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Does anyone here have much experience or know-how with installing smart thermostats? Specifically the Ecobee 3 Lite.

I installed 2x of these in my condo a few years ago. It was built in the late 2000s, so an easy installation with all the right wires, etc. No issues. Works great.

Now I'm trying to install 3x of these in an older house (late 1960s):
* Boiler and radiator heat only (no AC)
* 3 zones
* 3 wire setup (R, W, Y)
* No C-wire, and not easy to run new wires

I've been through Youtube videos, chat boards, and even spent 2 hours talking to Ecobee on the phone today. I basically learned that I need a C-wire (already knew this), but I had expected that the third wire (Y) could be reconfigured to serve as the C-wire.

Because it's a 3-zone valve setup for the boiler, it's a huge jumble of spliced wires on top of the boiler. Maybe 15 years old, but still, a jumble. The people at Ecobee told me it can't be done. The people who installed the boiler said that's nonsense, it can totally be done, just needs to have the C-wire. But they couldn't run a C-wire for me.

Anyway, is this something that anyone here knows much about? Or has gone through themselves? I'm trying to avoid paying $$$ to have someone come out and install it, because except for the power wire, it's a very simple task to install it, that I can certainly do myself. That said, if a power wire is going to be necessary, yes, someone else can do that part for me.

I’m seldom helpful but always curious...

What’s wrong with the dumb thermostat??

It's located in a hallway, and away from the heat source. So the heat runs and runs until it gets to temp at the one sensor, in the hallway. The smart thermostat has multiple sensors, so you can have it read the temp in the room(s) that you actually occupy.

So instead of having a hot as hell room that's 80 degrees and a hallway where it's 66 degrees... It will run until it's 70 degrees (or whatever) in the room where I am. And who cares about the hallway temp.

Also, it's programmable.

What model zone valves?

I'm missing the power wire. The old one was just a Mercury bulb, so no electric power required.

You can run a Nest with no C wire, it will draw power from the system when it runs, and operate via battery when it doesnt run. Sort of works, but has drawbacks, too.

Looking like I should just pay the $ and get I done correctly. I'm already spending a **** ton of money to renovate the house, so why not one more thing!

Truly, thanks to all for the replies!

bort wrote:The people at Ecobee told me it can't be done.

If that's all they said, I'd press them for some explanation why. There might be something to it, and then you'd have gone to a lot of trouble more or less for nothing.

Donn wrote:

bort wrote:The people at Ecobee told me it can't be done.

If that's all they said, I'd press them for some explanation why. There might be something to it, and then you'd have gone to a lot of trouble more or less for nothing.

I now think they were just referring to a wiring change to swap out a G wire for a C wire. Basically all the spliced connections make things complicated starting from the boiler.

I called an HVAC company, they said it just needs a C wire, which is annoying because a lot of electricians don't understand the low voltage stuff (their words, not mine). In terms of zone valves, they said it makes no difference. A thermostat simply is a switch that works according to some rule to turn on of off. The heater doesn't care if that's a mercury-filled tube, or a fancy electronic thing. As long as it's saying on/off, that will toggle things on and off

Ok, got this resolved today! All 3 were successfully installed.

I ended up finding an electrician who has a background in HVAC work. Solution was basically to splice the Y wire to the power, and didn't need to run any new wires in the house (which is what I thought was possible all along). The problem was that the wires that needed to get spliced were all kind of a nest/jumble, so it was really confusing for me. The electrician also had to install some kind of new relay switches at the furnace, but that all kind of went over my head of what they did and why they did it. I just know that there are little red lights that turn on when that zone is activated. I like lights.

Whatever it cost to have this work done, it was totally worth it -- there was no way I was doing this one myself! I like doing things myself, but sometimes... yeah, just worth it to not have to deal with figuring it out.

Warm and toasty, now!