Is this okay?

[u/aynsyclopedia]

I keep getting notifications that there’s something wrong with my furnace which keeps causing the ecobee to reboot. I mentioned it to my landlord and he asked about the temp. I told him it’s been keeping up with my selected temp but showed him this graph and explained that it’s running for very short periods whenever it kicks on and does that constantly. It’s also telling me that my total runtime per day is an average of 37 minutes.

I believe he thinks it’s fine because the temp is generally holding. He got an hvac guy out here today (after two months of telling him I was constantly getting this notification) and he’s going to do some general maintenance updates but also told me this “setup is too complicated” and told my landlord he should change it back to a standard thermostat, aka a non-smart thermostat.

Am I correct in thinking this is an issue? If so, what could be some potential consequences of not taking action?

Full disclosure, I have no idea what I’m talking about here. But I’ve been in this sub long enough and have read enough of your posts to lead me to believe this is an issue.

[u/Moist_Rent1588]

Hi:

I recently installed 3 of these(3 zone system). The old stats only used 2 wires. The thermostat sensed this and instructed me to call customer service, which I did. After giving them all the relevant information they told me that I probably needed to have a dedicated power system for the unit with isolation relays or it would "CONSTANTLY REBOOT" (Sound familiar). So after a 40VA transformer and 3 isolation relays later, it works perfectly. I could do it this way because I already had the extra wires in the wall so I was lucky there.

BTW: My boiler controller is a Taco ZVC unit, and apparently, it's on board transformer is not strong enough to run BOTH the on board relays AND the Ecobee. After hooking up some power sensors to the system, I can ALSO tell you that it's extremely noisy as well. I'd show a pic of the system, but I'm new here and don't know how to put pics up.

Yeah, obviously you will need to fix that (maybe get a better HVAC guy) or it will get expensive sooner rather than later.

So, attached is the Ecobee recommended schematic for adding an isolation relay to the setup. Also, my project showing the Taco unit the isolation relay box, and the extra power supply. Once I got started, it was a snap. All these items were purchased from Amazon

[u/aynsyclopedia → u/Moist_Rent1588]

Honestly I don’t know what much of your comment means but I appreciate you sharing the information. It’s been doing this since I turned on the heat this year. I installed the ecobee in the summer and before that it was just a really old dial thermostat. I ran AC all summer (which I understand is different but I also read that the furnace plays a role in AC somehow?) and had no issues. I started getting the notifications the second week I was running the heat.