IP Thermostats

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

I know that not everyone has received their SmartThings (I have not), but am wondering if anyone has begun looking into IP based thermostats. I have been eyeing the Venstar T5800, the Ecobee series, and the NEST. I’d buy one today, if I knew what would integrate into SmartThings (eventually).

I know NEST has unofficial API’s, Ecobee just released an API to market (and I am reading might support Zigbee?: (links below), and the Venstar I have heard doesn’t have an API but MiCasaVerde has a few of the Venstar devices supported, so there must be a way to do it.

Any thoughts? I am not a fan of any of the current thermostats for Z-Wave or Zigbe

Links for Ecobee + Zigbee:: http://help.ecobee.com/entries/20434683-What-is-the-ecobee-ZigBee-Module- and http://www.ecobee.com/blog/smart-plugs-beta-launch-zigbee/

2

Ok, I have confirmed Ecobee does support Zigbee through a separate installable module:

http://store.nexternal.com/ecobee/zigbee-module-p24.aspx

$25.00 so that’s actually not bad!.  Now it is just a matter of getting Smartthings support.

3

Darryl,

I have an ecobee I’m not using, if you’re interested.  Never used, still in the box.

 

4

Which model? is there a reason your not using it? What did you end up using?

5

I have the Smart Thermostat and equipment interface module.  I was too busy to get it installed before the Lutron wireless T-Stat came out.  Since I have a Lutron system already, it made more sense to integrate that into the system than using the Ecobee.

6

I’ve been looking recently. I have a GE PTAC HVAC system at my apartment that appears to have a thermostat bus (I need to actually pull the faceplate off to double check). I want to find either a z-wave or zigbee system. I’ve heard that the NEST might actually have a zigbee radio. Don’t know the full specs, but I am going to contact some friends at NEST.

7

Formix: How much would you want for it? My only hesitation is (with any solution) is whether it will integrate to SmartThings sooner rather then later.
Donald: I’d be fine with the NEST, except for it has a few huge flaws in my mind (unless its changed). I.e. Cant auto-schedule my A/C fan to turn on for 5 min every hour, and if you ask it to cool your house to 72, and it detects the temp hits 71, it will turn the heat on to get to 72. That may have changed though, and I realize if we had it integrated into SmartThings, we may be able to change that. Sadly, they don’t have an open API for it (yet), nor have they announced what the ZigBee radio is going to be used for (or better yet, when it will). I’ve read speculation assaying that they may try to enter the HA market…

8

Darryl, does $200 sound fair?

9

Formix: Sounds fair. For me the only reason I am not jumping and say “lets do it” is I don’t know if SmartThings will support it. Does anyone know compatibility? if it can support ZigBee  HA does that mean it will work out of the box with SmartThings?

10

Andrew, do you have any thoughts on this working out of the box?

11

If its ZigBee HA, then we can connect to it, which is the biggest barrier. Whether we have the device types for it is a different story. But it’s something we can easily support with a day or two of development time. And we’ll totally do it too. Heck, anyone can build it using the IDE.

So connection is good, full support of every device feature is probably not there yet. But its just about creating a device handler for it (easy peasy). The beauty of a cloud based platform!