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New Wi-Fi thermostats are available that allow you to remotely control the temperature in your home. Unlike other battery powered programmable thermostats, these new thermostats cant run on batteries alone and even if they can they will drain the battery quickly. Its therefor necessary to connect a "C" wire to these thermostats to provide power. This post details how I provided power to my thermostat that didnt have a C wire running to it by using a plug-in 24 volt AC transformer. With a C wire powering your thermostat you wont need to worry about the batteries dying and you can set the light on your thermostat to be always on to act as a nightlight.
The thermostat I was replacing only controls my gas fired, hot water boiler which provides heat only. I didnt have to worry about cooling as my AC unit runs off a separate thermostat. There were three wires coming out of the wall where my old thermostat was mounted. My heating system only requires two wires, R and W, to operate. I thought I could use the third wire to power my thermostat and use that as the C wire. Unfortunately I ran into a couple of problems.
First, there wiring was very old and there appeared to be a break in that third wire. I couldnt get current to flow to it from the basement.
Second, and probably most importantly, I called the manufacturer of my boiler to double check that it would be okay to connect the thermostat to the C terminal on the 24 volt AC transformer in the boiler. These types of thermostats are called "power stealing" thermostats and the manufacturer (Weil McLain) does not recommend using a power stealing thermostat with my boiler. They were worried that the additional load from the thermostat may cause the transformer to prematurely burn out. They recommend using a separate 24 vac transformer to power the thermostat.
The instructions for the Honeywell Wi-Fi Programmable Touchscreen Thermostat (RTH8580WF1007/U)
There is no standard color coding for thermostat wiring. I decided to use the following convention. R - Red, W - White, Rc - Yellow, C - Blue. The yellow and blue wires will go to the transformer and since its an AC transformer they could be switched.
The 5 conductor wire will be snaked down the wall into my basement. From there Ill separate it into two runs. The Red and White will connect to an existing wire in my basement that goes into my boiler and connects to the R and W terminals on my boiler. The Yellow and Blue wires will run along another wire that goes to the plug-in 24vac transformer that will be plugged into a nearby outlet in the basement.
Step 2: Turn Off Your HVAC System
Before doing anything turn off the power to your HVAC system. This will vary by system but there should be some sort of switch near your system or there might be a breaker specifically labeled in your main circuit breaker panel.
Step 3: Remove Old Thermostat
Your new thermostat will come with instructions and wire labels. Follow the instructions to label your existing wires with the stickers so you know which wire is which.
After you label your wires but before you completely disconnect them from the old thermostat, wrap a pencil around the existing wires and/or tape the wires to the wall the prevent them from slipping down into the hole.
If you need to drill holes for new wall anchors to screw in your new thermostat, do that now. Luckily I was replacing a different Honeywell Programmable thermostat that used the same hole spacing.
Step 4: Run New Thermostat Wire
This is the tricky part and how you run your wire is going to depend on how your existing wire is run. I was lucky and my thermostat had a straight run down the wall it was installed on down to my basement. By pulling on the wire from upstairs and down in the basement I was able to tell that the wire was not firmly stapled to the wall and Id be able to pull it right out. The types of fasteners I saw used in the basement were fairly loose fitting. If thats not the case for you you might have a harder time snaking the new wire. You might have to make small holes in your walls here or there. Fishing wire can be tricky and you might want to hire an electrician to do this for you. Remember, its best not to try and tackle this when its very cold and you dont want to be without heat for a couple of days if something goes wrong.
Prepare Fish Tape
The first time I ever used the GB Fish Tape it was very difficult to get it out of the reel. Youre supposed to pull the steel tape out by hand. Its coated in oil which makes it tricky. I took the tape outdoors, dont do this on carpet or the oil will stain it, and pulled out as much of the tape as I could by hand. Then I stepped on the end and pulled on the reel slowly working all the tape out. As my reach wasnt sufficient I walked down the tape to change where I was putting pressure. Be careful not to severely bend the steel tape when doing this. One I got all the tape out I reeled it in and repeated the processes. Now whenever I use the fish tape it comes out effortlessly.
Attach Wire to Fish Tape
From upstairs, where the old wire was coming out of the hole in the wall I attached the wire to the end of the fish tape. Theres a small hole in the end that I passed the wires through and then used electrical tape to secure everything together. Make sure that the tape is put on neatly so that the point of connection isnt significantly thicker than the thickness of the wire. Tug on it a few times to make sure the wire isnt going to come off of the fish tape while youre pulling it through the wall.
