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Off Topic: How to Automate Your Gas Fireplace

Home automation is a hobby of mine, and in our new home, I really wanted to automate our Heatilator gas fireplace.  However, this isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, and I really haven’t found any good tutorials out there as to how to do this.  This tutorial will show you how to connect your fireplace to your Wink Hub or any other Z-Wave controller.  I got this working and actually found that it is one of the easier things to automate.  I really like being able to set the fireplace to go on and off on a schedule.

Safety Considerations

Before you start this project, you should be comfortable with working with wiring and electricity.  If you are not, get someone else to do this.  Secondly, you will be working with wires that run near gas lines, so multiply every safety concern by at least a factor of three.  If you don’t know what you are doing, this is not the project to figure it out.  I take no responsibility for any damage or injury that may result from this tutorial.  It goes without saying that BEFORE you start cutting wires, make sure that you have either disconnected all power, or shut off the electricity at the circuit breaker. 

The wisdom of automating a gas fireplace is also debatable, however, I left the manual switch in place so you can always turn off the fireplace the “old fashioned” way using the original switch.

What You Will Need:

Remotec Zwave Dry Contact Fixture ModuleWith all that said, this really isn’t a difficult project to complete in a safe manner.  Here’s what you’ll need:

Understanding How It Works:

A bit of back story.  As I mentioned earlier, of all the things in my home that I wanted to automate, the fireplace was high on the list.  It had what appeared to be a regular switch right next to the mantle, so I thought it would be relatively easy to automate simply by replacing that switch with a ZWave switch.  I took the switch cover off and that’s where the problems began.  To use a ZWave switch, you need for the wiring to be 120V and a neutral wire in the box.  For most applications, this is no problem.  However, when I looked in the switch box, I saw that there was no neutral wire AND that the wiring to the switch was really small, like 18 gauge.  Not good.

The reason for this is that gas fireplaces are activated by a controller that sits under the fireplace.  For power, the controller uses either 2D cell batteries, or can be plugged into 120V house current with a power adapter.  Here’s the important part: to turn the fireplace on or off, has a low voltage (3V I think) circuit to which the wall switch is connected.

The relay switch takes two voltages.  The first is 120V which powers the ZWave components of the relay switch, and the second is the low voltage part which the relay switch will control.  It is very important to only connect the 120V wires to the 120V terminals otherwise you will ruin your relay switch.  

There are very few ZWave relay switches on the market at the moment.  The one I recommended works well, but does not fit nicely with any switch cover (common complaint).  Therefore, I installed it under the fireplace and left  the existing switch in place.   This has the advantage of not having to run 120V wires to your wall switch.

Step 1: Connecting the Low Voltage Wiring

The first step is to open the bottom panel of your fireplace (mine is held on by magnets) and find the wiring which goes to the wall switch.  If your installer did a good job, it will be labeled for you.  If not, just look for small wires heading out of the fireplace up towards the switch.  See the photo below.

 

IMG_0422Just a reminder to disconnect the controller and/or turn off the circuit before you start cutting wires.  Once you’ve found that wire cut it as shown in the diagram below.

245D4580-D204-4E3A-B0DC-BA4CE889997A-1-2048x1536-oriented

 

Next, you’ll connect the relay to the wires you just cut.  Connect the wires from the controller to the terminals marked LOAD on the relay.  Next, connect the wires going to the old manual switch to the terminals marked with the switch symbol.  When connecting the switch and load wires, the order of the wires does not matter.

54BCFEDF-9DA6-4262-8737-836BC7175AE3-1-2048x1536-oriented

There should be two terminals on the relay that are marked L and N and have nothing connected to them at this point.  These are for the 120V current which you will connect next.

Step 2:  Connecting the House Current

This is the easiest step.  If you purchased a power cord, simply connect the white wire from the power cord to the terminal marked N on the relay, and the black wire to the terminal marked L.  Once you’ve done this, plug the wire into the outlet under the fireplace.  If everything went correctly, the blue LED on the relay should flash.  When you are done the relay should look like the photo below.  (I spliced my 110V wire so you’ll note that there are two wires in the L and N terminals, but if you used a power cord you will have one)

Remotec ZWave Relay Connected

Step 3: Connect the Switch to Your Wink Hub

This is the really easy part.  Once everything is connected and powered on, follow the instructions on the Wink app for installing a ZWave switch.  When it asks you to put the switch in pairing mode, just hold down the button.  It worked for me on the first try.

That’s it!  If you did this correctly, you should have a fireplace that you can control with your Wink or other ZWave controller.   Enjoy!

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97 Comments

  1. Steve Steve

    Thank you for posting this. I have followed the directions exactly…I think.

    I am using SmartThings hub for my automation. It found the relay without much trouble.

    The light on the relay turns off and on via z-wave when I turn the switch off and on. The same thing happens when I push the button on the relay.

    However…the fireplace won’t turn on. No matter which method I turn the relay on or off or turn the wall switch, I get the same result. I have checked my connections and I think they are all good.

    Any ideas would be appreciated!

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Could you post a pic? It sounds to me like the relay is getting power but the wiring to the fireplace is not correct.

  2. Brandon Turley Brandon Turley

    I’m trying to connect this to a new Wink hub 2 and can’t get it to connect. I’ve tried using the add a product, z wave switch and going into inclusion mode, but can’t get it to pair.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Brandon,
      I wish I could give you some advice. Mine paired with the original Wink on the first try and has worked perfectly ever since.

  3. Ryan Richmond Ryan Richmond

    My fireplace has a switch for the fire and a switch for the fan on the side of the unit (kind of old school I know). Will this be wired together or will I need to purchase a separate controller for the fan? Thanks for the tutorial.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Ryan, the fireplace controller should use a low voltage controller and you can verify that by the small wires going to it. The fan on the other hand should use standard 110V AC so that will have regular wires going to the switch. So the answer is yes you probably will need a separate switch for the fan. However the good news is that you can probably just use a standard Z-wave switch to automate the fan. I’m not an electrician and I haven’t seen your setup, but that’s my uneducated guess.

      • Ryan Richmond Ryan Richmond

        Thank you. Really appreciate the response. I am trying to make sense of the wiring. Maybe you can give it a look. Its a Lennox gfp3/4

        • Charles Givre Charles Givre

          Hi Ryan, Can you post a picture of the wiring?

        • Dave Dave

          I have tested this with the Remotec relay with nothing put back into the wall/gang boxes yet, so as not to commit myself to it yet… here’s the last thing I want to be able to do with this:
          Right now, if the power goes out, I can still run my fireplace to heat my home. With this Relay configuration, if I remove power from the relay, the manual switch does nothing. The Remotec apparently needs power to “relay” the toggle to the fireplace. Any thoughts from anyone on how to make sure I can still use the manual switch even when the power is out? There is no point to leaving the manual switch connected otherwise. I can just as easily press the bottom on the relay for manual operation as long as there is power.

          • H Bondar H Bondar

            @Dave — I had the same issue — I wanted to be able to turn the fireplace on when the power was out — so I spliced a fresh wire into each of the wires connecting the Remotec relay to the fireplace thermocouple and then connected a manual toggle switch across those wires. Now when the power is out, I just toggle the switch and the circuit is closed and the fireplace goes on. I took a picture of my setup for you (and even annotated it) but this site doesn’t seem to allow me to upload a photo with my comment. If you want the picture, just shoot me an email and I’ll send it to you. The address is hkbondar at gmail dot com. Good luck!

          • Dave Dave

            @HBondar I ended up doing the same, a dumb switch in parallel which I put in a shallow single gang box behind the grate under the fireplace. Works like a charm. Thanks!
            Wondering if anyone else mounted the Remotec on the wall along with other switches? I had to file the switch cove plate openings to fit it over the Remotec because it is slightly larger than standard switches and outlets.
            On top of that, the Remotec’s blue LED flashes about every minute when the switch is off. A bit annoying. Wondering if there are configurations for it that will turn that off and if it’s worth coming up with a way to edit it (I am using a Wink 2 hub and it doesn’t have options for editing configuration options)

      • WESLEY Cowley WESLEY Cowley

        Hi Charles, I have a similar setup. Low voltage fire control and then 110v fan control with 2 separate switches. From what I understand, I can buy 2 zwave control and then connect them to operate the fireplace and fan individually, correct?

        I don’t have a hub, just an echo. Do I need a hub or is the Amazon echo sufficient?

        • Charles Givre Charles Givre

          Hi Wesley,
          I’m a little confused. Do you have 1 switch for the fan and a second switch for the fire control? If so you’ll need a regular Z-Wave switch for the fan and the relay for the fire control. (And you can leave the regular switch for the fire control for a manual override). If you have two switches for the fan you’ll need 2 Zwave switches. I really like the Zooz brand switches (https://amzn.to/2KV44hI)
          I believe that the latest Amazon echos have Z-Wave controllers in them, so theoretically, you could control all that with the Echo.
          Good luck!

  4. Christopher Fox Christopher Fox

    The Remotec seems to be permanently out of stock. The other ones I am finding do not have a separate switch terminal, how can I wire the switch in parallel to ensure I have a physical switch should the relay die (for safety mostly). Thanks in advance!

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Oh no! I just posted an update but here is an alternative product that looks like it will work. http://amzn.to/2ihFxp6

      • Daniel Daniel

        Is there a generic relay that isn’t Z-Wave connected that I could use together with a Z-Wave switch?

        • george george

          Depending on your fireplace, mine is a heatnglo, the fan will work on an internal stat. So you can leave the fan on always. and it will turn off once the “free heat is used up”

          My house is wired so that the box in the fireplace is energized by the “fan switch” and the low voltage is run to a thermostat under the mantle. the downfall to the is that I think my next move is to add another switch to replace the “fan switch” and create an event that turns on the fan and then starts the fireplace.

  5. Thanks for the guide!

    Two questions:

    1. Do you think this “GoControl Z-Wave Isolated Contact Fixture Module – FS20Z-1” should work just as well as the “FortrezZ MIMOlite” that you mentioned? Any downsides to using this cheaper item?

    2. I see that your fireplace has a junction box like mine — which of the 3 outlets (TRANS, REM/AUX, FAN) did you plug into? Does it matter?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Phil,
      It looks like that device (http://amzn.to/2j9Zheg) should do the trick. The main thing is to make sure that the fireplace controller isn’t connected to 110V otherwise you will destroy it.
      2. Regarding the junction box, I don’t think it really matters. On mine at least, all are wired and on all the time, so the labels are just for convenience.

  6. Sebastian Goldstein Sebastian Goldstein

    Phil, Did the Go control FS20Z-1 do the job.
    I would like to do the same thing.
    Any Pics?

  7. Dave Dave

    Thanks for the instructions. I got the MIMOlight as now recommend. I paired to to the Wink 2. Shows as a “siren” I made it a short cut and linked it to my Echo. I can hear it click on but looks like the fire try to start but stops. I had on wire in “COM” and one in “NO”. Any thoughts?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Can you post a picture of the connections?

  8. Daniel Turley Daniel Turley

    Charles,

    I figured out an alternative way to get my fireplace automated that might interest you. I wanted conformity between all of my wall switches. I have been using the GE Z-Wave smart dimmers and switches throughout my house and wanted to use one for my fireplace as well.

    This is essentially what I did:

    Jumped the neutral and line wires from another switch in the same gang box to power my GE Z-Wave switch.

    Connected the wires from the fireplace to the neutral and load ports on the smart switch.

    Cut the wires under the fireplace and used the ones from the switch to power this relay that I bought at Radioshack: https://www.radioshack.com/products/125v-dc-10a-dpdt-relay

    Mounted the relay on this socket base after discarding the included relay (which is powered by low voltage): https://www.amazon.com/SODIAL-HH62P-L-JQX-13F-PTF08A-Socket/dp/B00J2N2216/

    Connected the wires from my fireplace to one of the normally open connections on the relay.

    I also took the original wall switch and placed it under the fireplace on a separate loop so that I can override the relay and connect the dry contact if my power goes out since I believe my fireplace has a small backup power supply.

    I found this to be a cheaper and more elegant solution that accomplishes everything I wanted. Let me know if you have any questions. I’d love your input.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Daniel,
      This is an interesting solution. It definitely shows that there are more than one way to accomplish this! I would have liked to have a smart switch as well, so I really like your solution. Nice work!

    • Curious Automater Curious Automater

      Hi Daniel,

      Did you use the original low voltage wiring to send the neutral and load to the relay socket underneath your fireplace? That may not be up to actual wiring code, but did it work or has it been working without the wires getting hot?

  9. Nick Nick

    Does the original wall switch still work with this setup or do you have to leave it in the on\remote setting?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Nick,
      The original wall switch does work.

      • Travis Pherson Travis Pherson

        Forgive me if this is in the comments and I missed it.

        Can you confirm the functioning before I dive into this. You can turn the fireplace both on and off by the switch and by the zwave controller? Zwave controller can turn the fireplace on and off regardless of the state of the switch? And vise versa?

