Brother: as I write this it is after 2:00 in the morning in upstate NY, on the coldest night of my four years here, currently 14 below zero. Tending to my mother's house while she's out of town, and long story short, her thermostat was dead and no technicians are available, only now I got it back, because of the information you shared here. THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🙏
Thanks for sharing, I'm glad you were able to get the heat turned back on. I always love hearing these kind of stories as it's part of the reason I started the channel and it feels good to be able to help someone solve their problem. I was probably deep asleep when this happened, and it's awesome that a video on the internet I posted years ago can help someone fix something while I'm asleep. Also HVAC systems always seem to have issues at the least convenient times, it's always in the middle of the night, the coldest/hottest day of the year, on a weekend or a holiday. I can't explain the it but nothing ever breaks down on a Monday morning when people are available and stores are open to get a part. I wish you the best and thanks for sharing.
I followed your instructions and sure enough the drain line was gunked up. I cleaned out and it started dripping, the unit kicked on while I was cleaning it out. Went to thermostat and everything was back to normal. Thank you probably saved me a $500 service call by a local hvac company
You detail and explanation is second to none. You don't assume everyone knows this stuff and your time spent explaining made the entire difference for someone like myself to have confidence and even learn a few things in the process.
Works absolutely perfectly. As someone else said, be aware that when you go to test the system, it may show an Rh no power system fault. Moving the thermostat will not trigger either heat or AC. This happened to me after I flipped the breaker back on to test it out. It was a kill switch on the access panel on the unit. Go back to the air handler and place the door back on, and it will clear that error and fire right up. This was a very very helpful video, especially heading into a NY winter.
-19° outside this morning when I woke up and had a low battery issue with my nest. With the help of this video I had my system up and running in 4 minutes. Thank you so much!!
If you a Teo switch hallway staircase,etc, you have a common. My house was built in 43, I bought it rehabbed / not remodeled in 86 and even I have a common. So more often than not, most NOT ALL, but most(I am a remodeler these days) have one
Man. This is brilliant! Thank you. Single-digit temps in Chicago this week and my Nest thermostat started doing this delay thing yesterday. You've been a literal lifesaver. Appreciative of your great videos. Informative, clear and concise.
Nice video, you are correct, most newer AHUs turn the fan on when there is a call for heat or AC. Problem is, your Blue wire was not connected to the Y terminal on the AHU in the video, thus on a call for AC, the fan will not come on. Very important to not just wire nut the condenser wires, but to wire it to the AHU. Also, it may be a good idea to put a jumper from Y to G to make sure the fan comes on since the thermostat no longer would control the fan and running the AC with out a fan can do a lot of damage to the compressor. Hope you did not damage that unit and figured out your error before you did any damage.
Dude. Whoever you are. Thank you. I wish you could do all “how to” videos everywhere. Your instructions were incredibly informative without being too wordy and your information was so clear that I feel completely comfortable doing this myself. Thank you, sir.
I just wanted to send you a big thank you. A friend's Nest started to have power issues. I remember from installing it last year that her old thermostat didn't have a C wire. I guess it finally caught up with the Nest. I didn't repurpose the fan control, but I used an unused wire (black) from the bundle to create a C wire for her. Just as easy. I would at least mention that as an option because it's basically the same amount of work.
We had the Nest thermostat for two years before we started having low battery issues. It was frustrating to wake up during the winter to a cold house because the nest did not have enough battery. Ugh! We watched this video and hubby actually ended up finding a C wire that was just not hooked up to anything. It was tucked into the wire wrap upstairs and wrapped around another wire at the furnace. No need to take the g wire. Thank you for the help!
Seriously want to thank you as well...Spent close to 2 days on the phone with Nest and they sent me a new backplate but came to the conclusion that i needed a C-wire. This tutorial would've saved me a ton of time.....Thanks again for pulling this together.
I almost NEVER leave comments but I wanted to thank you for helping me out. This worked amazingly well and I’ve had my nest thermostat sitting around the house for almost 2 years with no use ever since I ran into my e103 issue. Thanks again!
Dude, this is the second nest video, of yours I've viewed this weekend (recently purchased 3 nest thermostats). You're obviously an instructor. You've helped me immensely. I'm not an electrician and contemplated hiring a nest pro. You've saved me $$$ and educated me at the same time. Thank you!
Thanks a lot of the great explanation. I don’t have an A/C unit, only hear. Using your information, I moved the Y1 wire to C on both sides and now my nest is charging AND I can use my fan! Awesome, informative tutorial. Thank you :)
That's great to hear! I truly appreciate the Super Thanks as it helps me to keep putting out helpful content! Your support to get to me to 100K subscribers won't be forgotten! Thanks Again!
Great video...just paid my HVAC guy who knew this hack. I wonder why Nest support doesn't offer this solution. I only spent 1 hour 45 minutes on the phone with them...disappointed in their support after the sale.
Man, I just wanna say thank you so Much! Been having this issue for 2 days and today’s was 30 degrees out with wind and the house was freezing, I saw about 15 videos and no one fixed me issue except you!!!! Thank you for not making me freeze!
Dude....THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I got it to work. Damn Nest could have put a little MORE emphasis on you NEEDING low voltage power to the thermostat. So I was worried that I'd lose my HVAC blower (not fan) to circulate the coolant through the house but as I found one white wire in the "common control panel" already connected, I simply added this fan wire (green) to that instead along with that white along side it and it worked! Thank you for giving us this hack. I'll remember what I'll need when I bring this Nest to my new construction house I'm working on customizing.
I have an 8 month old at home. The Nest stops working (only fan is blowing but no cool air) during 12 pm to 8 pm every day when the temp is around 82 outside. I google the problem and found this fix. It works like a charm. You saved my life!
