Smart Thermostats

[JSolo]

Time has come to finally get something with more control than this decade+ old digital thermostat with just 4 settings per day.

Folks who have used honeywell, ecobee and nest, can you comment on your experience? Please include which model you're using.

My main goal is to get more granular control of heat/cooling, obtain data when hvac is working and maybe adjust settings to reduce costs. My per therm rates have more than doubled since a year ago. Some neighbors are seeing gas bills upwards of $300. I took some action late last fall by signing up with a third party gas supplier at a lower rate, reducing temps (67F day, 64F night). Still expect a bill around $200 soon.

House is a single level ranch with basement. Central heat & air with gas furnace and electric ac compressor.

Thanks!

 

[RedCal]

Do you already have or are there any plans / thoughts on doing more automation? (ie lights, shades, etc)

 

[nhcowboy28]

Get one with a remote temp sensor option.

My idiot thermostat is behind a fn door that is open always. And is the farthest possible place in the room from the vents.

So to cool my entire 1000 square foot upstairs, it will freeze that one room. And vice versa in the summer.

Add to that crappy construction/insulation… it sucks 7-8 months of the year in the ATL.

 

[SIMONGUEY]

Honeywell t6 thermostat is a pretty good smart thermostat! I work on a lot of new construction and we always default with that thermostat! very good. they also have a wifi model of that thermostat which makes things a lot easier.

also a tip for those who don't do it!! change your air filters!!! it is a night and day difference and will save you money on the system now working as hard to breathe. make sure your condenser outside is also as clean as you can make it! mainly look out for leaves and big things blocking its path.

nest thermostats are also pretty good but I prefer honeywell.

 

[SIMONGUEY]

nest learning thermostat is also pretty cool! very smooth and easy instalation.

 

[RedCal]

Get one with a remote temp sensor option.

My idiot thermostat is behind a fn door that is open always. And is the farthest possible place in the room from the vents.

So to cool my entire 1000 square foot upstairs, it will freeze that one room. And vice versa in the summer.

Add to that crappy construction/insulation… it sucks 7-8 months of the year in the ATL.

Multi level? central HVAC? a good pro may be able to balance the system - most are not balanced properly

FYI Nest has remote sensor options ($50 IIRC

 

[SIMONGUEY]

Multi level? central HVAC? a good pro may be able to balance the system - most are not balanced properly

FYI Nest has remote sensor options ($50 IIRC

new multifamily construction.

 

[JSolo]

Ecobee puts out a model that include a 2nd temp sensor to use with balancing out the system. For the most part temp swings between parts of the house are present, but not very significant - few degrees at best. Probably the hottest room in the summer would be the kitchen because it faces west.

There's also another room (an addon of sorts) that's 3 sides of windows. It's the hottest and coldest. During the winter, auxiliary electrical heat is used to supplement the single register present. The room is only occupied for a few hours a day so this solution works.

Another piece of the puzzle is a 4 wire thermostat cable. Running a new 5 wire is not a cost effective option so I will need to use one of those 4-5 wire adapters. Fortunately the furnace board is relatively modern and has a C terminal.

 

[GPhenom]

I've owned a Nest and an Ecobee. I prefer the Ecobee hands down. The Nest has some strange quirks where sometimes the heat will say it's on according the thermostat, but nothing will blow. Will have to reset the furnace to get it to work again.

The furnace is pretty new. Never had a single issue with the Ecobee on the same unit. Plus the ecobee came with a remote sensor.

 

[RedCal]

Another question... does your state or utility have any upgrade rebates? We often have green rebates for upgrades... might be worth seeing if you can upgrade your furnace

 

[JSolo]

There's a combined $100 rebate from the electrical and gas companies. The rebate for a new furnace is only a few hundred. Not worth the thousands it would cost to replace. Current furnace has a 92 afue rating.

 

[stoopid]

We replaced our HVAC system a couple years ago, came with a Honeywell T5 or T6 thermostat. Although we have a two floor house, we don't have any zone control. We did setup two remote temp sensors and use the scheduling to prioritize certain rooms. It's a fairly advanced system and does support multiple zones if your HVAC has that capability. Only con is that a few times in those 2 years I've lost access to the thermostat using the smartphone app, due to a site issue on Honeywell's side. But it works 99% of the time. The energy reports I get monthly are good to have. If we're out of town and our dog is home, we have alerts setup to notify us if the temps in the house creep up which is important in the dessert so we don't come back to a dehydrated/dead dog.