Make sure you have enough fish tape unreeled to reach down to the other end of the opening.
Pull Wire Down
Next I went down to my basement where the old thermostat wire was coming out of the floor boards. I carefully pulled down on the old wire until the fish tape came down to a working level. I had to run up once to feed in the fish tape when it seemed to get a big snagged. This operation is easier if you have one person guiding the tape down from above and another pulling from below but is doable with one person.
Attach New Wire To Fish Tape
First I unspooled a sufficient length of wire and straightened it out a bit. I made sure to unspool enough wire that when I pulled the end upstairs the spool will still be on the ground so that the weight of the spool wouldnt pull the wire back down.
I stripped off about 1.5" of the brown outer wire wrap exposing the 5 individual colored wires. I passed those wires through the holes in the end of the fish tape. Then I took 3 of the individual strands one by one and wrapped them around the tip of the fish tape. Two in one direction and the other in the other direction. This will help secure the wires on the tape. Finally I securely wrapped the connection using electrical tape and tugged on it a few times to make sure it wouldnt come apart while pulling the wire through the wall.
I had taken a picture before I wrapped the connection with electrical tape to show you how I fastened the wire to the end of the tape. Unfortunately I didnt realize the photo didnt come out when I took it. The description above will hopefully be sufficient. Any way you attach it its important that it provides some security and doesnt add much to the width.
Pull New Wire Up Through Wall
The first step is to start feeding the wire up from below until the connection between the fish tape and thermostat wire is past the hole. This is one of the points where the wire might snag. Its easier to do this with two people but I managed on my own.
Once the connection was through I double checked that the wire was straight and that there was enough unspooled.
Then I went upstairs and carefully pulled the fish tape up until the new wire came out of the hole in the wall.
I made sure I had enough wire to work with and I wrapped some tape around the new wire, while keeping the tape on the spool, to prevent the wire from slipping back down the hole. You could also wrap the wires around something like a pencil.
Step 5: Connect Wires to Thermostat Base Plate
With the new wire fished through the wall it was time to start wiring up the new thermostat. I trimmed the wire to an appropriate length so about 4 inches was sticking out of the wall. Id deal with the mess of unwrapping the electrical tape off the end and fish tape later. I began by stripping a couple of inches of the brown outer wire sheath to expose the 5 individual color coded wires within. Then I wrapped the Green wire back against the main wire bundle since I wasnt going to be using it then I stripped about 3/8" off the end of the 4 remaining wires as shown.
Remove Jumper
The base plate of the thermostat comes with a metal jumper connected between Rc and R, it looks like a small staple. This jumper needs to be removed to be able to wire the thermostat to an independent power transformer. To remove it, use the small flat-headed precision screwdriver to loosen the two screws for Rc and R in the black terminal block. You dont need to unscrew them all the way, just until the tops of the screws are flush with the top of the black terminal block. Once both screws are loosened just pull the jumper out.
The Rc terminal is used for connecting the cooling relay. If your thermostat controls both your heating and cooling system Im not sure how youd go about wiring an external transformer. In that case youd likely need to wire your thermostats C wire directly to the transformer on your 24 volt HVAC system.
Attach Wires
One by one feed the end of each wire into its appropriate terminal block and screw it down to hold it in place. The convention Im using is:
- R - Red (to boiler)
- W - White (to boiler)
- Rc - Yellow (to transformer)
- C - Blue (to transformer)
Once the wires are attached you can secure the base plate to the wall. I used a small level on the side to make sure the base was mounted straight. (The top of the thermostat and base plate are curved.) The picture, didnt come out quite as straight :) but you can see how the 4 wires attach to the thermostats base plate.
Depending on your HVAC system your wiring might be different.
Step 6: Connect Thermostat To Transformer
Next I determined where I was going to plug the 24 vac transformer in and measured out the appropriate length of wire from the spool. I knew I was going to have extra thermostat wire left over and I will be using that instead of getting a different 2 conductor wire since I wont need all 5 for this run.
