Internet Accessible Thermostat, Advice?

[Rustic23]

When we built our lake house, multi time settings were all the rage. So we installed one with 4 zones. Then we retired and moved to the lake. The one in the guest house, set to 80 deg. And hold. Main house, night time and day time temp. If you plan on retireing to your lake house I would practice the KISS principle, and save my money.

 

[airbornesapper]

To the original poster... I just want to clarify your ring comments....I’ll do so using an extract from the Ring Website...

“ The Ring network is a temporary access point that you use when your'e setting up a Ring device, before you connect to your home wifi network. After you connect to your home wifi network, you will no longer be connected to the Ring network.”

Once the initial set up of a Ring product is complete, and the in app setup is over... so is the temp connection between your phone and the product.

For what it’s worth I’m a Ring product tester by the way....

As for a thermostat... I use a Centralite Pearl... it’s run flawlessly for 3 years.... It’s connected and controlled via Smartthings/ With additional control by Google and Alexa...

 

[FIREarly]

I'm using a Honeywell also and pleased with it. In fact last year they were giving them away free. I have 2 for spares sitting on my desk.

Who is "they"?
Pronoun reference error

 

[Ian S]

I love my Sensi by Emerson. It was on the cheaper end and has exceeded my expectations for two years with no issues (pretty remarkable for anything "connected" not once has it dropped). Alexa compatible and I love being able to control the HVAC by voice in bed with my eyes closed.

+1 I also have been pleased with my Sensi touch thermostats (two separate heat pumps.) Bought them on Amazon for a great price. The only smart thermostat I can compare them to is the Trane branded one that was installed with a new gaspac in 2016 in our old Phoenix home. That one allowed you to access a bewildering amount of data including every time the unit switched on and off, or the temperature changed by one degree. Kind of overkill for anyone but an engineer like me.

 

[2cheap2eat]

We use Honeywell Wifi thermostats (with nice color displays) and can access our thermostats for control and monitoring using a phone app or via laptop/PC using a web browser.

This model at all properties.

https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-TH...6679&s=hi&sprefix=honeywell+,tools,187&sr=1-8

I have a Honeywell thermostat too, probably an older model that was on sale for $99. Their app is pretty easy to use. They had problems couple of years ago of not connecting, but they seemed to have addressed all that. Best part is no monthly sub fees!

 

[Retired Expat]

We are building a new lake home and I want to be able to remotely control the thermostat settings. I'm a computer designer by trade but have not kept up with the home automation world, which appears to be fairly chaotic.

I recently had a bad experience with Ring. I bought a battery operated motion light and a "bridge" controller for it. During setup it insisted in getting my home address and by the end it had set up its own wifi network, bridged to my home network, and giving their servers essentially unlimited access to our house. All for a single motion light. The controller has long since departed into the garbage can and I will never buy a Ring device again. Ring and Amazon (recent news stories) seem to have taken it on themselves to manage their customers' security hardware. Baaad juju, IMO.

So ... assembled experts, can you point me to a thermostat that I can access without relying on a vendor's servers somewhere to relay the control? I am thinking of something where I can just open a single port on the firewall and restrict that traffic to accessing only the thermostat. Or maybe use a VPN some way. Down the road I may add some cameras and will want the same kind of setup with none of my information stored at or passing through a vendor. Any ideas?[/QUOTE

I rent my home out and shut down or turn everything down when not occupied. I like the Ecobee fir it features and control from my iPhone 5000 miles away. Can use room sensors to automatically cut back if rooms are unoccupied. Works well and saves money!

 

[2177V]

We have NEST thermostats and LOVE them!

I also have a NEST thermostat and I LOVE it! Made by Google so you do need a google account. I also hate Ring. Here is CNET review on NEST.

https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/nest-thermostat-2020-review-a-better-nest-for-less/

 

[Deuce]

I have three simple Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostats from 2016 and love them. My father-in-law has a nest thermostat and maybe it’s operator error but he’s always messing with it I’m not sure why.

 

[Wincherr]

Me too!

I use Honeywell thermostats in three homes and have no trouble connecting to them from anywhere.

Been using the Honeywell’s for over 15 years with zero issues.

 

[NancyH]

This might help you make your decision...https://www.thisoldhouse.com/smart-homes/22170012/best-smart-thermostats

 

[WestUniversity]

This is the one we have and so far it’s been great…

https://www.amazon.com/Emerson-Ther...ermostat&qid=1623526448&sprefix=sensei&sr=8-3

 

[bmcgonig]

We are building a new lake home and I want to be able to remotely control the thermostat settings. I'm a computer designer by trade but have not kept up with the home automation world, which appears to be fairly chaotic.



I recently had a bad experience with Ring. I bought a battery operated motion light and a "bridge" controller for it. During setup it insisted in getting my home address and by the end it had set up its own wifi network, bridged to my home network, and giving their servers essentially unlimited access to our house. All for a single motion light. The controller has long since departed into the garbage can and I will never buy a Ring device again. Ring and Amazon (recent news stories) seem to have taken it on themselves to manage their customers' security hardware. Baaad juju, IMO.



