Smart Thermostats

[Neutron]

We have a 5 year old Nest 2nd gen and lately it’s been flaking on us with changing the thermostat temp on us by 2 degrees or so even though we aren’t changing it and we turned off the auto set feature.

I don’t use Alexa and would rather not deal with a microphone if possible. What would a good smart thermostat replacement be? I like being able to use my phone to adjust it.

 

[Foxbat]

We have an Ecobee 3 that has done a great job over the years. Integration with Alexa, Google, and Siri is nice, with Alexa built into the new Ecobee 4.

The big differentiator of the Ecobee are the remote “bees”, each providing temperature, humidity, and occupation data. That allows the Ecobee to set the temperature to a comfortable temperature in the rooms where you’re at, and you can program the system to use a subset of the Bees at different times (say the bedrooms during the night).

If the Ecobee is programmed for occupancy at a given time and no one is home, it will go into a “Smart Away” mode. The opposite is true as well. You can set up a Geo Fence and if your phone goes more than a certain distance away, it sets itself to Away (unless motion is observed).

Your Ecobee account allows you to go back and track when the system called for heat or AC and what the outside temperature was. A real data nerd’s thermostat.

 

[osu1991]

I use a Honeywell RTH 6580WF in both homes. The Honeywell app works well on my phones and tablets. Also works fine with Alexa

 

[navychop]

We have a Honeywell THX9321R5000. Or at least that’s the number on the back. It works with a remote in our MBR that we very much like, model REM5000R.

We don’t have the ability to “phone home” to tell the house to start cooling when our schedule changes. We would like to have that. But I’m not sure what Honeywell upgrade works with that remote. We like that it sets temp based on the remote or the thermostat.

And Alexa integration would be a MAJOR plus.

Last time I looked on the Honeywell site, I found no compatibility info.

Do you know if your RTH6580 would work with the remote?

And no, using an iPhone in place of the current remote is not desired.




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[osu1991]

Not a clue if that remote would work with the 6580.

 

[navychop]

I’ve learned it must be Redlink compatible. That’s how those two talk to each other. Hard to determine which device would make it WiFi remote controlled. Could be $100. Or over $300.

Might just call Honeywell. And might have to look at replacing the whole thing. Maybe something that plays nice with Alexa.


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[Neutron]

We’ve been reading up on Ecobee. I think we could do fine with the 3 Lite. Still deciding though.

 

[Foxbat]

I was riding with my wife in her car when I posted above, so I wasn't really able to do more than the one post. I'll post some screenshots from our account (not the App) to show their Home IQ data. (I'm not too sure how they'll look after the site's upload software gets done with them)

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(looks like they present the necessary data. The App doesn't get into that much detail, it's more for control and setup.)

The Ecobee 3 Lite is just the thermostat unit. When I bought it, the 3 came with two of the Bees, I've added one since then, but now they sell them in two-packs.

Also, realize that this system does not address furnace zoning, where there are dampers in the supply lines to a room which can shut off unused rooms. Those systems are much more expensive.

As you can see form the fifth slide, our Ecobee 3 has definitely paid for itself over the years.

 

[harshness]

I recommend the Ecobee 4. I like not having to grab a device or get off the couch to communicate to the thermostat that "I'm cold" (Alexa, tell Ecobee that I'm cold) and it will bump the thermostat two degrees. The Ecobee 4 can be qeueried verbally for information about temperatures at the remote sensors (by name) and you can change all sorts of parameters or just tell it to turn on the fan. The Ecobee 3 probably supports these features with a conventional Echo and the Alexa app.

The standard Ecobee series thermostats can also be connected with your utility so they can make minor adjustments to your settings for a monthly bonus.

Support for Nest in the Apple ecosystem was still a two-step process last time I checked.

 

[navychop]

Hmmm. Now there’s some question that it won’t work with certain Lennox installations. I’ll have to figure a way to determine if mine is one.


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[Neutron]

Thanks everyone! I definitely like that the ecobee gives you more info than the Nest.

 

[Foxbat]

Hmmm. Now there’s some question that it won’t work with certain Lennox installations

We have a Lennox, but I'm not sure of the model. It's a Signature High-Efficiency unit, but it uses the usual 4-wire (maybe 5-wire?) thermostat wire. I have a module that came with the Ecobee to adapt some more unusual set-ups, but our furnace/AC did not require it.

 

[Foxbat]

I was looking at the ecobee site and I see they have refurbished ecobee 3 units for $129.
Factory Re-Certified ecobee3 lite

 

[harshness]

I was looking at the ecobee site and I see they have refurbished ecobee 3 units for $129.

Costco here is selling new ones for $169.

 

[navychop]

The difference between 3 and 4 is size and Alexa? Anything else?


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[harshness]

Hmmm. Now there’s some question that it won’t work with certain Lennox installations. I’ll have to figure a way to determine if mine is one.

I have an older Lennox that was wired with wire nuts but I managed to turn my system into a five-wire once I figured out how the A/C was spliced in. I used the old four-wire cable to pull in fourty feet of six conductor cable.

When checking for voltages remember that you're looking for 24VAC on the red wire and not DC.

 

[harshness]

The difference between 3 and 4 is size and Alexa?

That's it. Both have the same size display and both come with one remote temperature/occupation sensor and the power extender.

The big plastic surround to hide the holes from an old installation may be different. I didn't need to use mine.

 

[Poke]

Yeah I have this on my list of things I've been looking at the newer generation of Nest or Ecobee plus I got a Smart Display recently so we use Google Assistant a lot as well..

 

[camo]

What unit would I need, all I need is 1- remote slave unit that controls the temperature from different location? The location of current thermostat picks up heat so reads on high when TV is turned on.

 

[Foxbat]

You can configure the ecobee to ignore the temperature at the main thermostat and rely solely on the remote bee(s). I thought about doing that with mine since the main unit is in our dining room and it gets the evening sun. It's better than when the thermostat was in the living room on the east side of the house as it was catching the full morning sun, resulting in a situation similar to what you're experiencing. Fortunately, I had basement access to the wall where I moved the thermostat to so it was an easy job. I left the old thermostat wire in the wall since the ceiling was finished in that section of the basement.

With more sensors your house should become more comfortable than relying on the one location over the electronics.