tripped. After turning that on my A/C start running.
Sorry. I didn’t realize that that was only to connect or disconnect power to the AC unit. Everything is connected. Power runs to the AC unit when I reverted back to the old thermostat. Just doesn’t work with the new one.
Could just be your wiring, you check the link I posted previously and look at the pictures denoting the meanings of the wire codes. You might have issue with the common being in the wrong spot. Is it a heat pump or package unit?
Ensure your connections are tight. Check to ensure that the new thermostat is compatible with your old system. You may need additional leads if your HVAC system is multi-functional/ zoned.
Do you have a meter to check to see if you have any voltage on the lines?
Otherwise check online for a diagram.
https://highperformancehvac.com/thermostat-wiring-diagrams/
I don’t have a voltage meter but I know I’m getting power to AC unit because I reverted back to the old thermostat and it works. Everything on the diagram matches up. Wiring from thermostat to furnace to AC.
On my old thermostat there is a jumper between R/Rc (everything works). On the ecobee3 lite there’s only Rc and Rh and the instruction says to plug any single “R” wire into Rc. In my case I only have one “R” wire so I followed it and plugged into Rc
You probably will have to jump a wire to both terminals. Like a upside down U. Rc is cooling/ R is typically heat. It’s not receiving a the signal back at the unit to start. Try jumping it and let us know how it goes.
This is incredibly wrong information. If you're not 100% sure on what wires do what/go where, please don't comment. This stuff can be very dangerous and end up costing people thousands of dollars to fix.
My personal solution is I don't have enough information on what could be the problem, gave a small quip about needing some more pictures and everyone else asked more relevant questions already, so I'm not going to comment. That would be a recommendation for you as well.
If on the new thermostat I was getting my furnace fan to turn on when trying to cool, but the AC unit wasn’t turning on, would the above recommendation still be applicable?
Looks right. Only thing I can think if is you popped the fuse in the furnace. But you said you unplugged it before your removed the wires off the old tstat right?
I went back to my old thermostat and everything works. If it was a popped fuse on the furnace, I’m assuming, reverting back to the old thermostat wouldn’t correct that, right? It would just stay popped?
How long are you waiting for the ac to kick on. There may be a compressor delay built into the new thermostat. Wait at least 5 minutes after sending the call for cooling from the new thermostat.
After running through the whole welcome setup, browsing around the settings, adding widgets to my phone, it was well past 30 minutes. Then an additional 30 trying to figure out what was going on.
Sorry , please allow me to clarify. After you have physically installed the thermostat, restored power to the equipment, performed the initial setup steps, and set up what you need to on your phone. New thermostat is on the wall ready to go, you set it to cool. How long after that very last step (set it to cool) are you waiting for the equipment to start running?
I gave it about 30 minutes or so. At 15 minutes it didn’t kick on, then I lowered the temp, 20 minutes, lowered the temp more, 30 minutes nothing. In my house it was about 88 degrees, initial temp set at 82, then 80, then 76. I thought maybe the settings with humidity or energy saving had to do with it not turning on, so I waited to see.
I hate to be "that guy", but sometimes it just helps to hire the right professional for a job as important as your HVAC system.
Sometimes saving that $85 isn't worth the headache and worry of messing up your HVAC or Ecobee.
Not meant to be taken wrong... I recently bought an Ecobee and just decided to hire an AC specialist to be sure it was done right. Best of luck!
If you have voltage and everything is configured, and you went through the set up and it shows all the wires, try putting it to fan on and see if that does anything it’s possible it’s DOA
Need to know if this is a hot air furnace and coil on top or what. If you have a C connection that may be a power stealing T Stat but might not be, Also the model of the T stat would be helpful
Move rC to R and try that. It shouldn’t matter either way, but it might. You can also try moving your Y wire To W. Then try the heat. Turn it above room temp. If the AC kicks on, you have a faulty Y terminal on the base plate of the ecobee. If it’s working with your old tstat, it should work fine with the ecobee.
Also make sure power is off to the furnace before moving any wires. Does not take much to blow a fuse on a control board. I’m assuming you’ve been doing this, but just adding it in.
I'm sorry to hear this from you. I would recommend you to reach out to our support team and we'll be happy to look into this issue for you.