Wow..first time I’ve seen a real solution to my C wire problem. I replaced a system with R and RC wires and tried hooking up the RC as the common(C) wire but the AC comes on but immediately turns off. I disconnected the C terminal(old RC) and it now works but I still don’t have a C connection. That’s where your solution solves everything. Great idea!!! I will use the Fan G wire for the C, Common!!
I already had a common wire there so for anyone that already has a common wire, my fix was re-stripping the Power(R) and Common(C) wires on both ends (Nest end and the furnace end). My furnace was super simple and had everything labeled. After turning on the furnace breaker, everything kicked in and my app showed Nest was connected.
After a failed Nest attempt at our last house with an older heating oil boiler, our house now has a natural gas furnace. Had the lower power issue as there were only three wires going to a dumb digital controller. Well, they had two wires not being used, so instead of stealing the green for a common, I just used one of the others. It’s a new furnace, so it had an open common terminal. So far so good!
This worked for me, sort of. It did solve my low battery problem for the nest thermostat. However, in doing so it also removes your ability to run just the fan by itself (no cooling or heat). For most households this is not a problem, unfortunately it is in my case. I've just purchased the Nest Power Connector to see if that will resolve the issue while maintaining the fan functionality. If it doesn't, I've also read good things about the Fast-Stat Common Maker.
I just want to say thank you to you. Your calm, well-explained video gave me enough confidence to open up the furnace, hook up the (previously unused) C wire, and hook it up to the Nest thermostat. I was about a half hour away from giving up on the Nest, and buying another thermostat. Now I have to figure out the humidifier, but that is for another day. Thank you!
I think this fixed my AC intermittently deactivating when thermostat still was calling for cooling. I ran AC for an hour now with no short cycling. Thank you @OneHourSmartHome
Just wanted to say THANK YOU for this video! I didn't even think to check the wires at the furnace, only the Red and White were hooked to my old one (we only have heat no AC) and of course when I went down there only the red and white were hooked up to the control board. All the wires were right there so green to C on both ends and the thing works! One thing to note, I didn't realize that some furnaces won't run if it detects the panel is off, so I was getting no power to the thermostat and couldn't figure out why - I hadn't replaced the panel on the furnace in case I needed to go check the wiring again.
Wow, thank you for this video! I was going nuts with my Nest thermostat. I couldn’t get the A/C to work. Out off all the Videos I have watched your was the first to explain what the c connection is for and thanks to your expectations my A/C now works! This has saved me what would have been $$$ on hiring an A/C tech.
Thank you! Great video! I installed an Aprilaire 700M humidifier two years ago. Recently I started to get Nest low power. I did charge the battery, but the issue was not resolved. I decided to replace the senoid valve, but it did not resolve the issue either. I was thinking about installing a new wire from Nest to the furnace, but I was not happy with that idea. This hack has resolved the problem at least for now. I hope I don't experience low power again. I don't care about losing the fan only control. I don't use it.
Thank you very much for your video, I fixed my heating problem at 2am, We are at 6° degrees very cold, again thank you very much for sharing your videos
I did this wire switch on my HVAC system, but then my outside AC unit would run without my furnace fan starting. I searched all the comments here, and plenty of others had the same issue, but nobody had a clear answer on how to fix it. I put a jumper wire from Y to G on the furnace circuit board so when the thermostat sends the signal to the AC system to start via the Y wire, it also sends a signal to the G wire which starts the blower fan in your furnace. This works perfectly on my system. Hope this helps anyone else with the same issue.
Thank you! You really helped a lot and kept us from a another cold night. I did something a little different. I have a heat only system so I took the Y (AC) wire that wasn’t being used and used that for my common wire instead of sacrificing me fan G wire. Thank you for the guidance I went from a 3.3v to a 3.7v and my Lin went from a 3mA to a 200mA.
Man….. Thank you! My NEST thermostat had been driving me crazy for a year losing power. Very well explained I truly appreciate it. I had no issues it all following your guidance.
Thanks Man ! I’m very Grateful for this hack on resolving my Nest thermostat low battery and no wifi issues. Sorry I’m a late comer to your channel but glad I stop to Check it out. I done had my nest thermostat may be 6 years. Having it that long the internal battery will not keep or hold a decent charge anymore. I’m really not a DIY when it come downs to electrical repairs in the house. But I followed your step by step instructions and everything turned out alright. So thanks once again and for saving me $ 250. To have a 5 piece HAVC wiring install in a 1 story house.
Thanks for watching and I appreciate the comment. I'm glad you were able to save money and that's part of the reason I made this channel. It's no fun shelling out cash just to get the stuff you already have to work correctly!
I am so much thankful to you for the video...I was 5 minutes away deciding to return the Nest thermostat. Finally, shifting G to C worked really well...Very detailed, logical and nicely explained video...Kudos to you for this video...
I was about to throw in the towel until I saw this video. I did not want to run a new wire w/ a common to my HVAC unit as it's over the river and through the woods. I'm definitely going to give this a shot and I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have seen a bunch of these videos and have installed a couple of NESTS now and this one is by far the most informative. Thanks a ton.
Wow... I think this fixed my problem... I'll see how it works over the next day but if it's truly the needed fix I'll buy you more than one cup of coffee!
Thanks for this video. Woke up this AM to find my Nest disconnected from WiFi because it lost the power source. Turned out it was using the AC to draw power. We replaced our AC unit this summer and the new one has a low pressure switch that shuts off the AC unit entirely when the weather is very cold. It was -10 overnight so it triggered this shutoff. I was going to have the HVAC folks come out tomorrow to figure out how to fix this, and I would periodically charge the Nest to keep it running until then. This video did the trick so I cancelled the service and probably saved a couple hundred dollars (or more). I’m going to buy the “add-a-wire” kit so I can still use the fan independently if we want. Thanks for the great instructions!
