| Usually there is a 24 volt AC transformer in the furnace with the secondary winding connected to a red wire running to the thermostat and a blue wire, common, to the gas valve, A/C relay, and fan relay. From the thermostat there will be white wire to the gas valve, yellow to the A/C, and green to the fan. The thermostat is wired to switch the power from the red to the white, yellow, and green as needed with the blue completing the circuit. Most thermostats and furnaces have the contacts labeled R, B or C, W, Y, and G for the corresponding wire colors. It may be wired to have the A/C control wires return to the furnace and its controls and then a second wire goes to the A/C unit. Internal wiring may replace the green wire if the thermostat does not give you the option of fan only or continuous fan. Digital or programmable thermostats may need the blue wire connected to them.
From the above, you can see why the fan on doesn't work with G disconnected, and holding W and R together causes the heat to come on. Does either type of thermostat have a B or C terminal? What do the black and red connect to at the other end, do they both go out to transformer and connect to the same terminal? With 3 thermostats having gone bad, maybe it is time to look at the transformer. They are fairly cheap, $10-20. If it is an intermittent problem, even testing it for 24 volts might not find the problem. If you do test it, try to test it at the thermostat, red to white. Look at the rating , and get one at least as big, or bigger. |