Insteon stat not energizing AS Electric furnace unless set to "Fan always"

[Jim.McFadden@stx.rr.com]

Can anybody tell me if the stat is designed to work with an American Standard electric furnace?
Before I crack everything open and check all the wiring out I am just looking for a general response from anyone who has run into this.
I have an email into support already.

About a year ago I had my installer put in a new American Standard electric furnace and new AC. AC works fine but the heat side only engages when the fan is set to "Fan Always". Easy enough to do in the programming but seems a waste.

Am getting ready to install a new American Standard Gas 95% furnace AC combo at another property and wanted to make sure this wasn't a problem with Insteon stats supporting American Standard.
Any comments are welcome.

[SeanM]

A model number would be helpful here.

It's not a heat pump so basic control should be fine, but if the system you are going to install has more than one zone, fault terminals, or requires anything more than the 5 wires that the Insteon tstat uses it could will be a nightmare.

The fan always On could also indicate that the installer needed to re-purposed the Fan wire for either 24V wire or maybe common/neutral wire at the HVAC board. A clean install wouldn't need this so it sounds like your installer had to get creative at the control board of your HVAC system. That could either mean that the original installer didn't hook everything up, which is common and likely, or the board didn't have the right connection terminals.

It's probably better to call American Standard and ask exactly what terminals the system you are installing requires to function. Those are pretty standard so if they don't match up, or they are calling out extras like O/B, T, or F you know you will need to get creative, or go another way.

Its been awhile since I've installed one of these so take all that with a grain of salt.

Maybe someone has better info...

[Jim.McFadden@stx.rr.com]

Thanks for the suggestions.
My installer does multiple properties for me. He also does a ton of American Standard.
When he first installed we had an old stat on the wall. Not sure of the model but one of those old round standard types.
The system worked fine.
Then, while he was still here, I changed out the stat and put in the Insteon. That's when we found Insteon was not energizing the fan circuit on the heat cycle.
But we came up with a software solution overnight. We control our Insteon with a local computer server running the JAVA ISY=994i software. We changed the programming so that when there is a call for heat we also turn on the fan.
Solved by software but this tells me there is a software problem with the Insteon stat when working with American Standard electric heat.

[Jim.McFadden@stx.rr.com]

So this is our third property using Insteon. We first started using them about 15 years ago when they were first to market. Over the years we have installed well over 200 devices. Multiple servers. Multiple software packages. Single band. Dual band. On and on we rolled with the punches. We have gotten pretty good at trouble shooting and making things work but every once in awhile we would call support to ask about a quirk. They always answered the phone and seemed to care.

That being said, yesterday I ran into an unexpected and disappointing Insteon problem. I called them for support and got an unprofessional message that said nobody was available and I should call back. I sent an email to support and did not even get a courtesy response that they had received the message. Finally I turned to the bulletin board for help.

Yesterday was the first time in 15 years that I began looking for a new company for my automation. These guys seem to have forgotten that it was creativity and outstanding support that got them to where they were.