Wiring Honeywell HZ322 from a Trol-A-Temp Mastertrol Mark V

vinmassaro

I am in the process of transferring wiring from an old Trol-A-Temp controller to a new Honeywell HZ322. I was hoping someone can sanity-check my connections and answer a few questions for me. I've attached a few photos of my progress.

For each section below, on the left is the Temp-A-Trol designation, and what I connected it to on the Honeywell:

Equipment
Y > Y1
G > G
RC > RC (removed factory jumper)
RH > RH (removed factory jumper)
W > W1

24V transformer
1 > R
2 > C

Zone 1 Damper
M4 > M4
M5 > M1
M6 > M6
M1 > ?
M2 > ?

Zone 1 thermostat
T4 > ?
T5 > ?
T6 > ?

1. Can you please tell me if the Equipment and 24v transformer connections are correct? They seemed straightforward and I just copied them over from the Trol-A-Temp. I removed the factory jumper connecting RH and RC.
2. I've got 3 zones but only got as far as the first damper. The dampers have M1 (red wire) and M2 (white) but I'm not sure if these need to be reconnected, or if the panel powers the dampers directly and these wires are not used?
3. Here are the thermostats I am using: Honeywell RTHL2310B1008. You can see I left T4,T5,T6 blank above. How should these be wired to the controller, as well as at the thermostats themselves?

Thanks in advance!

ratio

The ZONE-A-TROL actuators are not drop-in compatible with the TrueZONE panel. They require constant 24 volts applied between 1c & 2r, and dry contact closure between 5 & 4 or 5 & 6 to drive open or closed. The TrueZONE panel energizes M1 & M4 or M1 & M6 to drive open or closed. You can get them to work by powering the actuators from a transformer, then using the TrueZONE outputs to drive a relay that will switch the inputs to the ZONE-A-TROL.

The new stats should be marked with standard hvac nomenclature, pull the old stat wires off and match those up like to like on the TrueZONE panel, you don't care what terminal they were on before as we have new equipment on both ends. Around here, we use red for R, yaller for Y/Y1, white for W/W1, green for G, and blue for C if the stat has a C terminal. I recommend you use the C terminal and not batteries if possible, I experience a battery-leaks-in-the-first-year rate of about 1 out of 4.

Be careful to not get the zone actuators & stats mixed up!

ratio

Ah, I found a way to make the ZONE-A-TROL work with the TrueZONE panel! Take a look at the bottom left of page two of this. Basically, take M1 from the TrueZONE panel to terminal 1c on the ZONE-A-TROL, take a jumper from 2r to 5 (both on the ZONE-A-TROL), take M4 from the TrueZONE to 4 on the ZONE-A-TROL, take M6 from the TrueZONE to 6 on the ZONE-A-TROL. Easy!

vinmassaro

Thanks for the info! I will give this a shot and post back if I have any issues.

vinmassaro

Ok, I ran into a little bit of a snag. The thermostat wires from the panel use only 3 wires, red, white, and blue or black, as you can see in the photos. These aren't continuous runs to the thermostats, they are spliced along the way across the house and possibly in walls, so I won't be able to connect additional wires. From panel to thermostat: red goes to R (jumped with RC on the thermostat) and white goes to W, so should the third wire be connected to G on both the panel and thermostat? Thanks!

ratio

Hmm. That would give you heat & fan control at the stat, but not cooling. We need one more wire to do cooling too.

Honeywell makes a wireless adapter that is compatible with the TrueZONE panel, but you'd need different stats as well. Any one that claims RedLINK compatibility will work, I know they have a 6000 series that is comparable with what you picked out. Are you sure you can't replace the wire?

Bob Bona_4

Good stuff ratio. That damper motor style is obsolete, been for at least 14 years, I'd consider changing the complete damper set for ease of compatibility and reliability.

vinmassaro

@ratio: thanks again for all your help. I chose to take on this job myself and I'm learning a ton doing it!