Insulated window blinds help a lot in the hottest and coldest of seasons, windows are an unavoidable source of heat/cooling loss. We're fairly air tight in other respects, properly insulated doors and windows are not drafty.

Where you set the thermostat is the most direct correlating thing to your energy bill each month (well, plus whatever rate you pay).

 

[D.J.]

I like how the nest app shows histpry - in hours per day. and if you tap the day, you can see when the furnace was on VS off (works same for A/C Inn summer).

It's Nifty for comparing days etc.
Yesterday, the 19th, was clearly warmer (it was above freezing for a few hours)

Sat the 15th was below -23°C

 

[JSolo]

^^Why are some bars solid while others are slotted? ie 1/15, 1/18, 1/19

 

[D.J.]

^^Why are some bars solid while others are slotted? ie 1/15, 1/18, 1/19

1st screenshot is the default view - just total hours of furnace per day.

2nd screenshot, I tapped the 2 of the bars, which drills down the the hours of the day view to show when exactly the furnace was on through out the day.

3rd screenshot is just rotated landscape, for higher resolution of exactly when the furnace was on.

 

[JSolo]

Got it. I've actually been leaning more towards the ecobee as that includes the 4-5 wire adapter and a remote temp sensor in the deal from samsclub.

Ecobee also generates similar reports along with a csv file if you really want to drill down into the details.

Current stat is mounting in a common area between the bedrooms and livingroom. Probably a decent area if it wasn't block by so much furniture. More time is spent in the common areas than bedrooms so the remote sensor will come in handy.

 

[JSolo]

Got the latest gas bill this morning. I shopped and switched suppliers shortly after getting the nov '21 bill along with price shock. Util was charging 68¢/therm (compared to 26¢ previous year). Found a supplier offering 52.9¢/therm. New supplier took effect after the dec '21 reading.

Anyways, based on usage, saved ~$20 (~183 therms) in gas costs compared to util prices. This coupled with keeping the temps colder (67F day/64F night) kept the bill under $200 (~$170). For comparison, last year's jan bill was $60 less with roughly similar consumption. However, last year's temp was kept at 68F day and night.

Don't expect huge savings with the smart stat but more granular control should save a few more bucks and offer much better insight into trends.

 

[boosted1g]

IT professional and DIY geek here.

I dont suggest the nest because its connectivity is 100% reliant on internet and Google's servers. No such thing as granular control on a nest.

My RadioThermostat CT50 is starting to go south so I am replacing it with Honeywell T6 (zwave version, not wifi).

If you are good with tech and truly want fine control then I highly suggest integrating it with Home Assistant.
H.A. is an opensource "smart hub" software that can run on a raspberry pi, or basically any computer; you can then control it via Alexa/Google Assistant, any local computer, or android/ios app. It has a ton of integrations built in to tie all of your smart-home devices together so you can create scripts, automations, and custom front-end dashboards. Besides versatility and not locking you into a specific brand's ecosystem, the other huge plus to me is that it keeps everything possible on local network (vs other hubs that only work by sending data to the OEM's server over the internet).

 

[Grump]

I have the wifi honeywell and while it works well their web interface leaves a LOT to be desired. They have absolutely ZERO stat tracking. You dont know how long it ran, what temps it was set to, or anything like that. The schedule is limited to 4 slots per day. There's no official API to get stats. (I scrape their website every x minutes to graph my usage/stats).

You can adjust the temps with your phone, and integrate with google home. I bought it over nest because reviewers said the temperature swings aren't as big as the nest.

I'm with boosted1g on not liking the cloud. I was looking at the radiothermostats because they have an API that can be controlled from the LAN.

If you dont care about any of that get a nest and enjoy your nice reports and fancy app.

 

[D.J.]

IT professional and DIY geek here.

I dont suggest the nest because its connectivity is 100% reliant on internet and Google's servers. No such thing as granular control on a nest.

Can you elaborate on this?