Don't mount your thermostat over your Almond+

[thepeel]

This seems like something I should have thought of before going through the trouble of wall mounting, but I didn't. Tonight I finally got around to wall mounting my Almond+ (Don't use the wall bracket, it just pops off, it does make a good template though). While determining a good location to show the thing off, I decided that mounting it right under my nest would look really cool.

A short while after completing the install, I noticed the heat wasn't coming on anymore. I walked over to the Nest and it said the temperature was 84 degrees! I thought maybe it had something to do with jostling it during the A+ install. Then I put my hand over the A+ and realized that it's putting out a ton of heat that's going right to the Nest.

So now I have to figure out how to reorient them so they can still look really cool, but also function properly together.

There's nothing I love more than doing things twice

-peel

[Amritendu]

Ya, the heat pipe dissipates heat through the vents and placing a thermostat at its vicinity isn't a great idea...

[LGNilsson]

Well, the wall bracket works just fine, the problem is that the holes aren't deep enough/needs special screws. A small mistake on our side. That said, 3M control strips works a treat and I'm using them to wall mount mine...

Nice cow btw 

[beingageek]

Just wanted to comment, that's a super clean looking install!

[msmollin]

Nice mount job, even if it does mean remounting it afterwards.

For what it's worth, heat dissipation is significantly reduced when the screen turns off. The top of mine is barely warm to the touch with screen off, but with screen on after a few minutes heat is pouring out the top. I realize it's still not great news for you as you should probably still remount it, but it may be workable until you find the gumption to patch & paint the wall

[msmollin]

For my own curiosity sake - what did you do with the wall wart? Old work gang box and stuff it behind?

[thepeel]

Thanks for the compliments. I'm going to see if I have room to go side by side or how reversing them will look.

As for how I mounted it, I have a small rack in the basement with the modem, gigabit switch, UPS, NAS and some other stuff. I ran 3 ethernet cables up through the wall one from the modem and one from the switch.  Then I used a POE adapter to run power from the wall wart to the router. I was just going to splice the wire from the wall wart but this seemed cleaner in the end. Here's the link to the adapter I used: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DZLSRJC I found it form one of the other threads. Also, in case you were wondering the Almond+ doesn't run off of POE, the adapter just uses the cat6 cable to extend the cable.

I'll let you know if I come up with another nice looking install option.

[fillibar]

I like the clean look. You just need a touch-sensitive button or even a decora-style switch (in black) to replace the normal one you have next to those. It seems out of place.

As for the mounting... do you just have the cables running out of the wall to just below it, or did you do anything special with a bracket or such? Take a picture when you move it so we can see how you had it on there and kept everything clean. I just moved mine today and mounted it on the wall and I want to do something with the wires...

[thepeel]

I'm definitely feeling the same way about the switch, even the wife noticed it. I'm just trying to decide what I'm getting for the HA stuff and then will replace other non-automated switches to match.

As for the cables, I have about a 2" x 2" hole behind the A+. There's enough room back there that if you give yourself enough side to side room that you should have no problem routing cables. I'm using CAT6 which, due to the stiff plastic core, is much stiffer than your normal CAT5e but I still didn't have much problem getting it to comply with my wishes.

As you'll see in the pictures, the stuff behind the A+ isn't exactly pretty, but it does the job. I thought about mounting a trim plate or a narrow single-gang box, but ultimately decided it wasn't necessary based on where my runs from the basement come from. I may still go back and do it on this next go around though. The extra hole in the center is the old hole for the thermostat wires.

The extra two anchors are for where the A+ wall mount plate went. I have some very flat head screws but apparently they were still too tall to use that mounting plate. So I used it as a template to drill the holes to mount it directly to the wall and it worked perfect. I just got a very small drill bit and drilled right through the top hole on the mount plate and everything from there went super easy.

I will say that the A+ did want to torque a little bit with the bottom pushing away from the cables since those screws are so high. A little wiggling of the wires and some pushing and it sat flat without too much of a fight.

I plan on patching everything up this week and then trying to reverse the orientation so the nest is on the bottom this week. I'll post picts once I"m done. The way things go around here it will probably be another month before I actually get it done

[thepeel]

Also, last night I had mounted it again to snap that second pic. The babysitter showed up and I forgot to pull it down. We got home from a night out and it was freezing in our house, and she was all wrapped up in blankets. After she left I looked over and realized why. The Nest thought it was 83 in here even with the screen off. My wife texted her to apologize for it being so cold. Whoops 

[chitechguy]

Here's the link to the adapter I used: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DZLSRJC I found it form one of the other threads

FYI according to reviews this adapter will limit you to 100Mb connection on whichever cord you use it on. Still, happy to know that product exists.

[LGNilsson]

It's the same for all passive PoE injectors afaik.

[thepeel]

FYI according to reviews this adapter will limit you to 100Mb connection on whichever cord you use it on. Still, happy to know that product exists.

That's correct. That's why I'm only using it as a power extender only and have a separate line for data to the switch. I didn't feel like splicing in other wire and going through the hassle of soldering and all of that when a $4 solution was at hand. So I have: 1 - CAT 6 cable from the Modem to the router; 1 -  CAT 6 cable from the router to the gigabit switch. And 1 - CAT 6 cable that is just being used as the power extender.

I actually do have the end of the POE injector plugged into the router as it ensures the power cable won't come out. It basically acts as sort of a tether. I don't have the other end plugged into anything.

[sgfgator]

Hey Peel,
That does suck. I HATE having to do something twice like that. I must say, its a shame that the A+ puts out that much heat because the way you had it mounted under the Nest really looked impressive. Any Chance you would be able to get my A+ mounted? 

[thepeel]

So I finally got things patched up and remounted. Just swapping their positions allowed me to mount them in the same location and the heat issue as gone away. With my luck I was waiting for the A+ to start blowing heat down ;P I don't like the balance as much as I did the other way around but it was the easiest solution and still looks pretty good. Now I just need to do something about that switch plate since as someone mentioned before it does sort of wreck the look.

Anyway, the wall mount is fairly painless as long as you don't mount your thermostat above it. And, with some good cat6 cable and that adapter I used, you can power the thing from 30 feet away no problem. I think I'm going through 40 feet of cable if not more.

-peel