@Bob Bona: Yes, absolutely. The dampers are in working order so I'm going to try to get any life out of them that I can, and then change them to the Honeywell Truzone dampers eventually.

As for thermostat wiring, it's tricky because the house just underwent renovation where I could have rewired everything. I wish I had taken on this job prior to that! The walls are all finished now and some thermostat wiring is extended and spliced in the wall so running new wiring or making use of an additional wire is going to be very hard or impossible. I may be able to only do it for 1 of the zones.

Just so I know my all of my options, do these sound correct?

1. Trace existing thermostat wiring and connect up a 4th wire that goes to RC at the thermostat and panel, or run a new thermostat wire entirely to get the additional wire
2. Keep using the current 3 wires and swap the R and RC connections depending on heat or cooling need, at both the panel and the thermostats. Move RC to R in the fall/winter, R to RC in the summer. This is a pain but I may be able to live with it.
3. Reuse the selector switch that was removed as part of this panel installation so that I can manually set heat or cool the way the old system used it? Not sure if this is still an option, just brainstorming here.
4. Add a Honeywell THM4000R1000 wireless adapter to the HZ322 and switch over to Redlink thermostats like the Visionpro 8000. I may only need this for 1 zone that I can't run a new wire to. Do you know if I can implement this for just 1 out of 3 zones (zones 2 and 3 would be wired), or do I need to use them for every zone?

Bob Bona_4

When you see the new damper design next to what you have, it's comical, really. The new ones have 2 or 3 extruded aluminum blades vs. About 22 little shutter dealies with a million pivot/wear points. So, so much better!

Yes, you can use a RedLink stat and it's EIM only on one zone. This is now a total Master system, no more Master/Slave

ratio

Errr, the Rc vs Rh is something else entirely, that has to do with separate low voltage transformers in the furnace and AC. Probably not an issue for you - I didn't see any indicators in the pics you posted.

That said, you could make it work by switching wires around at the TrueZONE panel - but if you forgot to do that thing's'd get squirrelly! If I were to do the wire-swap method, what I'd do is wire the red to the R terminal on the stat, the black to the R terminal on the stat, & the white to the Y1 terminal on the stat. Then (this is the clever part!), I'd set the stat up as a heat pump. Then, at the TrueZONE panel, wire the red to the zone R, the black to the zone G, & move the white back & forth between W1 & Y1, with W1 being heating & Y1 being cooling. (This works because a heat pump energizes the compressor (Y1) for both heat & cool & uses a different terminal (O or B ) to pick which mode to operate in. See how clever it is?) We'd still have to switch the stat from heat to cool, but we wouldn't have to change the wiring on that end, just at the TrueZONE panel.

Bob, I was thinking to use the Wireless Adapter, not the EIM. The EIM will allow a RedLINK stat to connect to just about anything, but it's a one to one link. The Wireless Adapter will nipple on to the TrueZONE panel via four terminals A, B, C, & D, and will allow up to four RedLINK stats to be attached. Although, with only one wireless link, the EIM might be the cheaper route.

Bob Bona_4

Gotcha. These kinds of jobs are growing as time marches on. It's pretty wild to think folks had to go to a selector switch every season, although if it was on the equipment, there was a chance of some minor maintenance

vinmassaro

Thanks all. I am looking into picking up the wireless thermostat and module for upstairs, rewiring the first floor thermostat to use 4 wires, and wiring the lower level thermostat to just heat since it stays very cool down there in the summer.

ratio

Very good!

Thanks for the followup, it's nice to hear about how things are going.

vinmassaro

Just so I'm clear before I buy the wireless thermostat and controller, can I wire both my 3-wire zones like this and get heat or cooling, or is the 4th wire required for fan control? If I plan to run it only on heat or cool and never on just fan, can I just use the 3 wires I have available and wire it like this? I should mention the furnace is a 1 year old Williamson CLB low-boy, and the AC is an older York unit that was here when I bought the house.

