Remote thermostat

[BlackSilver]

For you snowbirds who have "remote controlled thermostats", what do you use? What are the things you like, AND the things that you don't like about your model?

I'm thinking about leaving my DSL/Internet link in place this winter, and installing a thermostat with remote control.

I "must have" the following minimum features:

-- alert if the house temperature drops below a predetermined temperature (45-degrees?)
-- ability to check current temp from my smart phone or tablet.
-- ability to adjust temperature from my smart phone or tablet.
-- no monthly fees (other than having to keep my DSL active)

Other nice to have, but not deal breaker features:

-- alert if the house temperature rises above a predetermined temperature (80 degrees?)
-- display outdoor temperature
-- ability to tie in other sensors/cameras/whatever

Right now I'm leaning toward a couple of Honeywell "WiFi Smart thermostat" models which cover all of my "must have" features. Cost around $200.

Comments/recommendations?

[John_Joey]

After 30 years in IT I set up my place with the eye on cost, KISS, and redundancy (i.e. I skipped the technology bling that breaks down at the worst time.)

What I did was bought $50 IP cameras, large outside thermometers, cube that turns a light on at freezing temps, and a flood alarm. All those items cost about $10 each and can be bought at a big box store.

I use the cameras motion and sound alarm to send me e-mails in the case of a flood (alarm siren goes off) or freezing temp (light comes on which is motion.) I also use the cameras (pan/tilt) to check out the room and what those large outside thermometers are showing for a temp in that room.

The camera's are open to the web which means I can keep an eye on everything no matter where I put it in park. Works for me.

[hedge]

I camp out in the mountains so pretty much never have wifi, i'd like to be able to find one that just has bluetooth so I could adjust it without getting out of bed.

[Hank_MI]

Installed a Sensi a little over a year ago. Ended up staying home last winter. Did use it a couple of times this summer to turn the AC on. We were headed back home in the MH and it was hot out. It did shoot me an email one of those times that the humidity was very high. It will send emails if it can't maintain the set temp.

[seaeagle2]

Honeywell Prestige thermostats only need two wires, and are wifi compatible.

[rclifton]

I replaced my thermostat with a Sensi wifi thermostat and so far it's worked great. It does not require a "c" wire, it also retains control of the fan (on or auto) but you do have to figure out if you want to use the low or high fan wire unless you want to add an additional toggle switch. I love being able to have the fan on with the furnace at the same time, really helps to circulate the air.

The only down side is with no "c" wire if you access it a lot via wifi it eats the "aa" batteries pretty quickly. It takes 2, so I bought a 4 pack of rechargeable double a's and just swap them out when they get down to 1 bar.

[hedge]

My gen-2 Nest has been flawless, I hear good things about the Ecobee as well.

[sayoung]

eric1514 wrote:

BlackSilver wrote:
Turns out the Honeywells all require a "C" wire which my system does not have.

Any other candidates besides nest?

Use the Venstar Add-a-Wire. Here's a video

Venstar Add-a-Wire installation

Just pull another thermostat wire with enough wires or leave old one on wall & move new one to a location you can get to.
Before retiring Me & my employees installed over 100 of the Honeywells with no issues & several of the Carrier OEM thermostat that came out as I was retiring.

[sch911]

BlackSilver wrote:
Turns out the Honeywells all require a "C" wire which my system does not have.

I don't have the C wire either but my Honneywell works just fine. They have work arounds for that sort of thing. You have to set it up on the furnace end by jumpering another wire. The result is that it works fine, but you have no manual control of the fan anymore it's always in Auto fan.

[eric1514]

BlackSilver wrote:
Turns out the Honeywells all require a "C" wire which my system does not have.

Any other candidates besides nest?

Use the Venstar Add-a-Wire. Here's a video

Venstar Add-a-Wire installation

[BlackSilver]

Turns out the Honeywells all require a "C" wire which my system does not have.

Any other candidates besides nest?

[You_can_t_take_]

I am in my house right now with a Nest Thermostat. After some initial issues when it was originally installed (on an older existing furnace) it seemed to work fine for about 4 months (until mid March this year). I was still in Florida when it stopped transmitting local weather conditions at home. I have worked with Nest tech support since then and although they tell me it's a software issue.. it is still not resolved. Now that my furnace season has started again it is giving me incorrect readings of weather conditions here at home and just in the last couple of days it is screwing up the 'history' screen which shows that the furnace has been running all day every day... but I'm here and I know it's not!! So I'm with sch911 above! My next one will be a Honeywell!!

[96Bounder30E]

Have you looked at "nest"?

[sch911]

I use an older Honeywell which has those features (they all pretty much do if WiFi enabled).

But the Lyric ($150) is the one I'll be upgrading to:



Honeywell Lyric