bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
41
Welcome. As long as it’s done properly there aren’t really any safety issues. I’ve done mine.
The problem is with ST. It has this really bad habit of just turning everything on, for no reason.
In just over a year with this system it had happened to me only once. Since that day my fireplace has been disconnected.
But, I have plans to still use it. I use Alexa and I want the voice control. I WILL NOT out a fireplace on any kind of automation! !
I have a wemo switch that is Wi-Fi and integrates with Alexa. I will connect the ST switch to the wemo switch and then the wemo to the power.
So, it will be a two step process. I will tell Alexa to turn on the fireplace, which will turn on the wemo switch and give power to the ST switch. When the wemo switch turns on it will send a message to ST, via IFTTT to turn on the ST switch. Then the fireplace will light.
The only reason I’m even leaving the ST switch in place is because it’s already installed and I’m lazy.
With all the various st shenanigans, I’ve never had the fireplace turn on by itself. In any event with this dth, even if it does it will turn off by itself via the remote control hardware.
the wemo option sound interesting, do you have the remotec integrated into this set up and the wemo replaces the wall switch? im no expert in gas or electric, but based on what i have seen, seems easy enough to do on my own with gas off, and other tips or advice prior to running this setup?
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
45
Read through this link… It tells my journey from start to finish. Though, it doesn’t have anything with the Wemo switch.
Jonathan, would you mind giving me a little more direction? I decided to pick this back up after reading a lot about electricity and replacing many switches/recepticles around my house in the last few months.
I have identified the live and neutral wires inside the box (you were right about that). I would assume that these map to the “L” and “N” on my switch and that the other two wires (red and white, currently attached to the switch in the box) are the low voltage. I am assuming that they map to the “SW” slots on the new switch? However, the pdf does not indicate which one might be which. Any thoughts? Once again, I GREATLY appreciate the help.
Hi Adam,
You are right.
L = Line (usually a black wire with 110v potential)
N = Neutral (usually white)
Your assumptions are all correct. The two white and red wires go in the SW slots. Order doesn’t matter because it’s dry contact. That’s why the documentation doesn’t specify. Good luck!
I used a GoControl Z-wave thermostat on mine a couple of years ago. Works great, and the nice thing about having a thermostat in place instead of just a switch is that the thermostat will control the temp in the room. And with ST rules in place you can set it to turn off the thermostat. That’s why I added the Z-wave thermostat. I started off with just a regular thermostat but we would forget to turn it off and it would come on in the middle of the night
Mine is the millivolt kind that originally had a toggle switch (2 wires). The GoControl will work with this since it’s battery powered. And since I did this I installed an automatic blower that turns on/off by itself depending on the internal temperature of the fire box.
After a few months of replacing switches and recepticles I decided to give this another go. Can someone verify the following?
I have identified the live and neutral wires inside the box. I would assume that these map to the “L” and “N” on my switch and that the other two wires (red and white, currently attached to the switch in the box) are the low voltage. I am assuming that they map to the “SW” slots on the new switch? However, the pdf does not indicate which one might be which. I GREATLY appreciate the help.
L and N on the relay connect to Black and White 120vac, this must be a constant source of power.
Disconnect the existing (usually red and white) wires from your old switch, connect them directly to the relay load terminals on the relay.
(you are following figure 2 in the relay instructions, but ignore the L and N markings on the relay load terminals as they aren’t relevant in this use case)
Then mount the relay in the existing location of your old switch, and use the relay’s existing button to manually run the fire place, or run a new set of wires from the push button terminals to your existing switch.
Thanks so much @Mike_Maxwell - I think I am almost there.
So the L/N are the constant power - thanks for verifying.
The unit ships with the relay load “jumpered” to the L - I am assuming based on what you said that I would need to remove that in Figure 2? (you can see the jumper in Figure 1).
I am not using the current switch so I am assuming that I would not use the “External Switch”.
Thanks so so so much to everyone that replied to this thread over the last year. All of that discussion (and learning) resulted in me spending 5 minutes of wiring to get this to work (it took longer to shut off the gas and the electricity. Really, thank you very much. I hope to pay it forward.