I agree with others here: very well presented. I’ve sought answers from builders, HVAC guys, electricians and no one has explained the way of Nest and wiring as well as you ... Not even sure if this will solve my problem, but I learned something. ... Moving into a newly-built home nearly two years ago, for some reason, Nest thermostats would not work in the home (and homes in the neighborhood) - Carrier equipment and either standard thermostats or smart thermostats from Aprilaire. I reviewed home wiring, Nest wiring, called Nest tech support, reviewed schematics and product documentation, and everything was in place and ready to go - but it never, ever worked. No one could find an answer. Many of us just gave up and never installed Nests. This makes me want to try again.
Using the "Nest Thermostat Common Wire Transformer" worked out great! My boiler has only two low voltage (5VA) wires for the thermostat. When I plugged in the two wires to the Nest wiring block heat was called all the time until I unplugged one of the two wires (Rh / W1). I thought I had a defective Nest wiring block. However, I gave the common wire a try and now it's working perfectly. My favorite feature of the Nest is that it knows I have a boiler/radiator setup and has learned if it turns the boiler off a degree or two before reaching temp that the house will still warm up to temp. This is awesome because we no longer have the temp overshooting by 5 degrees. Leaving us feeling like the house is at a consistent temp.
Thank you! Mine worked fine for over a year before all of a sudden having issues. Apparently even though they say the C wire is not required, everything I've read said that was the problem and it's pretty common. This fixed my issue perfectly. It's a temporary fix as obviously without the fan wire, you can't run the fan on it's own which I do periodically, but this fixed my issue and got my AC running again on a 90 degree day and only took me 5 minutes after hours of google and frustration. Thanks!!
Have you found any solutions to this? I sacrificed my G fan wire for my AC as well to power the Nest(since its winter now, no AC). So i just have the common wire and no G. Come summer time, i will have to swap them again in the Nest. Will i also have to change the wiring back to the way it was in the AC unit?
@@palmerprod you can buy a Google Nest Power Connector C wire adapter that essentially splices C from the furnace board into the power line to send slightly more power. It can be tricky to install the adapter, for those who don’t have a C terminal located on the furnace board.
I did this setup. I maybe upgrading the wire to 5/6 conductor as I do use the Fan (G) I have 2 wood stoves and just having the fan on helps to move that air throughout the house. Thanks for the video.
Thanks so much. Best simple explanation I have seen of what the various connections on nest are for and great hack for low power problem, which I have been plagued with! Best advice ever!
Thank you so much! I live in an apartment and was freaking out that I purchased something I couldn't use. This hack worked! Couldn't be happier. Thank you again!!
dude, such a simple fix, you saved me from running a new wire etc. It was one of those "Duh" moments when I realized what your hack was, mad at myself for not thinking of it in the first place. Thx!
Sorry to hear your dealing with wildfires. What part of the country do you live in? This video: ua-cam.com/video/gahPxCcPDto/v-deo.html shows you how to add a common wire while maintaining fan control. If you choose the method shown in the other video it will require a common wire adapter: amzn.to/3tMVWVT
In adding my humidifier to the nest3, I used my extra power wire that was being used for my old humidistat! Because Rc is already providing power, I could use the humidistat power as my common wire. Thank you!
Did this wire trick with my new wifi thermostat. Worked perfect. Got the green wire marked "c" for any future thermostat changes. Never once used the fan anyway, so this saves alot of time from running a new wire.
Thank you so much for taking the time to produce this informative, easy to understand tutorial. It's -4 in Detroit today and I woke up to the N262 error message. I replaced the batteries last week and knew they were not the problem. It's odd that my Nest is several years old and I never had this issue before. It makes me wonder a GOOGLE software update was the root causing a demand for the Nest Power Connector device. Either way your easy hack fixed the issue and I never used the blower only feature anyway. Thanks again!
Unless there's some kind of feedback from the condenser unit to the furnance where it knows when the compressor is running in order to turn on the fan, I don't think that would work. I don't see any wire connected to Y in the furnace, just straight to the condenser I'm guessing. Or the furnace can get determine if the fan is needed based on the discharge from the evaporator coil with some sensor. Eithe way I don't this will work with all kind of furnaces. If you connect the Y wire to the equipment, maybe then but to be sure 100% you will have to put a jumper between G and Y, that way you asure the unit will run the fan
Awesome thank you! My thermostat internal battery is no longer holding a charge which kept failing to connect to wifi and sometimes wouldn't follow the set schedule. I did have a spare wire on my multiconductor cable between the thermostat and furnace and was able to wire up the C. No more issues!
C - WIRE is simply ground / earth wire.. It doesn't really have to be connected to the controler in your ac / or furnace but ANY electrically grounded object such connector (ground screw) in an electric switch, the surface of the electrical box (has to be grounded by per the code) or directly to electrical ground /earth wire. And yes, NEST will love that new ground connection as it allowes that the battery to be charged full-speed whenever it needs to be, regardles of the ac or furnace being on or off.
Just here to echo all the praise. Recently moved into our new house with the nest and almost ran it over with my car. Finally our ac is running more than 1 minute. Thank you!!
Thanks for the Nest 3rd Gen common wire fix. Ended up seeing the green wire from furnace joined to a green wire from the humidifier by wire nut. Took nut off, installed twisted pair to common wire port on the board and BINGPOT!! 😃
Best video to troubleshoot. I have a modern heating system that wouldn’t turn on after installing the nest. After seeing how simple it was to connect the common wire I went ahead and cut power and reseated the rest of the cables. After a quick reboot everything worked.
thank you. helpwd me solve. the dude that installed the furnance decided to cut the common wire because it was jnstaalled along a battery powered old thermastat.
I woke up to two surprises, the first being -5 degrees here in Denver, and the second was a non-functioning Nest thermostat. Not a good start. However, your troubleshooting steps and detailed explanations had my home toasty warm by mid-morning. Thanks One Hour Smart Home. !!! Can I buy you a coffee?