R from panel to R/RC on thermostat (power)
W from panel to W on thermostat (heat)
Black from panel to Y on thermostat (cool)

Thanks!

ratio

The furnace should have a limit switch that will turn the fan on by itself, but the AC generally needs the fan to be switched on by the thermostat as well, so (without extra controls work) you will need four wires to get heat & AC without doing anything more than switching the stat from heat to cool.

If you're going with wireless, maybe go with the Wireless Adapter & wireless stats for all locations? At that point, you could use two of the old wires for power to the stats (R & C) so you get away from the need for batteries & gain complete control of the system, even auto changeover mode.

Please note, in another thread I found out that Honeywell has two EIMs (equipment interface module), one of which the paperworks indicates is only compatible with the FocusPRO line of stats. If you end up with an EIM (which is different than the Wireless Adapter), make sure you don't get the wrong one. I only mention this because the EIM was brought up in this thread.

vinmassaro

Ok, makes sense. I've rewired zone 1 so I have 4 wires, working fine now. Zone 2 I was going to pick up the YTH6320R1023 which includes the wireless adapter (THM4000R) and Focuspro 6000 thermostat. For zone 3 which is the lower level, I've wired it for heat only since it stays very cool down there in the summer.

The thermostat fan 'auto' setting did not work until I changed 'Heat fan control' in advanced options to 'Panel' instead of the default 'HVAC'. Does that sound right? Without this change, the furnace would come on but the fan would not run nor would the fan light turn on on the panel unless I switched the thermostat fan setting to 'manual'. Are there any other advanced settings I should change, like 'Purge fan' to 'Panel' as well?

ratio

WRT the fan, that may be indicative of a problem. What kind of heating system do you have? A furnace, burning natural gas or propane? That should have a fan limit switch that turns on the fan when the furnace heats up. How long did you let it run? It can take some small amount of time to get everything hot, but if the fan didn't come on within a minute or two of the burner firing, something's wrong. Unless the old Trol-A-Temp panel managed the fan for you, it should be checked out.

Purge fan just keeps the fan running for some time after the call ends, to move the hot (or cold) air out of the ductwork. The HVAC option is again dependent on the fan limit switch. Since the limit may not be working, best to leave it on panel for the time being.

Does your system have a bypass damper? A smaller damper that connects the supply duct to the return duct, or blows nowhere, into the room with the furnace in it maybe? Possibly has a lever coming out of the side, with a weight on the end?

vinmassaro

The furnace is a Williamson CLB low boy oil furnace. It does have a bypass damper. When I went into checkout mode and viewed the thermostat inputs, it only showed W1 when the thermostat was calling for heat with the fan on auto. When I switched the stat to manual fan, the panel showed W and G as active. This lead me to believe I had to switch the heat fan control setting on the panel to 'Panel' instead of the default 'HVAC'.

ratio

Ok, the light is working as expected. It shows the state of the fan call, but if we're relying on the fan limit switch to bring the fan on then the light won't be on. It sounds like everything is working. There's no harm in leaving the fan setting on panel. You can check it by setting it back to HVAC, turning a stat on to bring on the heat, then check the furnace & make sure the fan comes on. It might take a minute or two, but not five.

vinmassaro

Ok, I set it back to HVAC and turned up one of the stats. I guess I was just being impatient. After a few minutes, the fan came on automatically. I tested all dampers and they are opening/closing properly. I will keep an eye on these because I don't expect them to last, but hopefully I can get a few years out of them. I ordered the wireless zoning adapter kit for zone 2 and will follow up if I have any further issues. Thanks again for all the help! I saved a lot of money and learned a ton in the process.

ratio

No problem, glad I could help.

aziazi

@Vinmassaro - I am very happy to see the post as I have the systems and upgrading to the Honeywell HZ322 from a Trol-A-Temp Mastertrol Mark V.

Do you by any chance have any pics of how the final wiring of the HZ322. All your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance! azi