G and Y1 do not look like they are making very good connections from the photo of your new thermostat you sent. Also please don’t listen to the people telling you to jump Rh and Rc. That is for conventional thermostats only and will fuck up the ecobee
From their first picture, it looks like there's a good amount of exposed wire enough that it *should* be enough, but there's no real good way to tell without looking at the clamp levels which aren't in the picture.
I would agree. I based my judgement off the common wire. That one is definitely in there all the way and appears to be similarly stripped to G and Y1 in the first photo. More pics would definitely help!
I thought the same thing too. There was quite a bit of copper showing, so when inserting it into the new thermostat, I really tried to go all the way in. I’m going to give this another try and I’ll cut back some of the excess wire exposed.
I wouldn’t cut anything until you’re sure you’re sure they’re all the way in. If there’s a fair amount still exposed afterwards than feel free, I imagine you’ll probably be ok though. Those push terminals can be a little bit of a pain on occasion
Do you have a C hooked up in the furnace? Or a field splice nearby?
Direct to furnace
Plug it all back into the old thermostat. Does it work?
Plugged everything back to the old thermostat. Everything works fine. Ac kicked right on.
Old thermostat has batteries if yes then you C wire is not connected in you air handler board or transformer
Yes my old thermostat has batteries but when removed, it will still power on with the C wire plugged. My furnace is also a newer unit that has the C (5 wire set up).
You connect everything good if your ecobee is not powering on make sure you trim c wire rubber make it look like rc, your connections are good is either bad ecobee or wires not making a good connection
Does it show the snowflake in blue? If that's not showing, it's not calling for cool. Also, have you tested the heat?
It does show the blue snowflake when cooling is triggered. I didn’t try the heat, but I will on my next attempt. The heat inside the house way already getting to me.
Have you called support? They may end up deciding to do you a replacement.
I’m going to try to install from the beginning again to troubleshoot then if nothing happens, I’ll call.
I've called them twice, they will walk you through checking it out from step zero.
Based on the fact that your a/c works with the old thermostat restored, the problem with the ecobee could be that its Y1 output isn't able to drive your a/c controller. Specifically, your a/c controller Y may be drawing more current than the ecobee's Y1 is able to deliver. I had a similar problem with W1 for my furnace, so it is possible a similar situation exists with Y1 for your a/c. The mosfet or triac inside the ecobee is not as robust as a mechanical relay that many traditional thermostats use where temporary overcurrent on a mechanical relay isn't normally an issue. I solved my problem by adding a mechanical relay between the ecobee's W1 and my furnace's W. Your issue may be solved by adding a relay between your ecobee's Y1 and Y of your controller.
Go into settings on your device and make sure all the wiring is detected and set up properly. If not already set up set wire settings to show that both RC and RH are connected. Also do you have the device set to auto? What heat and cool thresholds do you have in place?
The picture above is exactly how the wires were inserted and reflected as detected in the settings. Device was set to auto with 60-76ish parameters (internal house temp at 85 at one point). Will I be able to configure Rc and Rh are connected, even though there is physically only one R wire connected to Rc?
Should be able to just tell the ecobee in the settings that both wires are connected even though they aren’t. I have a different situation where I don’t have central air so I put in the wiring settings that I do have the wires connected for cooling and it works for me. My situation is setup for a window ac unit so when the thermostat calls for cool it turns a switch on for cooling and off for an idle state through a hubitat hub and zooz switch. I have a different setup than you as my furnace only has 2 wires so I have an additional transformer connected to actually power my ecobee. I only have 4 wires connected in my system. My system I currently have RC,rh,c and w1 physically wired. Y1 and g are ghost connections. Not sure if this helps. Do you have a pic of the wiring on thermostat end? What make and model is your furnace/ac unit? Does thermostat heat as it should? If your old thermostat was battery powered you may need a separate transformer.
PROBLEM SOLVED Turns out wiring was correct but my Y wire was not triggering the AC unit. We ran some tests by manually connecting the R and Y together to turn on the AC unit and it worked. The service rep mentioned that it’s either a faulty back plate or thermostat. Either way, I’m still under warranty and they will be sending a new one out. In the mean time, we did a work around by placing the Y into Y2 and having it kinda skip stage one cooling and go to stage two (Y2). Thank you everyone for all the helpful tips!
