Newly Installed Smart Thermostat Blinking On/Off

HelpMeImCold

Hi everyone,

I just had a Honeywell RTH9585 wifi smart thermostat installed, however the main screen just keeps blinking on and off, as shown below. I can’t get past this. Could this be a wiring issue perhaps? Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

STEVEusaPA

If you just had it installed, where's the installer?

HelpMeImCold

My wife decided that it’d be a good idea to get a random person from the nextdoor app to do it. The home screen was up and running when he left until it started to blink on and off. I’d rather not call him again

HVACNUT

Stop payment. He or she should've checked heat, cool, and fan operation before they left.
Can you post a pic of the sub base and wires? 
Love the wallpaper BTW. That's hot.

austin907

Check the wiring and associated installation manual. Smart thermostats typically require a C-Wire (common wire) to draw power compared to the older thermostats. If your house does not have a C-Wire or it has not been connected, it can cause power issues with smart thermostats.

HelpMeImCold

I believe the c wire is the issue. I’m having a family friend actually come to take a look at it. I will check back in with what the issue is!

STEVEusaPA

Stranger...family friend...lol

HelpMeImCold

Enough out of you Steve.

it turns out that the thermostat required too much power. Had about 24V and between all the moving parts on the boiler there just wasn’t enough power for the thermostat. We put the old one back on and will probably get a new, non wifi thermostat

STEVEusaPA

Had you called a competent, professional HVAC person it would installed quickly and correctly, and could've solved your C-wire issue. And you would've had your wifi thermostat.
I'm more offended that you blamed your wife.

HomerJSmith

Why not just parallel another 40 VA transformer to the existing transformer. It would have to be done in phase.

MarkWiloey

I had the same problem and it turn out to be a wire color coding problem with the furnace with the red and white being reversed. I wired the red to the thermostat white terminal and the white to the red and it fixed the problem.

EdTheHeaterMan

STEVEusaPA said:

I'm more offended that you blamed your wife.

I think it is the wall paper that is causing the problem. And that is definitely the wife’s fault. No man in his right mind would select that wallpaper. Unless of course, the home was passed down from 4 generations ago. Then it is great-grandma's fault.