I currently have a Nest and it works pretty well for us. Love the interface, love the capabilities, don’t use the learning/presence much, and don’t do a lot with ST.
We are having our HVAC system re-vamped and going from a single zone for the whole house to 3 separate zones. So I am in a position where I need to buy 2 more thermostats. My question is does the Ecobee do any better than the Nest? The thing that intrigued me was that I could use remote temp sensors with the ecobee.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that I have 3 Nest protect’s as well. They have worked well so far also.
What sayeth the people who have lived with actual ecobee’s?
For me it was a lot about form factor. I like the dial over the touchscreen, even though through routines I rarely touch it, but for quick changes it’s very quick. I am also partial to Nest-Manager integrations.
The remote sensor is nice, but if you are redoing your house into 3 zones not sure how much it would help. I have a dual zone house and 85% of my house is within a degree of what I set. Basement is cooler, tried using remote sensors in Nest-Manager and got that room to the right temp but then living room was to warm. I have some smart vents coming, to kill the vents when the AC is on and its cold down there. So many houses have the thermostat in the wrong place where a remote sensor does make sense.
Counter point, since you have 1 Nest you have to either buy 2 more Nests, or 3 Ecobees.
I had a Nest for a few years and recently got a new AC unit installed also. This time I went with the ecobee3 that finally made it on the wall yesterday. Tip, do installs Monday-Friday when support is open, just in case you run into any issues
My thermostat location is at the end of a hallway and like mentioned earlier, that’s not where we hang out so the temp difference in some areas are funky even if it’s just a small house.
One thing I’m still trying to wrap my head around is the scheduling. It seemed pretty straightforward with the Nest but the ecobee had me head scratching last night, maybe it was late so I will try again later… this time with no beer involved.
Edit: I have to add we also did not use the presence/learning feature because our household schedule is weird, not planning on doing that with the new thermostat either.
I was in a similar boat, and I also have a big dog which made auto away worthless. Nest-Manager with its automation rules really helped with that. We are adding in support for multiple thermostats based off of mode. For example in Night mode set thermostat where the bedrooms are to the right temp, and the living room thermostat to a more energy efficient setting.
I honestly believe if you have a family with schedules that are coming and going often, the less a smart thermostat is going to be a money saver for you.
Additionally, features like presence detection will matter less (if at all) in regards to savings.
I live alone. In my use case I love the Ecobee3. I have 6 sensors in a split level 2400 sq/ft home and have found the additional sensors definitely help comfort.
There are a lot of automations you can do with ecobee.
Even if your household schedule is hectic, you can use the ST hello modes to
set your thermostat to away or present and/or based on different input (motion sensors, presence sensors,).
See my github for more details:
And, this thread about MyEcobee device`:
P.S. I’ve also created some automations to be able to control any smart vents (such as Keen Home) in conjunction with your thermostat’s setpoints in order to achieve the best comfort and energy efficiency in your home.
You might want to reconsider using the presence with the Ecobee. I find it does a pretty good job for our weird schedule. I put remote sensors in our most used rooms and it detects if we are home and automatically sets the Home schedule. That way we can still save with Away but automatically have it adjust to us being home.
You can easily combine this will automation to force it to Away or other Schedules based on Routines/Modes.
My solutions don’t exclusively rely on the ecobee3’s remote motion sensors (which are not meant to be used for real time HA scenarios as there is a huge time lag: at least 30 minutes). At my home, I prefer to use any reliable ST connected sensors.
See this thread for more details:
P.S. You’d need MyEcobee device as my smartapps leverage its unique set of features This is the most comprehensive ecobee implementation in ST.
@yvesracine - can you use your automations & smartapps with a Nest thermostat as well, or only an ecobee3?
I’m in the same situation as @bluesman2a - we just bought a new house with two zones and are coming from a house with only 1 zone and a single Nest v2, so I need to decide what to use in the new house.
Yes, my Zoned Heating/Cooling solutions work well with the Nest. I have some Nest contributors
and they are quite happy with it (amongst others @DreamPunk who has been using the smartapp for more than 1 year).
You’d need this smartapp:
Or, there is also a scaled down version of it (called ScheduleRoomTempControl), designed just for the vent settings.
See this thread for more details on my Zoned Heating/Cooling Solutions:
P.S. My Zoned Solutions are now officially approved by Keen Home…
Nest-Manager smartApp has automations integrated into it. With remote sensor/contacts/presence/mode/motion detection. It was designed to have all your Nest ST integrations under a single app.
Question: I know that it would not be peak efficiency, but why would I have to buy 3 ecobees?
My plan is to go with the ecobees, put them in the areas of the house we frequent and keep the nest to use in a bonus room we seldom use. Is there something wrong with this approach?
I would like to thank everybody for some GREAT replies. I think my mind is made up at this point. Between what I’m reading here and elsewhere, I’m going to be moving forward with the Ecobee. I’ll post back as we go through it and let folks know how it’s going.
Probably not. That is what the CNET house is doing. For simplicity I would use all the same ones, then if you have rules for away, setting temps you don’t have to use multiple smartApps or mobile apps.
While I don’t agree with many of CNETs smart home decisions (wifi connected switches) this article basically calls it a toss up:
