Before I talk to an electrician I’m trying to understand how to wire all these mats to the thermostat. One of the diagrams you sent indicate a ‘junction box’ between the mats and the thermostat. Could you explain how this is used?

Also, and this is a dumb ‘non-electrical guy’ question, the thermostat has black and red wires but the romex has black, white and bare wires. Am I correct in thinking that the red and white go together when bringing power to the theromstat, and that the bare goes to the green from the mats?

I don’t want to sound like a dope when I talk to the electrician…

Thanks – Murph

Hi Murph, welcome to the forums. Depending on what system of ours you are using, the wiring for the junction box will be slightly different.

If you are using our under-tile system; each mat will have two lead wires. It sounds like you have a 240volt system due to the fact that your thermostat has red and black wires. The romex you have sounds like it is color coded for 120v, that is, it has black and white wires running through it. You should be able to use it, but I wold recommend using some sort of colored tape on it to signify that you have 240 volts running through it.

Take all the lead wires from you mats that have the red tag on them, and connect them to either your black or white. Take all the leads that have the white tags, and connect them to whichever wire you havent used yet (black or white). Each lead wire should have a braided ground sheathing in it – these will all tie off to the bare copper wire.

If you are using the under carpet system, each mat will have one thick, black lead wire containing two smaller black wires, and a green/yellow wire. In this case, one thin, black wire from each mat will run to the black wire in the romex, and the other thin black wire will run to the white romex wire. All of the green/yellow wires will connect to the bare copper.

I hope this answers your question, please let me know if I can clarify anything for you.

—Seth

Seth – thanks for the answer. You’ve cleared up some things, but I’m sorry I wasn’t more specific. I’m installing Environ II under floated bamboo hardwood; because of the size of the room your wizards decided I needed a 240 volt system. If I need a different type of romex for a 240 volt system I’ll get it. I’m going to be running the wires from the mats down through the floor (the best alternative, trust me, and Chad says it’s OK) and then across the basement to underneath where the thermostat will be.

I still need to understand how a ‘junction box’ can be used. My assumption is that the wires from the 6 mats can be gathered into the junction box (in my case in the basement) and connected to the appropriate wires in the romex (i.e. 6 #1 wires to black, six #2 to white (or vice versa) and 6 green/yellow to bare) and then one romex wire goes to the thermostat. Does that sound right?

Thanks – Terry

Terry,

If you are using a 240v system the wires in the romex should be black, red, and green or bare copper. You are correct in your wiring though; each Environ lead wire has three wires in it (2 black and a green/yellow), Take one black from each lead and connect it to the black or red in the romex, take the other black and connect it to whichever black or red romex you haven’t used yet, and the green/yellows will all connect to green or bare copper. I hope this is a little more clear than my last post, please give me a call if you need any more assistance.

Seth
800.875.5285 ext815