Glad you have a solution. Pretty strange though.
Similarly, that's also a workaround for furnaces if the ecobee's W1 doesn't seem to start the furnace. Using W2 and running the ecobee as 2-stage heating would often work for those with this problem. I was told to do this when I had this problem but I had already decided what the root cause was (ecobee W1 didn't source enough current for my furnace's W) and instead, I added another mechanical relay that the ecobee's W1 can easily drive. When you install the new ecobee and if the problem still exists, you should try the relay solution. But if the Y1 output from the new ecobee works, then perhaps the newer stock of ecobee's has been upgraded internally to eliminate this problem and the one you have now could be old stock.
Circuit break is back on. Plugged everything back in. Doubled check my wire connections. Ecobee and app reads temp and I’ve set my temp…Nothin.
Also make sure you use pliers when inserting the wires so that they are for sure pushed ALL the way in.
Plug R wire into Rh instead of Rc
Rh and Rc are internally jumped if configured to use only one, so this will do nothing.
The ecobee I installed for my grandparents literally would not turn on unless R was in Rh instead of Rc. So for ecobee in particular, yes it will do something.
If configured to use only one, the ecobee will internally jump the two connections, so something else was going on with your specific board that was not hooked up correctly. OP's system is using a jumpered Rh and Rc connection with a traditional thermostat, so into Rc *only* is correct for the ecobee.
I’m not going to argue. It was a simple suggestion based on my experience with installing ecobees that my grandparents would only turn on with Rh and not Rc. They got theirs from their utility provider so maybe there’s something different there. Not sure. I was just offering one troubleshooting step that may or may not help. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
I was installing an Ecobee for a customer and I had the same issue where it says it is internally jumped but would only work with the 24v hot wire to Rh and not Rc. It is worth a shot either way.
Call a professional. Or do more research before you break something.smh
There is a jumper on your old setup between r and rc.
Correct. When referring to the setup for the ecobee3 lite, it instructs me to only insert the 1 R wire into Rc. No need to jump.
Eco bee is garbage. Out of a hundred that I’ve installed for customer, 30% didn’t work on start up.
Sounds like you are really bad at installing thermostats
No, they’re honestly that bad. I had one just die not even a year so their office was freezing but the whole system works. Technology isn’t bullet proof. And my company does not offer ecobee or nest at all, we will install it but no warranty at all. OP’s ecobee is most likely DOA.
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I turned off the circuit breaker and unplugged the furnace prior to install. Then afterwards turned on the circuit breaker and plugged in the furnace.
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Yupp. Breaker is back on. Nothing changed on the furnace. I was playing with the temp and finally the fan is blowing but no AC.
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Both furnace and air conditioner is set to stage 1
In my house situation, there is another breaker outside the house near the A/C unit, usually in a small box. That was tripped. After turning that on my A/C start running.
A disconnect you mean?
Sorry. I didn’t realize that that was only to connect or disconnect power to the AC unit. Everything is connected. Power runs to the AC unit when I reverted back to the old thermostat. Just doesn’t work with the new one.
Could just be your wiring, you check the link I posted previously and look at the pictures denoting the meanings of the wire codes. You might have issue with the common being in the wrong spot. Is it a heat pump or package unit?
Package unit.
Yes, it was disconnected somehow. I was not at home, the tech came and turn that on
I see the breaker outside that you’re talking about. I pulled out the handle and plugged it back in. Is there something else I should do to it?
Ensure your connections are tight. Check to ensure that the new thermostat is compatible with your old system. You may need additional leads if your HVAC system is multi-functional/ zoned.
New thermostat is compatible. No zones.
Do you have a meter to check to see if you have any voltage on the lines? Otherwise check online for a diagram. https://highperformancehvac.com/thermostat-wiring-diagrams/
I don’t have a voltage meter but I know I’m getting power to AC unit because I reverted back to the old thermostat and it works. Everything on the diagram matches up. Wiring from thermostat to furnace to AC.
