Quantcast
Programmable Thermostats - Thoughts? - Beyond.ca - Car Forums
Page 1 of 6 1 2 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 101

Thread: Programmable Thermostats - Thoughts?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Upstairs
    My Ride
    Natural Gas.
    Posts
    13,332
    Rep Power
    100

    Default Programmable Thermostats - Thoughts?

    Looking for a programmable thermostat that has the following features:
    1) Extensive programming options. I bias towards more control rather than "ease of use".
    2) At least 2 Interior and 1 Exterior temp sensors to help control
    3) All "SMART" features can be turned off. I want to be the boss of the thermostat, not the other way around.

    Nest and Ecobee seem popular. Currently have Honeywell hardware, and I kind of like the "less trendy" feeling of that company. My current RedLink wireless might work with their sensors, although it's quite old so maybe need an update.


    Whatcha guys think?


    I'm all HVAC thoughts all the time these days.
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Calgary AB
    My Ride
    V8s
    Posts
    4,571
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    I'm pretty sure this is highly programmable (or perhaps it's the HAI/Leviton ecosystem that makes it that way?).

    https://store.leviton.com/collection...nt=20286251395

    My parents have these, and my dad is very much control > ease of use. And he's got all types of profiles for their home automation that tie lights/fans/thermo/fountains/etc. I assume this kind of thing might be good, but don't know what else you need to unlock the capability.

    edit: FWIW it controls heat/AC/humidity/HRV, in their place, all configurable. Obviously the other stuff in their home automation isn't controlled by this thing.
    Last edited by bjstare; 07-11-2020 at 10:43 AM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Homeless
    My Ride
    Blue Dabadee
    Posts
    9,597
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    I just got the latest ecobee. Seems decent and supports temp sensors.

    I don’t think I’d recommend nest unless your primary concern is aesthetics.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Calgary
    Posts
    2,093
    Rep Power
    43

    Default

    Ecobee for sure. Their temp/presence sensors work really well, but not designed for outdoor. Outdoor just uses the weather forecast (not sure which Weather provider they use)

    If you want humidity control from the thermostat you will need the fancy one that comes with Alexa (you can disable it tho), otherwise you can get away with the Lite version for just heat/Ac control.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Homeless
    My Ride
    Blue Dabadee
    Posts
    9,597
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    The only thing nest does better than ecobee functionality wise is their home away detection with multiple phones. Best I can tell ecobee doesn’t support multiple phones.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Calgary, Alberta
    My Ride
    Subaru Outback
    Posts
    1,125
    Rep Power
    28

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sabad66 View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    Ecobee for sure. Their temp/presence sensors work really well, but not designed for outdoor. Outdoor just uses the weather forecast (not sure which Weather provider they use)

    If you want humidity control from the thermostat you will need the fancy one that comes with Alexa (you can disable it tho), otherwise you can get away with the Lite version for just heat/Ac control.
    I've got the previous generation Ecobee 3 without Alexa but it does do humidity control. Not sure if those are still available.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Calgary AB
    My Ride
    2020 Subaru Forester Sport
    Posts
    2,969
    Rep Power
    41

    Default

    Sounds like you already have a programmable thermostat... What features are you missing that you don't currently have?

    I have a Honeywell Prestige HD for the last 11 years, sounds like you have something similar. A few years ago I bought the wireless redlink gateway and now the same thermostat I love is connected to the internet and can control it with google home or from anywhere in the world. Curious which features you are craving? Is it geofencing? I think that is a gimmick and pretty useless, but maybe it's just me.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    N/A
    Posts
    2,977
    Rep Power
    22

    Default

    Nah, it's just not you. I turned off the geofencing on our Honeywell because it was pretty much pointless with 3ormmore people,living in the house because chances are someone would be at home at most points of the day or because of my job, I just might happen to drive by on a roadway that happened to fall within the geofence area thus activating some heating cycle ebven though I wasn't going to be home.

    Geofencing probably works well for a family that lives in the burbs and works a fair distance away or go to schools a fair distance away. If you live more central and you work more central, then you have to shrink the geofence area but that in turn means your home may not have the time to heat up or cool down as need be because you are so much nearer to your home.