My nest quit working after years of use. I have one of the first gen units. It complained about no power on rh. I had a spare blue wire in my bundle and wired that to C at the nest and control board. AC is working now but it now complains about no power on stage 2. I'm just glad to have the AC back.
I moved into a house with a Nest 3rd gen, and it won't detect any WiFi networks and the battery constantly runs out. There is no C wire on the nest. I'm hoping that following this guide will solve all my problems, I'll do it tomorrow.
Wow...this solved my problem, I was 10 minutes away from getting rid of Nest Thermostat. My old thermostat worked without blue wire/Common, but Nest didn't. Very strange why Nests didn't call this out.
I ran a separate 24 volt transformer I have a boiler baseboard heat (two years old) no blue common wire or at least I could not find a terminal block that a screw for common wire. I have 4 nest thermostats one for A/C. All batteries are now at 3.9 volts constant. It’s a pain to run a second set of wires to each thermostat but it’s fixed!
You are a life saver. Thank you for the video. My furnace has a B/C with two white wires attached to that terminal. Can I still plug in my G wire in this terminal?
Thank you very much for a quick and clear overview of the wires, purpose and how to add the common C. Luckily I had the fifth wire tied with the stem so that I did not have to move the G to C, nor run any additional wire. You saved me money and from a biting cold night. Happy holidays!
I've been constantly removing my unit and charging the battery through usb. I think i did it so much that the battery went bad. Today I switched the wires like you said and everything seems to be fine. I'm still planning on replacing the interior battery. I suspect it's needed if there's a power outrage.
Hi, your explanation is very good and easy to follow. I just have a question about the wiring at the control board before you switch the green wire. Why the yellow wire goes to the C terminal instead of to the Y terminal? Thank you.
Can u move the the g wire to C terminal and then jump it back to G to keep it working normally? Reason I ask this is I don’t have a common wire to charge thermostat so I plan on using G wire , if as u say the fan will still work without G wire connected.
Thank you so much I got a Sensii wifi thermostat and I didn’t have a c wire and the battery kept dying every 2 weeks and I couldn’t access the wifi because after 2 hours it would cut off so I just did this hack and it took me less then 20 mins if that. Thank you very much for the precise instructions I hope it works.
I installed my nest thermostat last year according to their wiring diagram,...worked great getting heat from my gas furnace very similar to the one in this video,...when the first hot day in the summer rolled around the nest thermostat wouldn't fire up my central ac. So I disconnected nest thermostat and reconnected my old thermostat and my ac worked fine . Would you say that it was from a lack of power to the thermostat that caused the ac not to kick on ,and this video should solve the problem,...or is it an entire different issue ?
I had exact same issue. Normalized wiring (put green wire back from C to G) and ac worked fine. It seems this video only works to get your heat be on, not for AC. looks like I will have to run separate wire for C
Hold on there....your NEST display is showing "In 35 minutes" at the end of your video after you moved a few wires around. I don't have a C wire and my Nest worked fine for the past 4 years. Now I get the "In 15 minutes" notice and my heater no longer turns on. I thought if I did this fix it might change things but I see you get the same message I get with the only difference is you switched a few wires and I have yet to do so. I am pausing on my fix in hopes I hear your thoughts on this matter. I thank you in advance especially how you explained how to do the fix as if you were trying to explain it to a golden retriever.
Showing the message is not the problem here. It's just Nest's estimate of how long it would take to reach the temperature. If your Nest is not turning on the heat, that could be due to the voltage of your battery. By connecting it to a C wire, you take this out of the equation, your Nest will have the right voltage and should work properly. At that point it might show "In whatever minutes", but that's not an indication of an issue.
Brother: as I write this it is after 2:00 in the morning in upstate NY, on the coldest night of my four years here, currently 14 below zero. Tending to my mother's house while she's out of town, and long story short, her thermostat was dead and no technicians are available, only now I got it back, because of the information you shared here. THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🙏
Thanks for sharing, I'm glad you were able to get the heat turned back on. I always love hearing these kind of stories as it's part of the reason I started the channel and it feels good to be able to help someone solve their problem.
I was probably deep asleep when this happened, and it's awesome that a video on the internet I posted years ago can help someone fix something while I'm asleep.
Also HVAC systems always seem to have issues at the least convenient times, it's always in the middle of the night, the coldest/hottest day of the year, on a weekend or a holiday. I can't explain the it but nothing ever breaks down on a Monday morning when people are available and stores are open to get a part.
I wish you the best and thanks for sharing.
I followed your instructions and sure enough the drain line was gunked up. I cleaned out and it started dripping, the unit kicked on while I was cleaning it out. Went to thermostat and everything was back to normal. Thank you probably saved me a $500 service call by a local hvac company
You detail and explanation is second to none. You don't assume everyone knows this stuff and your time spent explaining made the entire difference for someone like myself to have confidence and even learn a few things in the process.
Works absolutely perfectly. As someone else said, be aware that when you go to test the system, it may show an Rh no power system fault. Moving the thermostat will not trigger either heat or AC. This happened to me after I flipped the breaker back on to test it out. It was a kill switch on the access panel on the unit. Go back to the air handler and place the door back on, and it will clear that error and fire right up. This was a very very helpful video, especially heading into a NY winter.
-19° outside this morning when I woke up and had a low battery issue with my nest. With the help of this video I had my system up and running in 4 minutes. Thank you so much!!
THANK YOU!!! All of a sudden my Nest stopped charging. Changing the G to C solved the problem. Much easier than running additional wires.
You still good or any problems happen?
Is called “Common wire” and is so common that nobody has it
If you a Teo switch hallway staircase,etc, you have a common. My house was built in 43, I bought it rehabbed / not remodeled in 86 and even I have a common. So more often than not, most NOT ALL, but most(I am a remodeler these days) have one
Fantastic comment. And I agree, seems like plenty of ppl don’t have one.
Yes....
It's also bonkers that Blue wire is "commonly" the color of the "Y" wire !
WTAF????