So ... assembled experts, can you point me to a thermostat that I can access without relying on a vendor's servers somewhere to relay the control? I am thinking of something where I can just open a single port on the firewall and restrict that traffic to accessing only the thermostat. Or maybe use a VPN some way. Down the road I may add some cameras and will want the same kind of setup with none of my information stored at or passing through a vendor. Any ideas?[/QUOTE



I rent my home out and shut down or turn everything down when not occupied. I like the Ecobee fir it features and control from my iPhone 5000 miles away. Can use room sensors to automatically cut back if rooms are unoccupied. Works well and saves money!

Just FYI something I learned after I bought an Ecobee. It doesn’t work with a two wire thermostat, e.g., heat only. Needs a Common wire to power it.

 

[OfficeSpace]

Just FYI something I learned after I bought an Ecobee. It doesn’t work with a two wire thermostat, e.g., heat only. Needs a Common wire to power it.

For thermostats that control equipment wirelessly, the existing two wires can be repurposed as power and ground.

As a "COVID project" last year I upgraded our HVAC system from old two-wire rotary thermostats to five Honeywell RedLink touchscreens controlling four oil-fired hot water baseboard zones and one whole-house A/C "zone" via an HZ432 with remote Internet access through a RedLink Gateway. I sourced all parts on eBay (some new, most used) for well under MSRP. I work in IT (not for much longer!) and have no significant security concerns.

 

[bmcgonig]

For thermostats that control equipment wirelessly, the existing two wires can be repurposed as power and ground. [emoji106]

You’re a better man than me

 

[jazz4cash]

Another Emerson Sensi fan here. In service for ~ 6 months. Maybe dropped WiFi signal once. Could be a problem in the future. I have another to install on the secondary unit. Our utility was selling them for $25 with a subsidy from the surcharge we all pay. I’m not too keen on proliferation of smart household appliances but do love controlling Tstat from my phone.

 

[2177V]

One feature of my Nest that I really like: you can program it to locate your phone via gps. When the nest determine that my phone and my wife’s phone is not nearby which means we are not home, it shuts down everything to save energy. This feature explains why our utility company are offering a cash rebate on the purchase of one. People should check their utility company to determine if the smart thermostat qualifies for one. My nest cost $110 but I got a cash rebate of $50.

 

[athena53]

And here's an article about people who got the thermostat in exchange for an incentive and didn't read the fine print.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...dents-smart-thermostats/ar-AALe7LL?li=BBnbfcL

One guy they quoted was upset that his temperature setting was moved up to 78- heck, I'm 68 and heave leaky heart valves and I keep mine at 80 ordinarily. In this case, the power company isn't the bad guy.

When the Nest determines that my phone and my wife’s phone is not nearby which means we are not home, it shuts down everything to save energy.

As I noted earlier, mine resets itself to "Away" when it detects no motion near the thermostat, even if I'm in the house with my phone. I disabled the feature that turns it off when I'm "away" and set it manually to Eco when I'm going to be gone for a few days. One of the features I REALLY like is being able to reset it to my preferred temperature when I'm a few hours away from home after a trip.

 

[Music Lover]

And here's an article about people who got the thermostat in exchange for an incentive and didn't read the fine print.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...dents-smart-thermostats/ar-AALe7LL?li=BBnbfcL

One guy they quoted was upset that his temperature setting was moved up to 78- heck, I'm 68 and heave leaky heart valves and I keep mine at 80 ordinarily. In this case, the power company isn't the bad guy.

I set my temp in summer to the warmest comfortable number and in winter to the coolest comfortable number and do not want someone else to have the power to decide that it should be different.

If you don't mind their interference that's fine but I want nothing to do with it.

 

[levindb]

In SC, our utility company gave us 2 FREE ecobee thermostats, including installation. They also give us $10/mo off of our utility bill for 3 years.

In exchange for this money, we have to agree to let them change the temperature by up to 3° during winter morning and summer afternoons. We can opt out of 30% of the changes if we want to. They give us an email alert on those days that they want to control things.

With our travel schedule (soon to return to normal) we have no problem with the agreement. Previous owners used about $305/mo of elec, and we are averaging about $120.

 

[Music Lover]

One feature of my Nest that I really like: you can program it to locate your phone via gps. When the nest determine that my phone and my wife’s phone is not nearby which means we are not home, it shuts down everything to save energy. This feature explains why our utility company are offering a cash rebate on the purchase of one. People should check their utility company to determine if the smart thermostat qualifies for one. My nest cost $110 but I got a cash rebate of $50.

I turn the temp down some time before we leave. The app doesn't know when you're leaving and must wait until you leave which is less efficient....you might be in the middle of another furnace cycle as you walk out the door.

We also raise the temp before we come home so that it's warm when we get home which is better for our comfort than coming home to a cold house. We also factor in how cold it is outside and how long it will take to bring the house back up to a comfortable temperature.