        So if the switch is off, and you turn on using the zwave controller, can you turn it off with the switch? If so, how?

        Thank you for the informative tutorial.

        • Charles Givre Charles Givre

          You are correct. You can turn the fireplace on or off via the switch, the button on the relay or by whatever z-wave controller you have hooked up. The physical switch acts as a manual override for all the z-wave connections.

          • Travis Pherson Travis Pherson

            So, I wired it up exactly as pictured. And nothing. Nothing with wall switch. Nothing with zwave switch. I get no indicator light of any kind. Tried a different power cord. Tried a different outlet. And nothing.

            Possible I just got a bad switch?

          • Charles Givre Charles Givre

            It’s possible, but I’d break out the trusty voltmeter and see if you’re getting 110V AC at the switch. If you are, and you’ve correctly connected the load and neutral wires, you have a bad switch. (It does sound like you have a bad switch, but I’d check with the voltmeter just to be sure it isn’t a loose connection or something like that.

  10. Kelly Snider Kelly Snider

    Charles, I’m trying to get this to work, but I can’t seem to get power to my relay. There doesn’t seem to be a method on here to post pictures, but the power cord has a black ribbed for neutral and a non-ribbed for load. I have those connected to L and N marked sections of the relay. I have the red and white wires coming from the wall connected to the switch section of the relay. Finally I have the brown wires coming from the controller connected to the relay load section of the relay. The power switch on the wall is up, although I also tested with it down. I have plugged something else into the outlet to verify it and the other thing powered.

    I should mention I did have it working at one point, and I could hear it turning on and off but the fire didn’t start so I assumed I had the other wires mixed up. I turned the power off to correct those, and when I turned it back on is when all power was gone.

    I appreciate any help you can provide with this. I’ll be happy to send pictures as well but since there is no attach button you’ll need to provide instructions for how to do that too :-).

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Kelly,
      It sounds to me like something is up with the power. I would remove the relay entirely, and plug it into an outlet that you know works. Then press the button a few times and you should hear it clicking. The power switch on the wall just controls the fireplace controller and should be low voltage, so it really should have no effect on whether the relay clicks on or not. Please send a pic to cgivre@s715639679.onlinehome.us and I can take a look for you.

  11. MCV MCV

    If my fireplace has two manual paddle switches in the wall, one to ignite the fireplace and one to turn on the fan, could I not just replace the wall switch with a Zwave paddle switch?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Michael,
      I don’t think you can do that for the reasons explained in the article. The electric current for the fireplace is a low voltage DC current (3V DC I believe), whereas the fan switch is a 120V AC. If you try to connect a ZWave switch to the fireplace switch, you’ll find that 1. It doesn’t have a neutral wire and 2. You’ll probably break the fireplace controller when you send 120V to the microvolt controller.
      Basically you need the relay because the ZWave part requires 120V AC to operate, but the fireplace requires 3V DC.

      If you take off the wall plate going to these switches, you should see that the wires going to the fireplace switch are much smaller than the wires going to the fan switch. I hope that makes sense.

      • Daniel Turley Daniel Turley

        MCV,

        You can replace the fan switch with a Z-Wave paddle switch since it’s 120V, but you definitely need some kind of dry contact relay that is actuated by 120V. You can use a Z-Wave dry contact like some on here have suggested or if you want a Z-Wave paddle switch like I do, you can follow the method I used that I described above if your wiring is setup the same way mine was. If you want more details on doing that, let me know.

  12. H Bondar H Bondar

    Charles — I found your directions, bought the stuff, followed the plan, hooked everything up … and it works like a dream! SO cool — I feel like I’m living in the future. I’m using a Samsung SmartThings Hub (love that puppy — everything works) and I created a “Routine” called “Romance” — it turns off some lights, dims others, and whoomps the fireplace to life — epic — my wife was blown away. Thank you very much for posting this solution and making it so easy to follow! You are my hero.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Thanks!! Glad you got it to work and are enjoying it!

      • Rodger Rodger

        Do you have to cut the wires coming from the switch to the controller? Cant you just add wire from the relay to the controller and control the fireplace from the original switch as well as the relay? Have you found any other ideas to make this work?

