Please recommend a thermostat

Hi All…

My new house how four heating zones, with two heat pumps. The thermostats are nothing special, and I would like to change one or two zones to something I can remotely control. I don’t yet have much automation here (unlike my last place what was way overdone), so far I have a few Lutron Caseta fan and light switches (which I do like).

Google has Nests on sale for $189 at the moment, and I was okay with the Nests I had in my last place but they lacked a critical feature - the hold. I work from home, so I don’t care so much about schedules, but I do want to be able to set the temp and have it stay, and I do want to be able to remotely control.

Eventually I would like to replace all 4 as funds allow, and $189 times 4 adds up.

What do y’all think? Is there a lower cost device that meets my needs?

Thanks!

I replaced all my thermos with the LUX KONOz. They look good, are easy to use, and easy to set up. They are a little cheaper than the Nests, and work great.

My use case is like yours where I don’t use schedules and other features of devices like Nest, and use ST for everything from remotely controlling the thermo, to automations to run the fan to simulate circulation mode.

Thanks I’ll check it out. As I read about these I see some of them use geofencing to tell if I’m home or not, which may be a great solution since my schedule is extremely irregular. One thing that probably would not work is proximity, since the main room in my home is long and narrow, open concept type, with the living room at one end, the kitchen at the other and the dining area in the middle. And sometimes I’ll sit watching TV for wayyyy too long :slight_smile:

Which model? Better check that the model on sale can manage your system

It’s apparently the learning one. I see there is a much cheaper one that someone on Amazon said won’t work with a heat pump so I’m trying to figure that out now. Thnaks for the heads up!

Depending upon where you are located, your utility might have a smart thermostat discount/rebate program. E.g., here in Massachusetts there is a $100 rebate per thermostat (up to 2 a year).

2 Likes

Ditto here in NC with Duke.

1 Like

Sadly nothing here with my electric co op in SC.

Will this one switch back and forth between heat and cool as needed? Here in the fall it can get cold at night but warm during the day. Also, do you know if it interfaces with Google home? I read a few reviews but can’t find these answers. Thanks!

Personally, I would hold off on this type of purchase until matter-compatible devices are available, which hopefully will be by Christmas. But that’s just me. :sunglasses:

Without SmartThings, no because there is no native Auto mode. Using SmartThings I have a couple routines that set the mode based on a certain temperature. For example, if the mode is cool and the temperature drops below a certain point, it changes the mode to heat and sets the temperature to a few degrees above that. Same thing for the opposite situation. It’s a pretty basic thermo intended to be used with a home automation solution, so you won’t find a lot of bells and whistles, but it is an extremely reliable device. These routines now run local on the hub too btw since they’re edge drivers and the automations don’t use timers or anything needing ST’s cloud for processing.

2 Likes

Be very sure any thermostat you install is compatible with your heart pumps. We built a new home in 2018 that has a 3-zone heat pump.

I wanted Nest thermostats because they were the cool thing just then. The HVAC contractor said he would void the warranty on the system if I used those. So I selected Honeywell WiFi thermostats that he offered.

Not great thermostats with limited cloud-to-cloud connectivity and odd omissions in even their own apps.

I don’t know for sure but my guess is the issue was to do with aux heat mode control.

1 Like

That might be a blessing. While I like my Nest Products, the whole change from a Nest to Google Home account has been a disaster IMO and they still have not finished.

2 Likes

Agree.

I have 6 Nest Outdoor Cameras. There are features in the Nest App which are still not, and possibly never will be, in the Google Home app.

And don’t get me started about the total lack of external automation capabilities for the cameras.

1 Like

My recommendation would be Venstar. The main reasons being that they not only have an app and web interface, but also a LOCAL API via http. These days I try to avoid any devices that require proprietary services.

Plus their thermostats offer many more settings (such as dead zone adjustment) that most smart thermostats don’t support.

1 Like

Thermostat is one of the device classes that will be supported by matter, so if you can wait a few months until matter is released there should be a lot more candidates that will hopefully work locally. :thinking:

1 Like

So I ordered two Nests (not the expensive learning ones) and they say Mattr support will come, but now I see some posts that the infrastructure is not ideal. My last home has two Nest learning thermostats (the original V1) and the app was okay but now I see that won’t work.

But I can always return them if I’m not happy.

1 Like

And I’m already regretting it! I installed a nest and that was easy, but getting it to talk to the app, not so much. Apparently there is a problem when it asks if I have a Nest account, and I say no, it quits the configuration. Still trying to figure this out.

Turns out only Google personal accounts work, my G Suite account wouldn’t. One would think Google could provide a better error message.