Smart Wifi thermostats | GTAMotorcycle.com

Smart Wifi thermostats

SunnY S

SunnY S

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My heating guy put in a smart wifi thermostat in my house after doing a few upgrades to the heating system (zoning)

I'm in love! With the free app, among a bunch of other features, can keep an eye on, and/or adjust the temps, while on the go! Since the wife and I have extremely varying schedules, its nice to be able to control the stat from the convenience of our phones instead of relying on a rigid preprogrammed set schedule. Cold night and heading home? Crank it up so its nice and toasty when I get home. Step out for quick moment and end up taking hours instead? Drop the temps and save some $$$$. Brilliant!


Looking to put one in the office now, but he says the one in my house only works with the Carrier brand.

Was thinking of the Nest, but reviews are so-so, and my heating guy says they are crap.

Anybody have? or a different brand that works well for them? Also considering the Honeywell wifi stat.
 
I think these are really cool and a good idea. We have an old school programmable thermostat (Honeywell) and it is not even backlit.

I would like to hear from others which model/make they have and how well it is working out for them.
 
I've been on the Peaksaver program for the better part of 2 yrs.
Not once have they tapped in. (I'm not a heavy power user).
I can set my heat or cooling from anywhere on the planet, as long as I've got a wi-fi connection, or I'm in front of a computer.
Using the Honeywell Programable thermostat, with backlight, and a Home Monitoring system included, just like this:

http://www.oakvillehydro.com/ohedi/conservation_peaksaver.aspx

It's great when flying back home, into Buffalo for instance. Summer, or winter, I can set it away from home, and when I get home, the house is the desired temp.

Love it.

p.s. Sunny - Make sure you can still make adjustments if you have the thermostat on "Permanent Hold".
I can't. Mine needs to be on a program, or "off".
 
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I tried for the Peaksaver but was told I couldnt because my furnace had 'the wrong board' and couldn't be changed.

Can these Honeywell (or Nest) work on any furnace/AC? I saw something about requiring a C wire. Im confused now.
 
The only thing that really bothers me about Nest is that google bought them. I don't trust google to not sell my heating cooling information to 3rd parties or some crap like that. I guess I'm probably just paranoid. :)
 
hdsomeday said:
I tried for the Peaksaver but was told I couldnt because my furnace had 'the wrong board' and couldn't be changed.

Can these Honeywell (or Nest) work on any furnace/AC? I saw something about requiring a C wire. Im confused now.
Click to expand...

I had my furnace replaced earlier in the year. Fly by night installer, could not get the Honeywell / Peaksaver stat to operate. He installed a White Rogers programmable (manually) thermostat.
I had no control via wi-fi / internet.
I called Peak Saver. They sent a tech. He installed something on the furnace. Little thing with wires. All of a sudden, the Honeywell / Peak Saver thermostat was up & running as before.
You may qualify?
 
AdRath said:
The only thing that really bothers me about Nest is that google bought them. I don't trust google to not sell my heating cooling information to 3rd parties or some crap like that. I guess I'm probably just paranoid. :)
Click to expand...

Probably not paranoid....Google seem to be good at the whole "personal info" thing.
 
All works good, until the smart wi-fi thermostat has a not so smart seizure .... as with cars ... the simpler the better.
 
Forget the Nest thermostat. If you really read into it, it is made for the peon dummy user. If you check into how it works, having a varying schedule as you described is that exact nemesis of how the programming of this device work.

The Honeywell ones are awesome. The guy that sits next to me at work, went FULL R-TARD and got the colour, touch screen one that you can TALK TO!

Apparently he can bellow out "I feel cold" and the thing notches up a degree. Not to mention, obvious all the smart device connectivity.
 
I have a Nest thermostat that i love. Very simple to use and was simple to install. I was using my Nest with a 35+ year old furnace and would imagine most furnaces would work with it. I love having the control in my phone. The downside of the Nest is it uses motion to know when I am home (I live alone). When upstairs for a while, it can be set to away mode. Other then that it is great, easy to use and not intrusive at all.
 
I did some research on the Nest, they say it doesn't work well on modern variable speed furnaces.

Also, as mentioned, it works by motion. So if your stat is in a seldom used room, it won't operate correctly.

Looks neat though. Very minimalist in design, but off my list.

Leaning towards the Honeywell, but the non voice version.....



Sent from my Passport
 
Gary wrote:

p.s. Sunny - Make sure you can still make adjustments if you have the thermostat on "Permanent Hold".
I can't. Mine needs to be on a program, or "off".[/QUOTE]


Yeah, as far as I can tell, the app mirrors the actual stat identically, and even has the same looking display.

So basically, anything I can control by walking up to the stat (programming, time changes, temp changes, fan control, check humidity readings, etc), I can do and check on the phone, laptop or tablet.

Pretty slick unit!






Sent from my Passport
 
Yeah, the voice stuff is ridiculous.. but the one down from it is totally awesome. and yes, the app mirrors the display. Trusted brand, been around for eons...
 