  13. Jean Jean

    Charles, in my original installation the previous owner installed a thermostat White-Rodgers as a switch to turn on the fireplace. This prevents the fireplace from overheating I guess. Do you think I could replace it with an Ecobee?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Jean,
      I’d hesitate to give you incorrect advice and cause you to burn down your house, but I would think you could. I’d contact Ecobee and ask them if the wiring is compatible.

  14. Greg Greg

    After referring back to this post a bunch of times, getting really excited, scouting out the purchases, and finally realizing that my house was built with extremely poor access to the underbelly of the firebox (and by poor, I mean no access, which seems like a code violation if you ask me), I finally settled for what I would consider to be the ultimate cop-out solution to this issue:

    http://amzn.to/2pENbwl

    Am I ashamed? Yes. But I had to tell someone. You can take away my man-card now.

    In all seriousness, the switch is an eyesore, but my fireplace is controlled by a single switch that is almost hidden from view, so I justified it. Could work for those that don’t care about the looks, can’t access their fireboxes or aren’t too proud to admit that they are beaten.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hey, you got the job done, so don’t beat yourself up about it!

  15. TL TL

    Hey, this looks like a fantastic guide. Quick question before I get started.

    My fireplace controller has 3 wires running to it — TP, TH, TPTH — as opposed to the 2 shown in your diagram and the 2 provided for on the Remotec relay. In researching this, I think that the TP and TPTH are actually split from the same hot wire, so I could either try to cut the wire before they’re split (ideal), or I could splice those wires on the switch and controller sides of the relay but leave them split on the terminal (some extra unnecessary wire, but should be okay).

    Do either of those solutions sound reasonable or preferred? My last thought was if one of the wires could just bypass the relay and not be cut, putting the relay in parallel.

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

  16. tami tami

    I’m going to attempt to try to apply this to an electromagnetic lock I have for my gate that is 12v. For your project, it seems that you used the original wall switch and connected it to the relay, is it possible for me to use the button on the remotec as the wall switch open and close the lock? thanks

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Without seeing the wiring for your gate, I really can’t answer, but just check the voltage requirements for the Remotec relay before proceeding.

  17. David David

    This is awesome – ordered the parts for it! Noob question – do I need a separate hub to make this switch work? or will alexa pick it up on her own? Thanks!

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      You will need some sort of Z-Wave hub to communicate with the relay if you want to control it remotely. I use a Wink hub then connected my Alexa to Wink.

  18. Amy Amy

    I also have an original Wink hub, but after following the instructions above, can’t get the hub to find/recognize/pair with the Remotec. The button on the front of the Remotec works to turn the fireplace off and on, as does the remote control (mine didn’t have a wall switch, but was turned off and on by a remote which I wired into the Remotec). So it seems like it is working perfectly, except for my inability to use my smart hub with it. Is there a trick to putting the Remotec into a “pairing mode” or getting the Wink to recognize it? Did you add it as a “Generic Z-Wave Sensor” or as a Generic Z-Wave Binary Switch” or some other way through the Wink app? Any help would be appreciated!

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Amy,
      It’s been a while since I actually did this, but I believe you have to hold down the button on the Remotec Relay until the light flashes or something like that. Once it’s in pairing mode, go to the Wink app and look for generic Z-Wave Switch or something like that.

  19. Jimmy c Jimmy c

    Question. You say th normal wall switch still works in addition to the relay. Is this true in case of a power outage? Easy way I’d assume for you to test this is unplug the relay and flick the wall switch.? It’s important for us as we lose power alot usually for days and having gas fireplace is a life saver when the power is out.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Jimmy,
      A gas fireplace needs power to ignite it. I don’t know how yours works, but mine can be powered either by plugging the controller into AC power, or by installing 2 D batteries in a holder under the fireplace (but not both). I’ve never tried it with the batteries, but I’d assume it would still work if the power was out and you had the controller running on battery power.

      • Jimmy c Jimmy c

        Ahh Okay, I believe mine to be using ‘thermalcouples’ which, if the pilot light is ignited (which ours always is) it generates a small amount of milivolts which allows the switch on the wall to operate the gas valve (which operates off milivolt voltages). So is possible this switch will not work for me.

  20. jm jm

    I just started the journey down home automation and am thankful I came across your write up. Nice job laying it out in everyman’s terms. I checked out my electronics under my fireplace (heat-n-glo) and it’s shockingly like yours. Ordered the relay from Amazon today and hope to dive into it this weekend. Thanks again!

    P.S. have any other home automation goodies?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      I do… I’ll post an update soon.

