Mine was this setup too (It’s not actually in W1, it’s in both Aux and E)
On the Wyze thermostat:
W1 the thermostat can automatically turn on your emergency heat. I had mine setup this way but it caused emergency heat to be on way too frequently (it only gets down to about 20s at the lowest here)
* and tell the Wyze app when it asks that it is emergency heat, the thermostat will NOT be able to use emergency heat automatically (Wyze app calls this Stage 2) and you will have the manual toggle for emergency heat in the settings menu. I did this option because my bill was super high prior to the Wyze thermostat, when my old thermostat used the first config I described (white in W1).
It depends on where you live, but daily its between 30-40 here and my heat pump works fine. My windows and doors are also pretty efficient.
In one of the many posts, someone reported that if you switch the W1 wire to the * socket, an emergency heat toggle shows up in the “Advanced” settings. This has not proven true for me. My heating bill has skyrocketed with an 8KW coil set in a Mr. Cool Universal heat pump.
Yup, I ended up returning my 2 thermostats because of this. If you wire the backup heat to W1 like it really should be (aux heat), this thermostat doesn’t handle it properly and will cause huge electric bills. Seems like a huge issue, but Wyze has provided 0 support so I gave up and sent them back.
You have to reset your thermostat by holding down the button and then remove it from the app and re-add it. Then you can tell it what the wires do. I’ve got a feature request in to allow people to change these settings without having to remove and re-add the thermostat, but not many people want that apparently.
Thanks for that, but a little confusing for someone born digitally challenged.
I’m not sure if it is actually working yet, but the emergency heat toggle is now included in the “Advanced” settings. I think I’ll get an ammeter and see if the heat strip is still working.
I also think this is an important feature particularly at the moment with the extreme weather conditions. There are some record cold temperatures in Alaska right now and having you system go down is… problematic.
New Problem. The thermostat i displaying the temperature, but in the app, it shows “OFF” and it won’t budge. How do I turn it on? The thermostat itself shoe the temp, but won’t respond to temperature requests. Turn the dial and nothing. Press the dial and all functions seem to work.
Not only would I like to be able to tell when aux hear is on, I also should be able to force it on. We have freezing rain and need to be able to turn the heat pump off to protect it while still using the heat stack.
In order to do this, you need it to be attached to * and set as emergency heat, not Aux.
If you only have 1 wire for both second stage heat and emergency, you would need to split it into 2 wires with a wirenut and 2 jumpers, connect one wire to aux/W1 and one wire to * and reset your wyze so that you can re-add it and tell it what the wires do.
This is definitely a way to do it, but it should be a simple software upgrade, which I believe is the purpose of this thread. To hopefully bring recognition to the issue
The lack of control with auxiliary / emergency heat was a deal breaker for me. I ended up returning my unit and, after much research I bought a Lux Kono. Three times the price but the money I will save with more auxiliary heat control justified the price.
I had two white wires to W1 on my previous Stat. Single Stage gas furnace W/ elect. heat pump. Before Transferring these wires to the Wyze, will I need to run down & identify where these terminate on my system to make the “ * “connection?
Possibly, Share a photo of your furnace wiring and tell me the manufacturer/ model of the furnace and I’ll see if it has separate controls or if the 2 wires just control the same thing.