How did that get normalized?!?
BEST COMMENT EVER!!
@@Petroglyph1?? Y is yellow. Common is usually blue
QUESTION: Could you just split the green wire at the Nest to both G and C … Can it support powering both Fan Control & powering the Nest ?
Man. This is brilliant! Thank you. Single-digit temps in Chicago this week and my Nest thermostat started doing this delay thing yesterday. You've been a literal lifesaver. Appreciative of your great videos. Informative, clear and concise.
Crazy thing is I’m in Wisconsin and having the same issue in my apartment! I wasn’t gonna wait for the maintence man to show up. Way to damn cold
Why cant we just jump power from R To C with small wire? using double wire
Nice video, you are correct, most newer AHUs turn the fan on when there is a call for heat or AC. Problem is, your Blue wire was not connected to the Y terminal on the AHU in the video, thus on a call for AC, the fan will not come on. Very important to not just wire nut the condenser wires, but to wire it to the AHU. Also, it may be a good idea to put a jumper from Y to G to make sure the fan comes on since the thermostat no longer would control the fan and running the AC with out a fan can do a lot of damage to the compressor. Hope you did not damage that unit and figured out your error before you did any damage.
I wonder if this is my problem. I moved the G to C like in the video and just realized that now my AC runs, but the furnace fan doesn't.
Dude. Whoever you are. Thank you. I wish you could do all “how to” videos everywhere. Your instructions were incredibly informative without being too wordy and your information was so clear that I feel completely comfortable doing this myself. Thank you, sir.
Thanks! I appreciate the comment and the support!
@@OneHourSmartHome what if u dnt have a G-wire? i live in a apartment. and dont have access to my hvac system
Looks like this worked for me. Thank you! Took my about 30 minutes start to finish; and I'm minimally handy.
I just wanted to send you a big thank you. A friend's Nest started to have power issues. I remember from installing it last year that her old thermostat didn't have a C wire. I guess it finally caught up with the Nest. I didn't repurpose the fan control, but I used an unused wire (black) from the bundle to create a C wire for her. Just as easy. I would at least mention that as an option because it's basically the same amount of work.
We had the Nest thermostat for two years before we started having low battery issues. It was frustrating to wake up during the winter to a cold house because the nest did not have enough battery. Ugh! We watched this video and hubby actually ended up finding a C wire that was just not hooked up to anything. It was tucked into the wire wrap upstairs and wrapped around another wire at the furnace. No need to take the g wire. Thank you for the help!
Thanks for sharing!
Seriously want to thank you as well...Spent close to 2 days on the phone with Nest and they sent me a new backplate but came to the conclusion that i needed a C-wire. This tutorial would've saved me a ton of time.....Thanks again for pulling this together.
Glad we could help!
I almost NEVER leave comments but I wanted to thank you for helping me out. This worked amazingly well and I’ve had my nest thermostat sitting around the house for almost 2 years with no use ever since I ran into my e103 issue. Thanks again!
Glad to help and thanks for the comment! It's always great to hear from people this helped!
Dude, this is the second nest video, of yours I've viewed this weekend (recently purchased 3 nest thermostats). You're obviously an instructor. You've helped me immensely. I'm not an electrician and contemplated hiring a nest pro. You've saved me $$$ and educated me at the same time. Thank you!
Thanks a lot of the great explanation. I don’t have an A/C unit, only hear. Using your information, I moved the Y1 wire to C on both sides and now my nest is charging AND I can use my fan!
Awesome, informative tutorial. Thank you :)
That's great to hear! I truly appreciate the Super Thanks as it helps me to keep putting out helpful content! Your support to get to me to 100K subscribers won't be forgotten! Thanks Again!
Great video...just paid my HVAC guy who knew this hack. I wonder why Nest support doesn't offer this solution. I only spent 1 hour 45 minutes on the phone with them...disappointed in their support after the sale.
Man, I just wanna say thank you so Much! Been having this issue for 2 days and today’s was 30 degrees out with wind and the house was freezing, I saw about 15 videos and no one fixed me issue except you!!!! Thank you for not making me freeze!
Dude....THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I got it to work. Damn Nest could have put a little MORE emphasis on you NEEDING low voltage power to the thermostat.
So I was worried that I'd lose my HVAC blower (not fan) to circulate the coolant through the house but as I found one white wire in the "common control panel" already connected, I simply added this fan wire (green) to that instead along with that white along side it and it worked! Thank you for giving us this hack. I'll remember what I'll need when I bring this Nest to my new construction house I'm working on customizing.
I have an 8 month old at home. The Nest stops working (only fan is blowing but no cool air) during 12 pm to 8 pm every day when the temp is around 82 outside. I google the problem and found this fix. It works like a charm. You saved my life!
Wow..first time I’ve seen a real solution to my C wire problem. I replaced a system with R and RC wires and tried hooking up the RC as the common(C) wire but the AC comes on but immediately turns off. I disconnected the C terminal(old RC) and it now works but I still don’t have a C connection. That’s where your solution solves everything. Great idea!!! I will use the Fan G wire for the C, Common!!
I already had a common wire there so for anyone that already has a common wire, my fix was re-stripping the Power(R) and Common(C) wires on both ends (Nest end and the furnace end). My furnace was super simple and had everything labeled. After turning on the furnace breaker, everything kicked in and my app showed Nest was connected.
After a failed Nest attempt at our last house with an older heating oil boiler, our house now has a natural gas furnace. Had the lower power issue as there were only three wires going to a dumb digital controller. Well, they had two wires not being used, so instead of stealing the green for a common, I just used one of the others. It’s a new furnace, so it had an open common terminal. So far so good!
Thanks for all the background info and explanations of how the HVAC wiring works!!! Great teacher 🙂
Worked perfectly for me. Swapped G into C on the wiring and the furnace and boom, I have working air conditioning. Thanks man.
Glad to hear it helped!