  21. Stephen Goldberg Stephen Goldberg

    Thanks for this! Worked for me perfectly!

  22. Rob Rob

    Followed these instructions the other night and everything works perfect! Thanks!

  23. Vitaliy Vishnevskiy Vitaliy Vishnevskiy

    Very interesting. Looks like Remotec switch is not available again. Which is a shame because it seems like it is the only one that has a built-in option to turn the fireplace off after a period of time – that doesn’t rely on zwave. I think one need to have that. Any thoughts on alternatives? Thanks

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Vitaliy,
      The MIMOlite Module (http://amzn.to/2rdvz0m) looks like a viable alternative to the Remotec relay.

      • Vitaliy Vishnevskiy Vitaliy Vishnevskiy

        I really liked the Remotec because of the ability to integrate it with the standalone switch. Also, it has the ability to turn of the fireplace based on the timer. I actually could not do that before. This works even if the zwave network is not available. I contacted Remotec and was told that more are coming. Sure enough, within a couple of weeks they had more at Amazon. I just installed it yesterday and all is well. It is somewhat of a niche product and they do go in and out of stock quite often. I recommend setting up a tracker such as camelcamelcamel.com and buy one as soon they they are back in stock.

  24. Rodger Rodger

    Do you have to splice the wires coming from the switch to the controller? Can you just add two wires from the relay to the wires already attached to the controller and leave the wall switch wires as they are? I just ordered all the listed parts from Amazon and will try to tackle this when they come in. Any other automation tips as I also use Wink and Alexa.

    Thanks

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Roger,
      You could probably just connect the switch wires to the relay and then connect two new wires from the relay to the fireplace controller.

  25. […] of my most popular posts is a tutorial I wrote two years ago about automating a gas fireplace and I get a lot of questions about home automation, so thought I’d write an update to that […]

  26. Aaron Aaron

    Hi Charles: would love to implement this; hoping you can help with some questions.

    First, my fireplace controller is a Dexen IPI variant (Dexen Fireplace Control Module https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MIFXG4M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FQ93AbK0641ET). As you can see, (a) it has several wires running to it and (b) those wires connect to the controller via a molex-esque connector. How would I connect the relay to this?

    Second, if it all possible, I’d like to not have to splice the switch wires ( in case, for some reason, I’d like to replace the original set up down the road). Is there a way to do that passively?

    Thank you!

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Aaron,
      To answer your questions:
      1. Can you connect a relay? Yes. Basically you have to connect the relay in between the wall switch and the controller. These are the two brown wires shown in the diagrams above.
      2. If you don’t want to cut wires, you might be out of luck. It may be possible to rig something up by splicing a new connector together, but I’d have to see your wiring.
      If you are in any doubt about this, please hire an electrician. Good luck!

  27. Eugene Borodin Eugene Borodin

    I realize this is an older thread but may be someone can chime in:. I don’t understand how this would work wirh stand alone switch. Can someone confirm that fireplace would be able to turn on and off using both existing wall switch and zwave function? Would I be able to turn it on using the switch and turn off using hub and then turn on again using switch for example? Or switch has to stay on top use the relay?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Hi Eugene. I can confirm that it works with the existing wall switch and the ZWave function. For example, let’s say you turn the fireplace on with ZWave. The switch will be in the off position. To turn it off, turn the wall switch to on and then to off and the fireplace will go off.

      • H Bondar H Bondar

        Eugene, I echo Charles’ response — that’s exactly how it works for me.

  28. Nick Nick

    Hello- this explaination was exactly what I was look g for, so thank you for that. I do have a question, if I didn’t want to hook the new zwave switch to the existing switch, would it still work on its own?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      You can use the Zwave relay by itself. It does have a button which you can use to turn the fireplace on/off, but the switch itself doesn’t fit in a standard faceplate.

      • Dave Dave

        The Remotec is only slightly to big for the standard faceplate. I used a file on the faceplate and with a couple of minutes of careful filing on all sides of the hole (so the switch stays center) I made the faceplate fit without too much effort.

