My husband and I purchased a home almost two years ago with a two-zone heating system. One of the thermostats is ideally located for that particular area of the house which is actually a lower level office, but the other one needs to be moved. The prior owners of the house made renovations that moved the location of the kitchen to where the dining room had been. They moved everything except the thermostat - which is now in the kitchen and therefore does not reflect a true temperature reading for the rest of the house. (We cook a lot, so the kitchen is always warmer than the rest of the house.)

My husband believes he has found a suitable location, which is in the main hallway between the living area and the steps leading up to the bedrooms. He wants to install the new thermostat just above a heating return vent. Question #1 - is this a suitable place?

Question #2: How do we connect the new thermostat to the heating unit itself from the new location? All of the installation information for programmable thermostats that I've been able to find online seem to be limited to replacing an existing thermostat, and not on how to install one in a new location.

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated! :)

He wants to install the new thermostat just above a heating return vent. Question #1 - is this a suitable place?

As long as this is a return air area it should work. I always try to stay away from all vents especially a supply air vent but the return air vent should be OK.


You will need to extend the original wiring to the new location. This will involve a splice. The preferred method is to just replace the entire thermostat wire from the new location to the furnace.

READ READ READ

Make sure you write down and mark all wires where they attach to the thermostat and where they land (attach) to the furnace. If you do not do this you will have a major problem with wiring and it could be difficult to fix.

I would leave the wires attached to the furnace until you are ready to wire there then replace one wire at a time. Letter/color IE R=RED W=WHITE etc.