Update Oct. 24, 2016
Dec 30, 2016 - Electric to Gas Heating Conversion options. Our free analysis includes an energy savings calculation to help you see the benefits!
After further research and discussion with Honeywell, we’re revising our stance on smart thermostats.
We no longer recommend that you attempt to install a smart thermostat to use with our products.
In the past few weeks we’ve been in discussions with Honeywell to get more solidified recommendations on specific relays and thermostats that can be made to work with line voltage heaters. We even began the process of bringing new parts and products into our system so we could sell the solution directly.
Somewhere along the way we learned that the relays Honeywell was recommending for this install don’t actually provide enough power to support smart and wifi thermostats for the long term. Even though we have performed successful testing with the Lyric and Nest thermostats in our engineering lab, we have concerns about the ongoing reliability and durability of this work around. We suspect running a smart thermostat with one of these relays as the power source may lead to the draining of the thermostat’s internal batteries.
We’re attempting to get more information from Honeywell and will post any updates as soon as we have concrete information.
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We’re truly sorry for those of you who found this post in the past. Our goal with our blog is to support our customers’ needs and to provide good, useful information to make them successful using our products in their home. We felt there were a growing number of you who were interested in having a smart thermostat or wifi control option with our heaters. In the past we felt this was a good solution. Unfortunately we don’t anymore.
We want to make sure you have the latest information.
Thank you for understanding.
We’ve updated the original post (below) to be more in line with our current stance on smart thermostats:
Looking to hook up a smart thermostat to your wall or electric baseboard heater? It’s technically possible to make one work but you’ll need to do a lot of extra work and research. Here’s why:
The Honeywell Lyric, Nest and other smart thermostats are designed to work with central home heating systems. Those are controlled by low voltage thermostats, which use 24 volts. Electric baseboard and fan heaters work with line-voltage thermostats, which can be either 120 or 240 volts. If you hooked up a low-voltage thermostat directly to one of our heaters it would fry the thermostat. Not the best way to spend $250.
But that’s where relays and transformers come in. The transformer converts the line voltage power into low voltage power to provide energy to the relay and the thermostat. The relay is then a bridge between the thermostat and the heater, allowing the low voltage thermostat to control the line voltage heater. (Keep in mind that you’ll need one smart thermostat for each older thermostat you are replacing.)
You’ll want to make sure that you have a relay that’s properly sized to provide power to your heater. You’ll also need to get a transformer that’s properly sized to power your relay and thermostat. (This is where you’ll need to consult your thermostat, relay and transformer manufacturers.)
You also need to check and make sure your transformer and relay works with your heater’s voltage.
Installation outline
The specifics of the installation process will depend on what thermostat, relay, transformer and heater you have in your home, but here’s how it will work in general:
- The relay and transformer will need to be installed somewhere out of the way that is still accessible (like inside a closet, in a crawlspace or in an attic).
- Line voltage wires will run from your circuit to the relay/transformer.
- Line voltage wires will then go from the relay to the heater; all line voltage connections with the relay must be made inside a surface mounted metal junction box.
- Low voltage wires will be connected to the relay/transformer (outside of the junction box with the line voltage connections) and will run through the wall to the thermostat, which will be installed on the wall. The relay turns the heater on or off using the signal from the thermostat.
Which smart thermostats will work?
We’ve tested this setup in our lab with the Honeywell Lyric and Nest but we can’t verify this method will work with all low voltage thermostats or in all situations. We also suspect that this installation method may drain the thermostat’s batteries, making it necessary to replace them on a pretty regular basis.
If you have to have smart features or Wi-Fi connected thermostats, this method will potentially work for you but we hope to have a better solution in the near future.
You have a lot of options when adding heat to a cold room or new addition. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages but when it comes down to it, electric heat is a great option for most homes. We think there are three main reasons why you should consider electric heat: It’s easy to install, it’s cost-effective, and it’s efficient.
Electric heat is easy to install
If you’re adding heat to your home, electric heaters are usually the easiest option. Adding ducts to a HVAC system can disrupt the way the furnace was designed to push air through the home. If you have one or two rooms that could use a little heat boost, you can install electric baseboard or wall heaters to supplement central heat. They operate independently and don’t require any modifications to that system.
A lot of times people who have a forced air systems will close off vents in rooms that they aren’t using. That can cause put a strain on your furnace.
A cost-effective way to heat your home
Electric heat is also less expensive to buy than most other heating options and has lower installation costs. That leads to a huge savings potential when adding heat to a room.
Ductwork is expensive to install and difficult to modify, according to an article about baseboard heat on BobVila.com.
The Department of Energy says that electric heat equipment usually costs less than the alternatives. The heaters are highly efficient but can be expensive to operate, depending on your local power rates.
While electric rates can be high in some parts of the country, how you use your heaters can lead to big energy savings.
Efficient heating option
Electric heat is 100 percent efficient. That means that all of the power you put into the system is turned into heat. Natural gas and other combustion heating systems don’t offer that kind of efficiency and tend to decrease in efficiency as they age. Electric heat doesn’t.
Having a heater in each room in your home allows you to independently control temperatures, rather than have your entire house heated when you may only be using one or two rooms at a time.
HVAC is like having one light switch for the entire house. Why pay to heat your living or dining room when you only use them on special occasions?
If you combine electric heaters with a central system, you can set your central thermostat to a lower temperature and turn up electric heaters in individual rooms when you are using them. That way you get the best of both worlds. Energy savings and comfort.
At the end of the day, electric heat can be a very cost-effective, efficient and comfortable heating solution for a cold room, new addition or refinished basement. It won’t necessarily replace your central air system, but it can be a great combination with it.
If you’re interested in learning more about our electric heaters, we suggest you start by learning about the differences between baseboard and wall heaters.