After trimming the wire to length, I stripped off the ends of the wires and, wrapped the each around one of the 2 screw terminals on the transformer and tightened them down. The position of these two wires isnt important as this is an AC transformer. I picked this particular 24vac transformer (MGT2440) because it had the screw terminals.
Next I attached the yellow wire coming from the transformer to the yellow wire running down from the thermostat. I stripped the ends of both about 3/4", used pliers to wrap the wires around each other in a clockwise direction and secured them with an orange wire nut. I repeated the process for the blue wire from the transformer to the thermostat wire.
Before going any further I wanted to make sure the thermostat was getting power so I plugged the transformer in, ran upstairs, pushed the thermostat onto its base and was happy to see the screen on :)
I had already configured to wireless settings when I was testing the 24vac transformer before I went through all this trouble.
Step 7: Connect Thermostat to Boiler
There was a 3 conductor wire running from the boiler to the old wiring for the thermostat. Luckily this new wiring was color coded so I knew which colors went to the R and W terminals on the boiler. One by one I attached the Red wire from the new wire that I ran from the thermostat to the basement by stripping off 3/4" off the new wire and wrapping it around the wire running to the thermostat R terminal in the boiler. The boiler wire was previously connected to the old wire and already stripped. I capped the connection with a wire nut and repeated the process for the White wire to the wire that runs to the W terminal on the boiler.
I flipped the switch to turn the power to the boiler back on and ran upstairs to make sure everything was working. I turned up the thermostat and checked to make sure the boiler fired up. While downstairs next to the boiler I used my phone to turn the thermostat down and within a few seconds the boiler turned off. :)
Step 8: Wrap Things Up
Now that I know everything is working correctly I wrapped electrical tape around the wire nuts to help keep them secure and I used the Fire Block Caulking in the opening from the basement up to the wall where the new thermostat wire runs. To be on the safe side I double checked that everything was working. Using the app on my phone I can adjust the thermostat from anywhere.
One of the nice things about having the thermostat plugged into the wall is that the light on the thermostat can always stay on and I dont have to worry about batteries draining. The thermostat is next to an opening I tend to bump into when I go down to grab a glass of water in the middle of the night. Hopefully no more stubbed toes and I never have to worry about replacing the batteries.
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At the last minute before your husbands fun loving family shows up for dinner
you run to your master bedroom trying to remember where the extra leaf for
the kitchen table was stored. Finally with victory you find it stashed in the back of the closet,
behind your husbands laundry bin. Thankfully he uses the floor for his laundry
and not the bin so getting the leaf out should be quick and easy.
Once you slip through the hanging clothes and stubbing your toe on the sewing machine
also sitting on the floor on the closet, which reminds you that you should have
hemmed the dress you had planned to where this evening, you pull out the leaf with victory
still on your side and head straight for the dining table. Thank god the kids havent
come in from their busy day in the yard of hosing the dog down to set the dishes out yet.
Now its just a slight bit of acrobatic moves to get the table pulled apart by yourself
and get the leaf in place.
Seriously!! ... now youre confronted with a big gaping hole pointed right at the door way
where your in-laws will be entering the room.
"I could turn the table and hope no one will see" ...
but that will block Beckys escape to her room when
aunt Patty starts complaining about her fancy $200 shoes that dont fit right
and cousin Jeremy staring inappropriatly (really he just has a lazy eye)
"The good table cloth will cover it up and solve all the problems!" ...
There is no time to start looking. The casserole timer is going off and the rug has not
been vacuumed for that would disrupt the game that Henry is watching.
Once you give in and start tearing open drawers and cupboards you find the good table cloth
still has mustard stains from Jacks birthday party that you had hoped might vanish if left alone.
If you are tired of this always happening to you,
simply follow these 7 steps.
#1 Measure the height and length you need in a new apron board.
#2 You will need to get 2 boards cut to fit the measurements you have taken,
#3 With some coarse sand paper smooth the edges on your new boards.
#4 Measure the distance in from the edge where they need to go.
#5 Screw the boards into place using corner brakets.
#6 Double check how it looks by installing the leaf in your table.
#7 Once everything looks good paint the new apron piece to match your table.
A few unpractical alternatives might include:
Burn everything you cook then you wont be asked to cook dinner.
Dont clean your house then no one will want to come for dinner
Marriage comes with in-laws, think carefully before deciding.
