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Nest Thermostat running only on batteries (no C wire)

martonyi
Community Member

Hello. I had a company come to install smart thermostats in my home. I have a boiler with oil heat and 4 zones in my home. They explained that because I have no C wires running to any of my thermostats that they could install these new Nest thermostats that can run solely on AAA batteries. My home is old and it was far too complicated to run power to all 4 thermostats. After reading up it says that there can be reliability issues with WIFI connectivity and that the batteries can run out very quickly. Is it recommended to use the way I have it set up or is that going to cause more problems in the future? Thanks 

15 REPLIES 15

rylescu
Community Member

According to CoolingWizard (community member),

 

To work with a 2-wire heat only system, you must use a Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation or a Nest E learning thermostat.  Only these thermostats are designed to work without a common wire.  

Patrick_Caezza
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

That is not 100% true. THe new Google Nest Thermostat can and does work without a C wire, but I personally always recommend a C wire be installed if possible or to use the Nest Power Connector.

 


To ensure that I see your reply, please tag me using @Patrick_Caezza

Patrick_Caezza
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

Using the Google Nest Thermostat without a C wire will typically mean power problems down the road if it even works on an oil boiler system.

Without knowing more details on how your oil boiler system was wired initially, it is hard to say how it should be wired to work correctly with any Nest thermostat.

 


To ensure that I see your reply, please tag me using @Patrick_Caezza

Jeff
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey martonyi,

 

I wanted to check in and see if you saw the replies here and to see if you still had questions on this or if you got everything sorted out. If you're still needing some input, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

martonyi
Community Member

Hi Jeff. Thanks for following up. The HVAC company that did the install still swears that the 4th generation Nest Thermostat will work fine without the C wire (even said that some of them had the same models at home without the C wire). But I still can't get any specific info about how this will pan out once the winter starts and my thermostats are being used. We have oil heat with no central air. There is a small transformer attached to my boiler but each of the four thermostats in my home (I have four zones) are not near the boiler and therefore the option of adding wiring is not possible. I can deal with replacing the batteries twice a year but again I can't get any specific info from people who have gone through a full season with my setup. Thanks

Jeff
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi martonyi,

 

While the C wire isn't required for many systems, battery drain will be the main consideration if you don't use it. Everything will function correctly, but some setups demand more power over time than others and your Nest Thermostat will give you warnings when power is low. I do wish we had some user examples for you to read up on. Our help article gives a bit more info. You can see that here: https://goo.gle/397bLwc.

 

If you have any additional questions, let me know. For now, let's keep this open to see if we can get some input from the community.


Thanks,

Jeff

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need 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.

 

Thanks,

Edward

MelbaDT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi, 

 

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within the day. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

 

Best, 

Melba

martonyi
Community Member

Okay. I can’t say I have anymore information now than I did when I started the thread but I guess the 4th gen thermostat is new and apparently my setup is unique. 

Jake
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey martonyi,

 

I wanted to jump in, and see if I could be of any help. Do you mind me asking if you have looked into the Nest Power Connector? This is another option to provide power to your device if you do not have a C wire. 

 

Best regards,

Jake

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 

Thanks again for helping here, @Jake
@martonyi, I hope you've got the answer you're looking for. If you're still in need of any assistance, feel free to let us know. 

Best,
Mel

martonyi
Community Member

Hi jake. Yes based on the locations of my thermostats the power connectors r not an option. 

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi martonyi,

Thanks for reaching out and I'm sorry to hear that you're still having an issue with your Google Nest Wifi. We'd like to take a deeper look into this — could you fill out this form and let us know once you're done?

Thanks,
Mel

Hi martonyi,

Checking back in — have you had the chance to fill out the form?

Best, 
Mel

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey martonyi,

Do you have any more questions that we can address? If not, I'll go ahead and lock up this thread in 24 hours.

Just checking up,
Jeran