What is your nest show error code ? Are you swapped the G into C in the nest or furnace thank you
Finally a detailed video with THOROUGH explanation that addresses common questions during this process. Kudos and WELL DONE! Much appreciated!
This worked for me, sort of. It did solve my low battery problem for the nest thermostat. However, in doing so it also removes your ability to run just the fan by itself (no cooling or heat). For most households this is not a problem, unfortunately it is in my case. I've just purchased the Nest Power Connector to see if that will resolve the issue while maintaining the fan functionality. If it doesn't, I've also read good things about the Fast-Stat Common Maker.
I just want to say thank you to you. Your calm, well-explained video gave me enough confidence to open up the furnace, hook up the (previously unused) C wire, and hook it up to the Nest thermostat. I was about a half hour away from giving up on the Nest, and buying another thermostat. Now I have to figure out the humidifier, but that is for another day. Thank you!
Eric, thanks for the comment. This video we did shows you how to hook up a humidifier: ua-cam.com/video/GfxjoSIScwk/v-deo.html
I think this fixed my AC intermittently deactivating when thermostat still was calling for cooling. I ran AC for an hour now with no short cycling. Thank you @OneHourSmartHome
Great to hear glad to help!
Just wanted to say THANK YOU for this video! I didn't even think to check the wires at the furnace, only the Red and White were hooked to my old one (we only have heat no AC) and of course when I went down there only the red and white were hooked up to the control board. All the wires were right there so green to C on both ends and the thing works!
One thing to note, I didn't realize that some furnaces won't run if it detects the panel is off, so I was getting no power to the thermostat and couldn't figure out why - I hadn't replaced the panel on the furnace in case I needed to go check the wiring again.
Wow, thank you for this video! I was going nuts with my Nest thermostat. I couldn’t get the A/C to work. Out off all the Videos I have watched your was the first to explain what the c connection is for and thanks to your expectations my A/C now works! This has saved me what would have been $$$ on hiring an A/C tech.
Great to hear! Thanks for watching and subscribing.
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Thank you! Great video! I installed an Aprilaire 700M humidifier two years ago. Recently I started to get Nest low power. I did charge the battery, but the issue was not resolved. I decided to replace the senoid valve, but it did not resolve the issue either. I was thinking about installing a new wire from Nest to the furnace, but I was not happy with that idea. This hack has resolved the problem at least for now. I hope I don't experience low power again. I don't care about losing the fan only control. I don't use it.
Thank you very much for your video, I fixed my heating problem at 2am,
We are at 6° degrees very cold, again thank you very much for sharing your videos
I did this wire switch on my HVAC system, but then my outside AC unit would run without my furnace fan starting. I searched all the comments here, and plenty of others had the same issue, but nobody had a clear answer on how to fix it. I put a jumper wire from Y to G on the furnace circuit board so when the thermostat sends the signal to the AC system to start via the Y wire, it also sends a signal to the G wire which starts the blower fan in your furnace. This works perfectly on my system. Hope this helps anyone else with the same issue.
Thank you! You really helped a lot and kept us from a another cold night. I did something a little different. I have a heat only system so I took the Y (AC) wire that wasn’t being used and used that for my common wire instead of sacrificing me fan G wire. Thank you for the guidance I went from a 3.3v to a 3.7v and my Lin went from a 3mA to a 200mA.
Man….. Thank you! My NEST thermostat had been driving me crazy for a year losing power. Very well explained I truly appreciate it. I had no issues it all following your guidance.
Thanks Man ! I’m very Grateful for this hack on resolving my Nest thermostat low battery and no wifi issues. Sorry I’m a late comer to your channel but glad I stop to Check it out. I done had my nest thermostat may be 6 years. Having it that long the internal battery will not keep or hold a decent charge anymore. I’m really not a DIY when it come downs to electrical repairs in the house. But I followed your step by step instructions and everything turned out alright. So thanks once again and for saving me $ 250. To have a 5 piece HAVC wiring install in a 1 story house.
Thanks for watching and I appreciate the comment. I'm glad you were able to save money and that's part of the reason I made this channel. It's no fun shelling out cash just to get the stuff you already have to work correctly!
I am so much thankful to you for the video...I was 5 minutes away deciding to return the Nest thermostat. Finally, shifting G to C worked really well...Very detailed, logical and nicely explained video...Kudos to you for this video...
I was about to throw in the towel until I saw this video. I did not want to run a new wire w/ a common to my HVAC unit as it's over the river and through the woods. I'm definitely going to give this a shot and I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have seen a bunch of these videos and have installed a couple of NESTS now and this one is by far the most informative. Thanks a ton.
Thank you for the comment and glad to help!
Wow... I think this fixed my problem... I'll see how it works over the next day but if it's truly the needed fix I'll buy you more than one cup of coffee!
Thanks for this video. Woke up this AM to find my Nest disconnected from WiFi because it lost the power source. Turned out it was using the AC to draw power. We replaced our AC unit this summer and the new one has a low pressure switch that shuts off the AC unit entirely when the weather is very cold. It was -10 overnight so it triggered this shutoff. I was going to have the HVAC folks come out tomorrow to figure out how to fix this, and I would periodically charge the Nest to keep it running until then. This video did the trick so I cancelled the service and probably saved a couple hundred dollars (or more). I’m going to buy the “add-a-wire” kit so I can still use the fan independently if we want. Thanks for the great instructions!
Tried this and our ac outside turned on but not the fan. System is from ‘94. I’m guessing it’s not modern enough for this solution, correct?
I agree with others here: very well presented. I’ve sought answers from builders, HVAC guys, electricians and no one has explained the way of Nest and wiring as well as you ... Not even sure if this will solve my problem, but I learned something. ... Moving into a newly-built home nearly two years ago, for some reason, Nest thermostats would not work in the home (and homes in the neighborhood) - Carrier equipment and either standard thermostats or smart thermostats from Aprilaire. I reviewed home wiring, Nest wiring, called Nest tech support, reviewed schematics and product documentation, and everything was in place and ready to go - but it never, ever worked. No one could find an answer. Many of us just gave up and never installed Nests. This makes me want to try again.