  29. Nathalie Nathalie

    Thanks for the great post. I am thinking to buy the Remotec for my fireplace (similar heatilator) but like many have described, I have 2 wall switches. The one that would be taken care of by the Remotec but also the ones with all the buttons including the fan (HTI-12-007 or link: http://www.finesgas.com/product_extra_files/WSK-MLT-INSTALL-MANUAL.pdf). Did anybody manage to make this method work (or with alternates) with the 2 switch setup? Thanks

  30. Austin Andersen Austin Andersen

    I am having trouble connecting my fireplace. I have a dual switch set up with the first one being a safety/fan and the second one low-voltage. I successfully connected the relay switch. However I still have to use the switches manually on the wall. When I turn on the safety one first followed by the low-voltage the relay control lights up. I can pair it to smart things but that still doesn’t let me control it. I am having trouble connecting my fireplace. I have a dual switch set up with the first one being a safety/fan and the second one low-voltage. I successfully connected the relay switch. However I still have to use the switches manually on the wall. When I turn on the safety one first followed by the low-voltage the relay control lights up. I can parrot to smart things but that still doesn’t let me control it.
    https://imgur.com/gallery/ao358JD
    Check out photos

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      Does the button on the relay turn on the fireplace? Also is the LED on the relay lit up?

  31. Bruce Bruce

    Maybe I’m over simplifying this but… Several of you have mentioned that you have a control box (Dexen or other brand) under your fireplace that is powered by a regular wall power adapter and then it has wires going to a switch on the wall… My question is why can’t you just leave the switch in the on position and plug the power adapter into any number of smart outlets like this TP-Lhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K1JVZOE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QKF5Bb43CBSVR

    Then you can use your phone, voice, Alexa, Google to turn on the smart switch whenever you want which would turn on the fireplace and then the wall switch could be used as a kill switch. Basically it’s just cutting off power to the control box under the fireplace which is essentially the same as if the power went out. Then you could still power it with batteries if the power actually did go out.

    • Bryce Bryce

      I thought the exact same thing, so I actually tried it on my own gas fireplace. I used a similar TP-Link smart plug and configured it to work with Alexa. When it came to turning the fireplace OFF, it worked like a charm. However, when I commanded to turn the smart plug ON, the fireplace did not ignite. I had to manually toggle the switch ( turn it OFF, then ON) for the fireplace to start again.

      I’m no electrician, so I have no idea why returning power to the plug when the switch was already in the ON position did not work. In the end, what seemed like the most simple solution turned out to not be a working solution after all.

  32. John John

    Nice Post!
    In my case, I only have access to the 2 low voltage wires for my gas fireplace connect to the manual switch. I.e. I dont have access to a 110V for the switch to operate. Any advise for my case? Any battery powered z-wave/zigbee switch I can use?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      The fireplace module itself most likely runs on 110V, so you may have to get creative. I’m not really sure otherwise.

      • Paul Paul

        Thanks for the reply. With my Dexen controller with only 1 brown wire,I looked at the manual again and used the red wire that goes to the battery as the 2nd brown wire to the Zwave controller and that worked! Love it! Thanks for posting otherwise I wouldn’t have known that this is even possible!

  33. Paul Thai Paul Thai

    Hi, thanks for posting and sharing your knowledge! I have a heatnglo fireplace with the Dexen 2166-307 controller. I do not have a wall switch. My installer only gave me an RF remote. I do see 1 brown wire that’s not used in the Dexen controller. I don’t have a 2nd brown wire. How do I connect the Remotec zwave relay to the Dexen controller? Do I not connect anything to the the wall switch part of the Remotec relay since I don’t have a wall switch? Lastly the power cable you have in the link has a green ground wire. Do you just ground the green wire? Is it ok to get a 2 prong cable with just the white and black cable? Thanks in advance!

  34. juan juan

    Worked like a charm. Thank you for the very easy to follow instructions. Saved me about $300 to get someone else to do it.

  35. Nathan Nathan

    Hi I was looking around and found your site and bought everything and it works with Alexa and it’s great but the switch isn’t working. And it’s connected the way you have it but the switch won’t turn the fireplace on or off. What am I doing wrong

  36. This worked like a charm. Thank you for the tip on the power cord!

  37. Murphy Murphy

    Thanks for sharing Charles. I read this, took a quick look under my fireplace to verify the same set-up, then ordered the recommended parts. However, while installing I realized that the plug I saw was actually from the fan, and that the gas fireplace didn’t seem to have a power source. After some research I figured out my fireplace doesn’t have a power supply, and that the switch is powered by a themocouple. This required me to re-think the solution since the only outlet under the fireplace is controlled by the fan switch. Wanted to share my approach in case anybody else has the same set-up.

    Existing Fireplace Info
    – Gas Thermocouple Fireplace
    – Fan plugged into outlet below fireplace
    – 2 switches on the wall – 1 for the fire (connected to the controller via low voltage wires) and 1 for the fan (controls an outlet under the fireplace that the fan is plugged in to)

    Thermocouple Gas Fireplace Solution
    1. Follow the steps described in this article to wire the relay.
    2. For the switch that previously controlled the fire, remove the switch and connect the 2 low voltage wires together to complete the circuit (I covered this box with a blank wall plate since it no longer has a switch).
    3. Plug in the fan through a smart plug under the fireplace.

    I now have one switch that controls the fire (previously controlled the fan), but no switch for the fan. We hardly ever use the fan so having to turn it on via the smart plug isn’t a big deal. This was the best solution I could envision without having to run wiring for a second electrical outlet under the fireplace.

  38. Excellent, what a website it is! This webpage gives useful data to
    us, keep it up.

  39. Hi everyone, I hope I have found a simple solution.
    Firstly I have a Lennox gas fireplace with the fan being operated by the 110v plug, when unplugged the pilot light provides a millivolt to enable a simple toggle switch to ignite the fire. (correct me if im wrong)
    Secondly if I was to take out this toggle switch and install: (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07DDCL8P5/?coliid=I36FCM8CAYRT9N&colid=2O09KPHBH4END&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it)
    would my dreams of turning my fireplace on from my phone in bed before getting out of bed come true haha?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      I believe so!

  40. Dave Dave

    I have tested this with the Remotec relay with nothing put back into the wall/gang boxes yet, so as not to commit myself to it yet… here’s the last thing I want to be able to do with this:
    Right now, if the power goes out, I can still run my fireplace to heat my home. With this Relay configuration, if I remove power from the relay, the manual switch does nothing. The Remotec apparently needs power to “relay” the toggle to the fireplace. Any thoughts from anyone on how to make sure I can still use the manual switch even when the power is out? There is no point to leaving the manual switch connected otherwise. I can just as easily press the bottom on the relay for manual operation as long as there is power.

    • Wesley Cowley Wesley Cowley

      I had a similar setup (1 fire switch and 1 fan switch) and used a mimolite relay and a Zwave switch respectively… I then created a manual override (just through 2 wires in parallel) and went back to the original fire switch to allow me to use the fireplace as usual in case of power failures or mechanical breakdowns

  41. Mark Mark

    Sure glad I found you. I have the same setup…wall switch that is low voltage that turns the fireplace on, then a fan that kicks on once the firebox has reached a certain temp. The fan does not have its own switch…it just runs when the box is hot,a nod turns off when the temperature drops.

    Went down the “easy” path and thought I’d simply replace the wall switch with a Zwave capable switch, so that obviously didn’t work.

    My question is that, if I install the Remotec Zwave Dry Contact Fixture Module as you describe, down near the fan unit, do I then put the wall switch in a permanent “on” position, and the zwave controller then triggers the fire to come on? Then since the unit is powered due to zwave turning it on,, the fan will have power and will activate based in the temperature of the firebox?

    I hope that makes sense!

  42. Sam Sam

    Hi, thanks for this great discussion! I’m wondering if I can just put the fireplace outlet on a switched smart switch. I want to have a 3 way set up where we can turn the fireplace on/off with either the app/siri or use the switch. The set up I just did with TvXmedia only allows on/off with the same device. Can anyone see any downsides to just switching the 120V input into the fireplace?

  43. Josh Josh

    If I connect a TP link smart plug in to my 110V outlet under the fireplace and follow the rest of your instructions will it work so I can use the Kasa app to control it?

    • Charles Givre Charles Givre

      I’m not really sure what benefit the TP link smart plug would give you in this case. You need a Zwave hub to communicate with the relay.

  44. Debbie Debbie

    Thanks so much for posting this! It *looked* easy enough, but as with a lot of things, I took the long way around. After frying (through no fault of your directions) my first Remotec Zwave Dry Contact Fixture (they can still be found on eBay for about $30) and accidentally dislodging a soldered wire and then mis-connecting everything back before accidentally figuring it out again, it’s FINALLY working! Yay! Your directions were spot on. I have the controller set up through the Z-Wave integration in Home Assistant, so I’m able to set up routines that way, and also through spoken Echo commands. (Because the remote we already had wasn’t cool enough.) Hallelujah!

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