Cycle furnace at scheduled interval?

[Jeremy333]

I live in a cold climate and have hot water baseboard heat (hydronic). We have a heat only system that is a boiler with two zones and a circulator pump for each zone.  
I have a zone on my first floor with a cold unfinished basement below it where some of the waterlines descend and travel to the furnace. 
with that, cold snap and strong winds this past weekend our lines must have frozen and we weren’t getting hot water or heat cycling in our first floor zone.  

Is there a setting that will cycle the furnace and thus circulate water for a short duration at specified intervals?
For example, if the furnace were to run for five minutes every hour, that would keep things moving and prevent the pipes from sitting stagnant and freezing. 

issue May be that the first floor near the thermostat is staying warm enough but sections of the basement are reaching freezing temps.  Also doesn’t help we have a fireplace that can heat the room very well and that prevents the water in the baseboards from circulating or heating for long periods of time.  Thanks!

[BubkisRipcord]

I use a wood burning stove and have my fan turn on periodically to move the heat around, including into my basement. To do this I open the Nest app, click the thermostat and then open the settings by clicking on the gear at the top right. Then look for and click on fan schedule. You can have it run periodically during the day from there.

[Jeremy333]

Hey @BubkisRipcord  thanks alot for the message!  This is exactly what im looking for.  Only snag is i have a basic heat only, hot water baseboard system and my thermostat only has 2 wires to it...   i dont see the fan option in the app, probably because of this basic on off system I have.  I believe the equivalent to your fan option for a hydronic baseboard system would be to run the circulator pump to get movement.  This would be perfect, as it would move the water around, preventing freezing, Despite the nest temp not requiring heating the space.

I wonder if i can trick the nest to think i have a forced hot air system(redo setup), and add another wire from the thermostat to the circulator pump to run it as fan mode... this may just be crazy talk but doesnt seem that crazy  haha.

[Jeremy333]

So I checked the app under settings, equipment, wiring; and have power and heat, red and white wires only.  I've read that the green wire is to run a circulator fan.  My idea is connecting a green wire to the thermostat and the other end to the circulator pump, so i can schedule circulator pump usage under the "fan" option in settings.  
Does anyone know which wires they have hooked up, and any idea if i wire up the green wire to the thermostat and the circulator pump, if the app will recognize and give me access to the "fan" scheduling option?  Thanks.

[Jake]

Hey there,

Thanks for the help Jeremy333.

Apologies for the late reply. I wanted to follow up and see if I could be of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further. 

Best regards,
Jake

[Jeremy333]

Hi Jake,

Do you know if its a possibility for me to connect a new third wire (call it green, as thats what next uses to run the circulator fan) to the circulator pump of my furnace and program my thermostat to run the "fan" at regular intervals during cold months, which would actually run the circulator pump for my hudronic baseboard radiators to keep them from freezing?  this would help a bunch, thanks! 

[BubkisRipcord]

While I don't have that set up, if you touch those wires together and it circulates the pump, then check if the nest is providing a closed switch. then it will work but I believe that the nest is moving power from one wire another wire to run the fan, I think in this case it would not work.