Using the "Nest Thermostat Common Wire Transformer" worked out great! My boiler has only two low voltage (5VA) wires for the thermostat. When I plugged in the two wires to the Nest wiring block heat was called all the time until I unplugged one of the two wires (Rh / W1). I thought I had a defective Nest wiring block. However, I gave the common wire a try and now it's working perfectly.
My favorite feature of the Nest is that it knows I have a boiler/radiator setup and has learned if it turns the boiler off a degree or two before reaching temp that the house will still warm up to temp. This is awesome because we no longer have the temp overshooting by 5 degrees. Leaving us feeling like the house is at a consistent temp.
Thank you! Mine worked fine for over a year before all of a sudden having issues. Apparently even though they say the C wire is not required, everything I've read said that was the problem and it's pretty common. This fixed my issue perfectly. It's a temporary fix as obviously without the fan wire, you can't run the fan on it's own which I do periodically, but this fixed my issue and got my AC running again on a 90 degree day and only took me 5 minutes after hours of google and frustration. Thanks!!
Have you found any solutions to this? I sacrificed my G fan wire for my AC as well to power the Nest(since its winter now, no AC). So i just have the common wire and no G. Come summer time, i will have to swap them again in the Nest. Will i also have to change the wiring back to the way it was in the AC unit?
@@palmerprod you can buy a Google Nest Power Connector C wire adapter that essentially splices C from the furnace board into the power line to send slightly more power. It can be tricky to install the adapter, for those who don’t have a C terminal located on the furnace board.
You are more than a technician, you're a professor. Love.
All technicians are professionals 😅 this comment is so dismissive of the knowledge and skill that goes into a trade
I did this setup. I maybe upgrading the wire to 5/6 conductor as I do use the Fan (G) I have 2 wood stoves and just having the fan on helps to move that air throughout the house.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks so much. Best simple explanation I have seen of what the various connections on nest are for and great hack for low power problem, which I have been plagued with! Best advice ever!
I used my Y1 wire since I don’t have A/C. Thanks a ton for the good descriptions
Truly appreciate you!! Your calm, patient, and intuitive explanation solved the problem like a charm .. 💯💯
Thanks for you comment and support!
Thank you so much! I live in an apartment and was freaking out that I purchased something I couldn't use. This hack worked! Couldn't be happier. Thank you again!!
dude, such a simple fix, you saved me from running a new wire etc. It was one of those "Duh" moments when I realized what your hack was, mad at myself for not thinking of it in the first place. Thx!
During all the wild fires I like to turn the fan on because it helps run the air through the filters. The fan setting is essential for me.
Sorry to hear your dealing with wildfires. What part of the country do you live in? This video: ua-cam.com/video/gahPxCcPDto/v-deo.html shows you how to add a common wire while maintaining fan control. If you choose the method shown in the other video it will require a common wire adapter: amzn.to/3tMVWVT
This is what I was looking for! I am confident I can do this myself because of your very detailed instructions. Thank You!!
In adding my humidifier to the nest3, I used my extra power wire that was being used for my old humidistat! Because Rc is already providing power, I could use the humidistat power as my common wire. Thank you!
Absolute genius!! Thank you! I had the same problem and it saved us in Canada with -28 Celsius weather!
Beauty, eh.
Many thanks for a great video. This fixed the issue I was having. Only curious why it started happening after being fine for nearly two years.
Did this wire trick with my new wifi thermostat. Worked perfect. Got the green wire marked "c" for any future thermostat changes. Never once used the fan anyway, so this saves alot of time from running a new wire.
Thanks for watching and the helpful comment!
Thank you so much for taking the time to produce this informative, easy to understand tutorial. It's -4 in Detroit today and I woke up to the N262 error message. I replaced the batteries last week and knew they were not the problem. It's odd that my Nest is several years old and I never had this issue before. It makes me wonder a GOOGLE software update was the root causing a demand for the Nest Power Connector device. Either way your easy hack fixed the issue and I never used the blower only feature anyway. Thanks again!
Unless there's some kind of feedback from the condenser unit to the furnance where it knows when the compressor is running in order to turn on the fan, I don't think that would work. I don't see any wire connected to Y in the furnace, just straight to the condenser I'm guessing. Or the furnace can get determine if the fan is needed based on the discharge from the evaporator coil with some sensor. Eithe way I don't this will work with all kind of furnaces. If you connect the Y wire to the equipment, maybe then but to be sure 100% you will have to put a jumper between G and Y, that way you asure the unit will run the fan
Can you jumper the G wire to the common to keep both?
Awesome, you helped me fix the heat on Christmas eve eve...I feel like a hero. Thank You!!
THANK YOU!!!!! My furnace was making banging noises. Very happy to have found this fix!!
Awesome thank you! My thermostat internal battery is no longer holding a charge which kept failing to connect to wifi and sometimes wouldn't follow the set schedule. I did have a spare wire on my multiconductor cable between the thermostat and furnace and was able to wire up the C. No more issues!
I tried so many other things, but this actually worked - I almost gave up hope on my nest. Thank you!
Glad to help.
Thank you! This hack means I have heat! Worked for Honeywell Smart thermostat.
Question?
Wouldn't I get same results if I put a jumper cable from G wire to C wire?
C - WIRE is simply ground / earth wire.. It doesn't really have to be connected to the controler in your ac / or furnace but ANY electrically grounded object such connector (ground screw) in an electric switch, the surface of the electrical box (has to be grounded by per the code) or directly to electrical ground /earth wire. And yes, NEST will love that new ground connection as it allowes that the battery to be charged full-speed whenever it needs to be, regardles of the ac or furnace being on or off.
