Ecobee4 vs Nest?

[nickyh]

Wondering if any beyonders have experience with Ecobee4 or Nest, along with Keen smart vents?

We battle with having warm / cold zones in our house and would prefer to cool more efficiently. The combo of the smart vent along with a smart thermostat seems like it should do the trick, but wondering if anyone has these.
I think Rage does?

[rage2]

Ecobee for it's better implementation of temperature/motion sensors. It detects which zones are active and use that as an average to determine cooling/heating needs in active zones.

Next, which finally after years got their sensors, only sense temperature and not motion so pretty useless.

I looked into Keen smart vents, but way too much money to get all the vents done. I have my furnace running with fan on in the afternoons to cycle the air around the house which has brought temperatures within 2.5C between the 2 extreme ends of temperatures (basement + bedroom).

I have nothing against Nest, I use their cameras. Their thermostat just can't do what I need it to do.

[88CRX]

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I have my furnace running with fan on in the afternoons to cycle the air around the house which has brought temperatures within 2.5C between the 2 extreme ends of temperatures (basement + bedroom).
.

How do you program it to only run in the afternoons? Is it run through IFTTT?

Arpi's cant get my EcoBee4 to control the furnace fan correctly, they need to come back to try more shit but currently I can only run my fan through my HRV controls (which are not smart) as its interconnected.

Other then that the EcoBee is great.

[schocker]

I use nest and have a remote sensor to track difference between levels. Closing vents in unoccupied areas has allowed me to get the upstairs and downstairs about 1 °C apart. From what I have read about smart vents, they don't worth it with their high cost.

[rage2]

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How do you program it to only run in the afternoons? Is it run through IFTTT?

Arpi's cant get my EcoBee4 to control the furnace fan correctly, they need to come back to try more shit but currently I can only run my fan through my HRV controls (which are not smart) as its interconnected.

Other then that the EcoBee is great.

I just choose ON for fan for a comfort setting, and schedule that comfort setting in the afternoons.

edit - just clicked that you're wondering about the ventilation fan. This is just cycling the air in the house, literally pulling in air from each intake in the house, mixing/redistributing it to even out temperatures.

[Prelude_dude]

Unrelated.

Has anyone had any issues with their smart thermostat doing something called short cycling?? I got my nest near the end of spring early summer; so i never went through many heat cycles with it; but i recall there are times when the heating cycle would go on and off on and off rapidly for a good 20-30 mins.

Anyone hear or had this issue?

[nzwasp]

I had that happen recently with my nest and the reason was that I didnt have the C line connected and the battery was running low on the nest. When the nest's battery gets low it starts doing all sorts of whacky shit.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

I'm running 2 Nests, as I have 2 furnaces. I wish I had picked up ecobee's instead. I find the Nests very limiting, and I've disabled the auto learning. The only thing that I really get advantage out of them is the eco mode, and the pre-running to get to temp by my scheduled time. That's essentially it.

[killramos]

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I'm running 2 Nests, as I have 2 furnaces. I wish I had picked up ecobee's instead. I find the Nests very limiting, and I've disabled the auto learning. The only thing that I really get advantage out of them is the eco mode, and the pre-running to get to temp by my scheduled time. That's essentially it.

+1

Nest is googles ugly stepchild and it shows, I like their cameras though.

They reorganizaed recently so i have a sliver of hope for the next gen but not much...

[Pacman]

I use an Ecobee3 and I'm happy with it. I only have 1 furnace so the 2nd sensor is of limited use to me, so I use it for upstairs temp readings only and don't have it influencing the temperature of the house. It runs my furnace, A/C, humidifier and circulation fan all from the Ecobee. It doesn't have the ventilation fan hooked up.

I did have a Nest for 2 days before I got the Ecobee but found it wasn't as user friendly.

[Prelude_dude]

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I had that happen recently with my nest and the reason was that I didnt have the C line connected and the battery was running low on the nest. When the nest's battery gets low it starts doing all sorts of whacky shit.

weeellll shittt... soo i don't actually have a c line running up to my thermostat..

Any furnace guys on here willing to help me out? i am stupid when it comes to wiring stuff....

[Nufy]

Bump...

I need to update my T-stat.. Furnace and AC control.

What's the latest and greatest ??

[94CoRd]

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weeellll shittt... soo i don't actually have a c line running up to my thermostat..

Any furnace guys on here willing to help me out? i am stupid when it comes to wiring stuff....

I'm not HVAC, this was just my experience when I added a C-Wire. I went to home depot and purchased about 15 feet of 'thermostat' wire. Removed my old thermostat and from the bottom up (furnace is directly below where the thermostat sits on the wall), ran the new wire. If it's not directly labeled on your furnace board, google it, and there's most likely a diagram where to connect the C wire to. Connected the thermostat wire to the board, then to the Ecobee. All done.

[mikestypes]

I picked up two Ecobee4 last month to control my two furnaces. They have been OK, but I am having an issue with the upstairs T-stat constantly disconnecting from Wi-fi and then not being able to reconnect without a power cycle (ie: remove the T-sat from the wall). The main floor one has been rock solid though. I plan to troubleshoot with Ecobee tech online tonight.

[The Cosworth]

I have 2 ecobee 3's and they integrate into my smartthings setup. Im pretty happy with them. They are selling refurbed units for $199 with a sensor right now. Can get $75 back from the Ab Government so they're pretty affordable. I'm not totally sure on the Ecobee 4 improvements over the 3.

[revelations]

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I picked up two Ecobee4 last month to control my two furnaces. They have been OK, but I am having an issue with the upstairs T-stat constantly disconnecting from Wi-fi and then not being able to reconnect without a power cycle (ie: remove the T-sat from the wall). The main floor one has been rock solid though. I plan to troubleshoot with Ecobee tech online tonight.

Are you running things through an ISP-supplied WIFI? If so, expect these issues to continue.

[mikestypes]

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Are you running things through an ISP-supplied WIFI? If so, expect these issues to continue.

Yes, Telus T3200. Why would one be fine, and the other not work worth shit?

[kenny]

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Yes, Telus T3200. Why would one be fine, and the other not work worth shit?

You can diagnose if it is a wifi issue (more likely) or an ecobee issue (less likely) by swapping the locations of the thermostats (you may have to reconfigure them if you don't have identical setups) to see if the problem is at the upstairs location.

[Prelude_dude]

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Yes, Telus T3200. Why would one be fine, and the other not work worth shit?

if possible, ensure your ecobee is connected to the 5ghz band.

I have the exact same router at home; i get absolute crab wifi on 2.4ghz band in our upstairs. My router is on the mainfloor as well and i still get poop for wifi on 2.4ghz band.

[Prelude_dude]

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I'm not HVAC, this was just my experience when I added a C-Wire. I went to home depot and purchased about 15 feet of 'thermostat' wire. Removed my old thermostat and from the bottom up (furnace is directly below where the thermostat sits on the wall), ran the new wire. If it's not directly labeled on your furnace board, google it, and there's most likely a diagram where to connect the C wire to. Connected the thermostat wire to the board, then to the Ecobee. All done.

thanks for the info. Fortunately there is a furnace guy in my neighborhood that came by and did this for me for a decent price. My builder actually had a extra wire just sitting there.... the extra wire was just tied to the existing cables. My old thermostat didn't need the wire so they never connected it. The guy had to pull the wires from the thermostat about a foot out though, i would have never pulled those wires out that far to discover it. All he had to do then was just connect it to the furnace; and voila, Nest works flawlessly now.

Google really should just suggest that a C-wire always be necessary; seems like others (based on forums) have been having this issue as well.