    So we in effect have a smart thermostat that is just being used as a programmable thermostat, I don't bother controlling it from my phone because there just isn't no need as I can just get up and walk to the wall mounted controller on my any to the kitchen or the bathroom. Now I am aware that there are a lot of people that like controlling their lights or their thermostat or whatever from their phone but it just isn't something we're interested in. Even our smart thermostat was a bit of a challenging thing for certain family members to figure out and yet it seems dead simple to me.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    YYC
    My Ride
    1 x E Class Benz
    Posts
    23,598
    Rep Power
    101

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    The only thing nest does better than ecobee functionality wise is their home away detection with multiple phones. Best I can tell ecobee doesn’t support multiple phones.
    Ecobee doesn’t use phones at all. It uses the occupancy sensor in the remote temp sensors. If all are unoccupied, it’s “away”.

    Subsequently if it’s tied to HomeKit you can use HomeKit’s occupancy sensors to trigger the away schedule and coming home schedule. That’s actually better if you leverage carplay and set maps to go home, it can start your normal mode while you’re on your way.
    Originally posted by SEANBANERJEE
    I have gone above and beyond what I should rightfully have to do to protect my good name

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Upstairs
    My Ride
    Natural Gas.
    Posts
    13,332
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by eblend View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    Sounds like you already have a programmable thermostat... What features are you missing that you don't currently have?

    I have a Honeywell Prestige HD for the last 11 years, sounds like you have something similar. A few years ago I bought the wireless redlink gateway and now the same thermostat I love is connected to the internet and can control it with google home or from anywhere in the world. Curious which features you are craving? Is it geofencing? I think that is a gimmick and pretty useless, but maybe it's just me.
    I should clarify what my current setup is.
    We upgraded this house to a wireless thermostat when we got AC so that we could control the temperature on the top floor where the bedrooms are instead of the main floor where the wired thermostat was located. So the wireless thermostat, a Honeywell TH6320R1004 (https://customer.honeywell.com/en-US...=th6320r1004/U). This thermostat connects to the furnace through a Honeywell THM5320R wireless "thingy" that sits on my furnace.

    Right now, this operates as a 5-2 programmable thermostat with zero other sensors either interior or exterior, and, the fan can be run as with on 24/7, or running on during Heat/AC.

    What I'd like is to be able to control the fan based on some simple logic (like running when interior temps vary by more than 3C for instance), and to have the AC particularly take into consideration the exterior temperature and more than one interior location.

    If there's some way to turn on the AC from teh intarwebs when I'm returning from a vacation or something, that would be nice too.

    So maybe someone who knows the capability of the Honeywell system can school me up on this.
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Homeless
    My Ride
    Blue Dabadee
    Posts
    9,597
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    I wonder if you are getting to far into the weeds and will need to run your own custom controller and logic to make something like that work.

    Particularly you key desire which is the running the fan to equalize floor temps, not sure any home thermostat has that baked in.
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Upstairs
    My Ride
    Natural Gas.
    Posts
    13,332
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    See that's what I thought originally. But people kept telling me I was being stupid and should just buy a "modern" thermostat that has "all these features"

    I mean. I probably am being stupid about this. But which part is the stupid part?
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Homeless
    My Ride
    Blue Dabadee
    Posts
    9,597
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ExtraSlow View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    See that's what I thought originally. But people kept telling me I was being stupid and should just buy a "modern" thermostat that has "all these features"

    I mean. I probably am being stupid about this. But which part is the stupid part?
    I mean. With an ecobee you can set it to run X min an hour which I think will get you 90% of what you want and not require you needing into a proprietary thermostat you can code
    Originally posted by Thales of Miletus

    If you think I have been trying to present myself as intellectually superior, then you truly are a dimwit.
    Originally posted by Toma
    fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yolobimmer View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

    guessing who I might be, psychologizing me with your non existent degree.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Calgary
    Posts
    2,093
    Rep Power
    43

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pacman View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    I've got the previous generation Ecobee 3 without Alexa but it does do humidity control. Not sure if those are still available.
    You probably have the 3 (not 3 Lite). Unfortunately they don’t sell those any more as I was looking for them back in December 2018 with no luck locally


    Re: running fans based on temp diff between floors - agree with killramos, that doesn’t exist. However they do have a feature that turns them on on every x time interval so that could work instead. There is a nice graph that ecobees show you comparing fan, heat, cool, indoor temp, outdoor temp so you can tweak your fan intervals based on what you see in the graph. The only shitty thing too is that it only shows a single inside temp, not each sensor. Must be averaging them somehow but would be nice to see them independently. Maybe there is a setting somewhere to show them independently

    Alternatively, they have an API which I think you can connect to For detailed data and make adjustments. If you really want to get crazy I think you can rig up a raspberry pi to do what you want

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Calgary AB
    My Ride
    V8s
    Posts
    4,571
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ExtraSlow View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    I should clarify what my current setup is.
    We upgraded this house to a wireless thermostat when we got AC so that we could control the temperature on the top floor where the bedrooms are instead of the main floor where the wired thermostat was located. So the wireless thermostat, a Honeywell TH6320R1004 (https://customer.honeywell.com/en-US...=th6320r1004/U). This thermostat connects to the furnace through a Honeywell THM5320R wireless "thingy" that sits on my furnace.

