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I have a baseboard heater that is currently controlled by an end-cap thermostat on the unit itself. I removed the old baseboard heater and replaced it with a new one along with the thermostat cap. It would be nice to have a wall thermostat--maybe even a smart one. Is that a difficult project? It seems like I need to find the electrical wire from the panel to the baseboard heater, cut the wire (assuming there's some slack in the line), and then install the thermostat with the line going to the thermostat and the load going to the baseboard heater. Obviously, also uninstall the end-cap thermostat on the heater.

Other relevant info info: it's a 240v 15A circuit with a 750 watt baseboard heater.

What say you? Should I hire an electrician or do it myself?

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  • It could be difficult project depending on your skills. Probably it helps if you give us more info like model, and maybe a picture.
    – DIY75
    Commented Dec 19, 2022 at 8:27

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Given the skill challenge and that there are no existing wires, you might actually be better off going with a 24-volt control system.

You would install a Honeywell Aube relay-in-box (or competitor) that aside from connecting to the heater power wires, also contains a 24-volt transformer and exposes both sides of the transformer (R and C) and also relay control (W). You could then wire this to a 24-volt "gas furnace style" thermostat, including most popular smart 'stats such as the Nest.

Connection from the heater to thermostat could be made with simple /3 thermostat cable (reusing green as "C").

Thus, all the high voltage work would be done entirely inside the heater's thermostat box.

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  • Interesting--I will read up on this. I appreciate the information and insight. One of the main problems with being a DIYer is that we tend not to know about all of the devices and tools that are available to make projects less challenging. Thank you.
    – Vmarc
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 23:37

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