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Exgunteacher · Oct 15, 2006, 06:22 PM

I bought a new thermostat (digital 7 day programable) for the main part of the house, and I was going to move the old digital to the "gas fire place heated room". My problem... there are only 2 wires coming out of the wall going to the gas fire place. The old one had 3 from the wall and the RC (or was it Rh? ) doing a 'jump'. The 2 wires are red and white, so where do I attach them to my old digital thermostat?

:confused:

letmetellu · Oct 15, 2006, 06:55 PM

Since you only have two wires coming to the thermostat. All your thermostat will do is act like a broken wire and as you move the temp up it will be like touching the two wire ends together. So put one of the wires (it doesn't matter which one) to the terminal marked W and the other to the Terminal marked RH, if this does not make it work then connect RH and RC together if those are the terminals that you have. I think that is the way I understood it from your question.
I am not sure how your new thermostat is going to work if you only have three wires to connect to it unless you do not have AC working off the same thermostat. Fill me in.

labman · Oct 15, 2006, 07:14 PM

Yes, connect the red to RH and the white to W. Now if it originally had a third wire to a B or C terminal, you may need to run a third wire to it from the opposite side of the transformer as the red.

If the third wire connected to Y or G, you shouldn't need it at the fireplace.

Exgunteacher · Oct 15, 2006, 08:34 PM

Thanks for the suggestions, I have tried all of the above to no avail. I tried the white wire in the W and red in RH. Red in W and white in RH. And then I tried it with the RC/RH jump with both combinations. When I adjust the heat (in hopes the fire place will start up), the thermostat clicks, as if it's acknowledges the change, but the fire place does not kick on, and the fan doesn't start. Is this a hopeless cause?

labman · Oct 15, 2006, 08:54 PM

If connecting the red and white wires doesn't turn the heat on, the problem is not in the themostat. Got to the other end of the wires and try shorting them. If nothing, see if you have voltage. If not, the transformer may be bad.

Exgunteacher · Oct 15, 2006, 09:15 PM

Once again, thank you for all the insight! The fire place worked with the old thermostat on it... leads me to think it may be operator error. I'll try the other end and see if that works tomorrow. Hope it doesn't get too cold tonight!

Exgunteacher · Oct 16, 2006, 05:33 PM

HA! I was trying everything I could think of to get this thing to work. Then I switched it from pilot light' to 'on' and everything worked wonderfully! Who knew?? I had turned the pilot light off when I first started the project (yes, I was a little scared about it). Thanks for your help! :o