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I have not found one great place to purchase furniture legs from. I have seen them listed in Etsy
shops, ppl have told me they are also on Ebay. Windsor plywood here in Langley has a small
election of new legs you can check out. But I see them second hand in all sorts of different shapes
and sizes. They are on warn out couches and chairs, mdf tables and broken stools, I have
even purchased furniture legs at many yard sales and cast iron ones at an antique store. The metal
stove legs are a bit trickier to install with bolts and washers and such but itt can be done. You can
also cut legs from decorative posts. As with any new idea once you start looking you might be
surprised what you see out there.
MDF coffee table legs are fairly easy to use for repurposing on night stands with the right tools.
A good example of an MDF coffee table can be seen in this article:
http://blogspot.ca/2012/03/part-i-leg-up-adding-legs-to-furniture.html
You get 4 legs to use, they are made of solid wood, and its only 1 or 2 bolts holding them in place.
Coffee tables do come in different heights so keep this in mind when choosing.
#1 You will have to cut off the extra top part so they will sit flush under your night stand.
#2 Predrill and screw your legs into place on the front of your night stands.
#3 You need to cut back legs from some stock lumber to match the height of your front legs.
#4 Then glue and screw your back legs into place.
There you have it ...
BEFORE
AFTER 
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On another note I have a cute little chair I have listed on the SHOWROOM for you today
She has a regular seat height but over all she is a smaller scale chair.
George had been using it for his desk chair until I claimed it back and redid it.
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And Finally For Today ...
Stop in to see whats new in shabby chic white hardware available at firstfinds.
There are over 1000 pieces of used hardware to choose from
Etsy Shop.
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Ive been trying to design a new desk/office for a long time but am never quite happy with it. One feature I know Im going to want in my custom desk is a built-in USB Hub. Instead of waiting around until I have the perfect plan and time to build it I decided to purchase a 3" Belkin In-Desk USB Hub
The USB Hub will work without the power adapter being pulled and just off of the power from the USB port you connect it to. For devices that draw more energy, such as external hard drives, you can choose to plug in the Hub.
Belkin also makes a smaller 2" In-Desk USB Hub
I chose the Belkin because Ive used their products in the past and have always been pleased. I saw another model that also
What Youll Need
Materials
- 3" Belkin In-Desk Hub (or 2" In-Desk Hub)
- Labels
Tools
- Drill
- 3" Hole Saw bit (or 2" if using 2" hub)
Step 1: Make the Hole
Start by determining where you would like to mount the USB hub in your desk top. The location should be convenient and not in the way of other items you plan on putting on this area of your desk. Also check underneath the desk to make sure there are no obstructions to interfere with the installation or cables.
Use the hole saw in your drill and make the hole. If possible its best to start the hole from underneath but dont cut all the way through. Once the drill bit portion of the hole saw emerges on the desk top, stop drilling, pull out the hole saw and finish up the hole from the top. This will give you a cleaner cut. If you just drill from the top, like I did, the hole has some imperfections along the edge but these will be covered up by the grommet.
Step 2: Install the Grommet
Next, slide the grommet into the hole. It wasnt fitting very tight for me so I cut up a wide rubber band into 4 pieces and positioned them in the hole before sliding the grommet in to get a tighter fit.
There are a couple of indentations around the rim of the grommet. These need to be orientated so they are at the 3 oclock and 9 oclock positions. You can make minor adjustments from underneath after the hub is installed.
Step 3: Prepare Hub
Its much easier to feed the cables from the top than trying to make the connections from the bottom. Before mounting the USB hub in the grommet I attached the USB and power cables to the bottom of the hub. With the 3" Hub you can slide the power adapter through the grommet but Im not sure if you can with the 2" version.
I also like to label the adapter and end of the USB cable. It makes it easier to make changes in the future.
Step 4: Insert Hub Into Grommet
Carefully fish the power adapter and USB cable through the grommet then slide the USB Hub into the grommet. There are two tabs on the hub that fit into the left and right indents on the grommet. Once you have inserted the hubs tabs into these indents, twist the hub clockwise to lock it in place.
If youre grommet isnt tight you may need to hold the bottom of the grommet from underneath.
Next just plug the hub into a free USB port on the back of your computer and the power adapter into an outlet and youre set. Remember, the power adapter is optional. If youre not going to be using devices that require a lot of power you dont need to plug it in.
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