I had a Nest Thermo and HATED it! The motion sensing to detect whether or not someone was home was troublesome. Someone has to walk in front of the thermostat every 2 hours to make it think someone is at home. Here are my 3 real life experiences that made me take Nest off the wall, and replace it with an inexpensive Zwave Thermostat controlled by ST instead ā¦
I work out of my house, and my Office is on the second floor. There are often times I will not walk in front for my Thermostat for 6 - 8 hours at a time. On a nice cold Michigan winter day, that would often mean the Nest would shut down thinking I was not home, and the house would get seriously cold.
Home sick with the flu one time - sleeping / recovering in my bedroom. Again, not walking in front of the thermostat every 2 hours, so it shuts down the furnace. You got to love running a fever, feeling like hell, and your house is cold!
Entertaining on my patio during summer evenings - people coming and going through the house all night long to go into the Kitchen or use the half bath. But no one walks in front of the thermostat during that time. So when everyone leaves for the evening - the house is humid and warm - not ideal for trying to go to sleep!
A Zwave Thermostat connected to ST - so itās using the GPS and WiFi radios in my iPhone to detect presence, knows when Iām home, even if Iām not walking in front of the thermostat every 2 hours.
I just installed and automated a PEQ Pearl thmostat. Itās non-programmable so it doesnāt have a native timer to interfere with the ST program. I use modes to set the temps, and have leveraged the thermostat smartapp to set the thermostat modes (which only really need changing twice a year). My ONLY complaint, thus far, is that my furnace takes a few minutes to spin up, so when I arrive home, the heat isnāt actually flowing yetā¦but the furnace is pre-heating and I get heat very shortly after I walk in the door. Iām willing to take the wait time, as opposed to widening my geofence, as I run a lot of errands around my home and donāt want to constantly be fooling my HVAC system. Simple, direct, and (so far) the integration has been solid and the responses at the thermostat are immediate. The only time Iāve had an issue is when ST fails to execute something (usually a mode change) that Iāve got a temp change tied to. Iāve also leveraged Rule Machine to change a few tempsā¦
For me, simple is solid. Iāll be installing a second Pearl soon.
Just wanted to refresh on this topic. I have been using plain CT100 z-wave thermostat since it was located in little used/traveled dining room. In my new home the thermostat will be front and center so tempted to get a Nest or Ecobee now. With the cheaper Nest E and Ecobee Lite options available, what are peoples thoughts?
Have to agree here. I have at least four people that have bought Nest and after theyāve seen what I have going on in my house, they feel robbed.
Alexa even has native feedback on the remote sensors. Sweet!
@yvesracine has a great Connect App and great Device Handlers for the Ecobee. I am glad I went this route. Wow, my temps are crazy consistent and my energy use has dramatically decreased.
I even recommend the remote sensors now for the average user. The Ecobee is just a great thermostat!
I know I sound like a cheesy commercial but I have no ties with Ecobee and I was a Nest user before SmartThings, New House and Ecobee.