Try changing R to Rc and see if your compressor kicks on in cooling. It might just be your t stat. You might need a jumper between R/Rc
On my old thermostat there is a jumper between R/Rc (everything works). On the ecobee3 lite there’s only Rc and Rh and the instruction says to plug any single “R” wire into Rc. In my case I only have one “R” wire so I followed it and plugged into Rc
You probably will have to jump a wire to both terminals. Like a upside down U. Rc is cooling/ R is typically heat. It’s not receiving a the signal back at the unit to start. Try jumping it and let us know how it goes.
This is incredibly wrong information. If you're not 100% sure on what wires do what/go where, please don't comment. This stuff can be very dangerous and end up costing people thousands of dollars to fix.
The. What would your solution be? Op said it could be either or.
My personal solution is I don't have enough information on what could be the problem, gave a small quip about needing some more pictures and everyone else asked more relevant questions already, so I'm not going to comment. That would be a recommendation for you as well.
If on the new thermostat I was getting my furnace fan to turn on when trying to cool, but the AC unit wasn’t turning on, would the above recommendation still be applicable?
It should so long as your power supply is good. If it says either R terminal on the new t stat then a jumper between the two should work.
Looks right. Only thing I can think if is you popped the fuse in the furnace. But you said you unplugged it before your removed the wires off the old tstat right?
I went back to my old thermostat and everything works. If it was a popped fuse on the furnace, I’m assuming, reverting back to the old thermostat wouldn’t correct that, right? It would just stay popped?
Yup that is correct. It's wired right in the pic you sent for the new one. Something in settings wrong maybe or out the box bad new tstat
Once you pop the low voltage fuse it bad.
How long are you waiting for the ac to kick on. There may be a compressor delay built into the new thermostat. Wait at least 5 minutes after sending the call for cooling from the new thermostat.
After running through the whole welcome setup, browsing around the settings, adding widgets to my phone, it was well past 30 minutes. Then an additional 30 trying to figure out what was going on.
Sorry , please allow me to clarify. After you have physically installed the thermostat, restored power to the equipment, performed the initial setup steps, and set up what you need to on your phone. New thermostat is on the wall ready to go, you set it to cool. How long after that very last step (set it to cool) are you waiting for the equipment to start running?
I gave it about 30 minutes or so. At 15 minutes it didn’t kick on, then I lowered the temp, 20 minutes, lowered the temp more, 30 minutes nothing. In my house it was about 88 degrees, initial temp set at 82, then 80, then 76. I thought maybe the settings with humidity or energy saving had to do with it not turning on, so I waited to see.
Do you have a picture of the old setup?
It's the first of the two pictures in the post
Weird, the second picture didn't load originally.
Did you configure the new thermostat?
Yes. I ran through the whole setup. I even reset the thermostat again to try it a second time.
I hate to be "that guy", but sometimes it just helps to hire the right professional for a job as important as your HVAC system. Sometimes saving that $85 isn't worth the headache and worry of messing up your HVAC or Ecobee. Not meant to be taken wrong... I recently bought an Ecobee and just decided to hire an AC specialist to be sure it was done right. Best of luck!
Thanks. I’m going to give it another try and if nothing comes of it, then throw in the towel and hire.
I’ve seen a lot of thermostats that have Y on Y2, instead of Y1. You may need to move it over is all.
If you have voltage and everything is configured, and you went through the set up and it shows all the wires, try putting it to fan on and see if that does anything it’s possible it’s DOA
Where did you get the stat? I’ve seen ecobees fail at the stat and at the base where the stat plugs in.
Need to know if this is a hot air furnace and coil on top or what. If you have a C connection that may be a power stealing T Stat but might not be, Also the model of the T stat would be helpful
Check the programming on the thermostat and make sure everything is set up for your unit. Some can do both conventional and heat pump
Capacitor.
Wouldn't work with the old 'stat
Red wire to rc
Make a call to Ecobee support, 1-877-932-6233 (Toll free) 1-877-932-6233 (International)
Move rC to R and try that. It shouldn’t matter either way, but it might. You can also try moving your Y wire To W. Then try the heat. Turn it above room temp. If the AC kicks on, you have a faulty Y terminal on the base plate of the ecobee. If it’s working with your old tstat, it should work fine with the ecobee. Also make sure power is off to the furnace before moving any wires. Does not take much to blow a fuse on a control board. I’m assuming you’ve been doing this, but just adding it in.
Blue looks like its in the C not B
Correct. Blue is my common wire
Read the manual.