Does that mean I could run a new wire to the ground in a normal electrical outlet?
Dude you're the best, it worked took 10 minutes because I had to find the tools, I'm so happy, thank you again, BTW you saved me a bunch of money also
Great to hear! Glad to help you save some money! Have a good weekend!
Just here to echo all the praise. Recently moved into our new house with the nest and almost ran it over with my car. Finally our ac is running more than 1 minute. Thank you!!
Thank you for this video. The nest charged up and is back to transmitting through the internet.
Thank you so much!!!! You saved me a lot of grief trying to add a common wire.
Thanks for the Nest 3rd Gen common wire fix. Ended up seeing the green wire from furnace joined to a green wire from the humidifier by wire nut. Took nut off, installed twisted pair to common wire port on the board and BINGPOT!! 😃
Best video to troubleshoot. I have a modern heating system that wouldn’t turn on after installing the nest. After seeing how simple it was to connect the common wire I went ahead and cut power and reseated the rest of the cables. After a quick reboot everything worked.
Saved me $25 and it works great. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this. Skipped calling a “Nest Pro” and benefited from your work. Thanks!
thank you. helpwd me solve. the dude that installed the furnance decided to cut the common wire because it was jnstaalled along a battery powered old thermastat.
I woke up to two surprises, the first being -5 degrees here in Denver, and the second was a non-functioning Nest thermostat. Not a good start. However, your troubleshooting steps and detailed explanations had my home toasty warm by mid-morning. Thanks One Hour Smart Home. !!! Can I buy you a coffee?
THANK YOU
Fixed my low power issues with my Nest with no common wire by doing this "hack"
This is amazing in every way. Thank you for providing these instructions! Worked like a charm!
Really a well done explanation and video! The option presented worked perfectly - and frankly, who ever turns on just the fan anyway! Thank you!!
My nest quit working after years of use. I have one of the first gen units. It complained about no power on rh. I had a spare blue wire in my bundle and wired that to C at the nest and control board. AC is working now but it now complains about no power on stage 2. I'm just glad to have the AC back.
I moved into a house with a Nest 3rd gen, and it won't detect any WiFi networks and the battery constantly runs out. There is no C wire on the nest. I'm hoping that following this guide will solve all my problems, I'll do it tomorrow.
Wow...this solved my problem, I was 10 minutes away from getting rid of Nest Thermostat. My old thermostat worked without blue wire/Common, but Nest didn't. Very strange why Nests didn't call this out.
Glad we could help!
I ran a separate 24 volt transformer I have a boiler baseboard heat (two years old) no blue common wire or at least I could not find a terminal block that a screw for common wire. I have 4 nest thermostats one for A/C. All batteries are now at 3.9 volts constant. It’s a pain to run a second set of wires to each thermostat but it’s fixed!
You are a life saver. Thank you for the video. My furnace has a B/C with two white wires attached to that terminal. Can I still plug in my G wire in this terminal?
Thank you very much for a quick and clear overview of the wires, purpose and how to add the common C. Luckily I had the fifth wire tied with the stem so that I did not have to move the G to C, nor run any additional wire. You saved me money and from a biting cold night. Happy holidays!
Nice video. Can someone explain why the Yellow wire was connected to the C terminal instead of the Y terminal please?
I've been constantly removing my unit and charging the battery through usb. I think i did it so much that the battery went bad.
Today I switched the wires like you said and everything seems to be fine.
I'm still planning on replacing the interior battery. I suspect it's needed if there's a power outrage.
If there is a power outage I don’t think your furnace will work.
Hi, your explanation is very good and easy to follow. I just have a question about the wiring at the control board before you switch the green wire. Why the yellow wire goes to the C terminal instead of to the Y terminal? Thank you.
I just want to say ..... I Love You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Thank you!
Nice design, works well and very easy to set up.
Can u move the the g wire to C terminal and then jump it back to G to keep it working normally? Reason I ask this is I don’t have a common wire to charge thermostat so I plan on using G wire , if as u say the fan will still work without G wire connected.
Thank you so much I got a Sensii wifi thermostat and I didn’t have a c wire and the battery kept dying every 2 weeks and I couldn’t access the wifi because after 2 hours it would cut off so I just did this hack and it took me less then 20 mins if that. Thank you very much for the precise instructions I hope it works.
I installed my nest thermostat last year according to their wiring diagram,...worked great getting heat from my gas furnace very similar to the one in this video,...when the first hot day in the summer rolled around the nest thermostat wouldn't fire up my central ac. So I disconnected nest thermostat and reconnected my old thermostat and my ac worked fine .
Would you say that it was from a lack of power to the thermostat that caused the ac not to kick on ,and this video should solve the problem,...or is it an entire different issue ?
I had exact same issue. Normalized wiring (put green wire back from C to G) and ac worked fine. It seems this video only works to get your heat be on, not for AC. looks like I will have to run separate wire for C
Thank you for the very clear breakdown of each input on the nest!
Hold on there....your NEST display is showing "In 35 minutes" at the end of your video after you moved a few wires around. I don't have a C wire and my Nest worked fine for the past 4 years. Now I get the "In 15 minutes" notice and my heater no longer turns on. I thought if I did this fix it might change things but I see you get the same message I get with the only difference is you switched a few wires and I have yet to do so. I am pausing on my fix in hopes I hear your thoughts on this matter. I thank you in advance especially how you explained how to do the fix as if you were trying to explain it to a golden retriever.
Showing the message is not the problem here. It's just Nest's estimate of how long it would take to reach the temperature. If your Nest is not turning on the heat, that could be due to the voltage of your battery. By connecting it to a C wire, you take this out of the equation, your Nest will have the right voltage and should work properly. At that point it might show "In whatever minutes", but that's not an indication of an issue.
Thank You so much! I just learned everything I need to know to install any thermostat by watching you! Thank you again! 👍🏻