I tried the version of thermostat that I was able to program for each and every day of the week, on and off at different times, depending on our schedules and so on, did this for a year, we then set the thermostat at a set temp, 22 degrees the following year for the heating cycle, and manually controlled the AC, turned it on only those days we really needed it......

I found no big savings and the bills at the end of each year were almost identical in what it cost me.....

the big thing I did find, by setting the temp down at night while sleeping, really sucked when I had to get up and take a leak......it was bloody cold

maybe the new gen units work better, but I am skeptical and I will keep the house at a comfortable temp at all times now.....maybe if we were out of the house weeks on end, it might help, but we are home most of the time....

my experience was in my last house it was new when we bought it and 12 years old after we moved out, in our new house we are now 2 years in it, with a 5 year old furnace, larger home, yet my bills are about the same as was in my previous home, but the new house is 20 years old.....original windows and doors......probably the insulation in the attic as well

go figure....
 
SunnY S said:
I did some research on the Nest, they say it doesn't work well on modern variable speed furnaces.

Also, as mentioned, it works by motion. So if your stat is in a seldom used room, it won't operate correctly.

Looks neat though. Very minimalist in design, but off my list.

Leaning towards the Honeywell, but the non voice version.....



Sent from my Passport
Click to expand...

Not sure about the variable speed furnaces. I just had a new Bryant furnace installed, it is 2 stage, not sure if that is the same thing. In my condo I have to have installed Carbon detectors that are hard wired in. I am going to add one to the second floor to replace the smoke alarm with one from Nest. It does smoke and carbon detection and also syncs with the Nest Thermostat which uses the Smoke detectors motion sensors. This should get rid of it going into away mode when I am upstairs.
 
wonderings said:
Not sure about the variable speed furnaces. I just had a new Bryant furnace installed, it is 2 stage, not sure if that is the same thing.
Click to expand...

The uppity furnaces have a DC motor for true variable speed, for max efficiency and electricity savings.
 
Nest works poorly with high-efficiency Lennox furnaces. Lennox sells a WiFi thermostat for ~$500+professional installation (jumpers have to be changed on the circuit board on the furnace to switch it to remote control of variable speed). Not worth it for me, stuck with the normal programmable one. If you switch to the WiFi thermostat, it does infinitely variable fan speed and burn rate, two stage a/c, remote humidistat control of a/c and humidifier and changes the operation depending on outside temp, pretty cool stuff, but a terrible investment.
 
wonderings said:
Not sure about the variable speed furnaces. I just had a new Bryant furnace installed, it is 2 stage, not sure if that is the same thing.
Click to expand...

If your house is close to your desired temp, the furnace only needs to operate on "stage 1". If it has to work extra hard to heat up a cold house, it will start on "stage 1" and if needed will revert to "stage 2" for more heat.
When heating on "stage 2", the unit will use more gas. A two stage saves resources this way, and therefore is considerably more efficient.

SunnY S said:
The uppity furnaces have a DC motor for true variable speed, for max efficiency and electricity savings.
Click to expand...

Bonus: You'll find a 2 stage with DC motor is only a $100 more than a single stage with A/C motor when purchasing.
Now - most installers (especially Relianace) will try and fetch over $2000 more than a single stage. Yes - that's right. Over $2000 more. I had the salesperson in my home. The amount of work is exactly the same.
She didn't come close to making a sale.

I bought myself a 2 stage furnace with DC motor.
I hired a licensed gas fitter, and an out of work furnace installer for the installation.
$1550 complete. (and I paid tax on furnace.)
Exact unit / model numbers matching from Reliance was over $4500 + tax.
Best deal I could find from a "company" was $2900 + tax. Same unit.
Then the Ontario power saver people sent me a cheque for $250 a couple months later. ($600 if you do a furnace and a/c)
 
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After some careful research, went with the Nest, as it was determined it would work with the office furnace after all.

Pretty nifty device! Impressive packaging and detail. Can definitely see the Apple influence here.

Easy set up and exactly what I'm looking for. Downloaded the android Nest app on my BlackBerry and works a treat.

Hello to energy savings, and recommend these things to all.
 
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I have a two stage variable furnace and went with this. it's not a smart thermostat out of the box but you can add the bridge. I bought it for it's abiltity to fine tune features rather than being "smart". It's a commercial stat, much more powerful then the wifi one that you can buy at homedepot, although they look the same. Below is propably the cheapest place to get it, it would be crazy expensive through a local hvac contractor.

http://www.alpinehomeair.com/viewproduct.cfm?productID=453066554&displaytab=instructions_brochures

You only need two wires from the stat to your equipment room, the rest of the wiring is done to a box in between your furnace and the electronic interface module. Another good choice is the ecobee. It's powerful and smart, the only things I didn't like is, one the interface is kinda well not my style, and two, the wifi info runs on thier own server - which may or may not be around forever.
 
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