    Right now, this operates as a 5-2 programmable thermostat with zero other sensors either interior or exterior, and, the fan can be run as with on 24/7, or running on during Heat/AC.

    What I'd like is to be able to control the fan based on some simple logic (like running when interior temps vary by more than 3C for instance), and to have the AC particularly take into consideration the exterior temperature and more than one interior location.

    If there's some way to turn on the AC from teh intarwebs when I'm returning from a vacation or something, that would be nice too.

    So maybe someone who knows the capability of the Honeywell system can school me up on this.
    If you want to go with the Leviton/HAI route, I'm pretty sure you can do stuff like this. My dad coded his own home automation system... like actually coded line by line. Also does things like look at the sunrise/sunset times for every day of the year and position the blinds a certain way at dusk, then reposition at sunset.

    Depends how much you wanna geek out; killramos is probably right, you can get something that you can adjust fan intervals on and it will probably serve your purpose. It just won't be as "smart" as it could be.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Upstairs
    My Ride
    Natural Gas.
    Posts
    13,332
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    Coding it line by line sounds like my wet dream. Although I have a very short attention span, so who knows if I'll do any of this at all.
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    YYC
    My Ride
    1 x E Class Benz
    Posts
    23,598
    Rep Power
    101

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by sabad66 View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You probably have the 3 (not 3 Lite). Unfortunately they don’t sell those any more as I was looking for them back in December 2018 with no luck locally


    Re: running fans based on temp diff between floors - agree with killramos, that doesn’t exist. However they do have a feature that turns them on on every x time interval so that could work instead. There is a nice graph that ecobees show you comparing fan, heat, cool, indoor temp, outdoor temp so you can tweak your fan intervals based on what you see in the graph. The only shitty thing too is that it only shows a single inside temp, not each sensor. Must be averaging them somehow but would be nice to see them independently. Maybe there is a setting somewhere to show them independently

    Alternatively, they have an API which I think you can connect to For detailed data and make adjustments. If you really want to get crazy I think you can rig up a raspberry pi to do what you want
    If you csv dump the data, you get individual sensor readings for temp, humidity, and occupancy. That’s how I did all my comparisons.

    You used to be able to do what ExtraSlow wants to do with a combination of IFTTT and Stringify, but Stringify shut down last year. IFTTT can almost do it but unfortunately the individual temp sensors aren’t exposed. Hence the need for Stringify.

    Just run the fan for x mins an hour all day. Bonus is there’s a lot less dust. If you have allergies like me, it’s a godsend.

    I upgraded my fan switches to Lutron and run the ceiling fan during certain hours of the day to help cycle the air better in my 2 story high living room. Don’t even bother comparing temperatures.
    Originally posted by SEANBANERJEE
    I have gone above and beyond what I should rightfully have to do to protect my good name

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Upstairs
    My Ride
    Natural Gas.
    Posts
    13,332
    Rep Power
    100

    Default

    Well, never did anything but my Honeywell is shitting the bed. Ecobee still the way to go?
    Quote Originally Posted by killramos View Post
    This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Calgary, AB
    Posts
    1,636
    Rep Power
    85

    Default

    Yes.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    calgary
    Posts
    2,028
    Rep Power
    95

    Default

    Love our ecobee

Page 1 of 6 1 2 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Smart Thermostats?

    By birdman86 in forum Home and Garden
    Replies: 20
    Latest Threads: 09-07-2023, 09:32 AM
  2. New in box Nest thermostats PSA

    By Maxt in forum General
    Replies: 0
    Latest Threads: 02-27-2017, 08:10 AM
  3. FS: 97-01 Prelude two programmable blank keys

    By mr.13secprobe in forum Automotive Parts [Aero/Styling/Interior]
    Replies: 1
    Latest Threads: 03-09-2007, 02:54 AM
  4. FS: Sony RM-AV2000 Universal programmable remote control

    By paulj in forum Miscellaneous Buy/Sell/Trade
    Replies: 5
    Latest Threads: 12-02-2006, 04:15 PM
  5. Low. temp thermostats and boost...are there advantages?

    By Redlyne_mr2 in forum Forced Induction Talk
    Replies: 7
    Latest Threads: 09-12-2004, 07:50 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •