I’m planning to buy a ST hub and want to buy a thermostat to work with it. I’ve read the compatibility list, but still have questions. I thought this would be a great place to get my questions answered.
Programming a schedule on my current thermostat doesn’t work for my family because my wife works three random days a week and is home the rest. I think ST presence with our phones will be a great way to let the thermostat know we’re home and away. We’ll also add an arrival sensor for our son when he’s old enough to be home alone. The Ecobee3 looks like a great way to do this with ST, but I don’t need all the bells and whistles. I don’t know enough about the interface between ST and the different thermostat options to make a good decision.
What would be a good choice for a thermostat for me to use with ST to use presence to automate home and away temperature settings? Would I be better off using something other than presence to change home and away status? Are there special considerations I should think about? I’m planning to add other things later on, but this is the first.
I have a Tado Thermostat which I have integrated into ST but I don’t use ST to control it.
I use the Tado app to do all the control for it.
Tado does have a presence capability which I have set up to be our phones.
So when we are all out the heating goes into frost protection mode.
It also runs some sort of algorithm so the closer you get to home it starts to turn the heating up.
Below shows the main screen with the presence being shown.
Might be something worth considering.
For me, if my logic is in the HA Hub, I don’t want to invest in some of the fancier systems such as nest or ecobee… both amazing devices, but I see as unnecessary with a HA Hub.
I have two Nests, and I’ll probably get a third when we finish our attic. They are really cheap through my utility’s rebate programs, I get paid through their “rush hour rewards” (about $40 each summer), and my wife likes them (and the stand alone app) very much.
If I were doing it all again and basing my system around Smartthings from the start, I’d probably get an Ecobee. The integration is robust, and it still offers stand-alone functionality.
I don’t trust the simple zwave thermostats because Smartthings still fails too much. Especially with scheduling. Perhaps if I didn’t live in Chicago I would feel differently, but it’s a pretty demanding heating and cooling environment here.
I’ve got 2 Ecobee3s with the remote sensors and aside by the issue I had with one of the unit’s wifi ( Ecobee sent me a replacement ) I can’t complain. The rush hour is only ffor Nest with central AC I believe, but even with the regular $100 utility rebates for a connected thermostat both Ecobee3 and Nest can be had for < $100 each. Just watch for the sales. I got mine for $174 from HD ( before $100 rebate) and the other one for $160 ( I think ) on Amazon Prime day, before the $100 utility rebate.
Functionally they are pretty much the same ,with the exception of Ecobee3 coming with a remote sensor and having " official" ST integration.First you have the advantage of being able to mount the main thermostat in the downstairs living room,dining room wherever yours is, then putting the battery powered sensor upstairs in the bedroom or whatever. So it does a better job of equalizing the temp throughout the house. I can’t tell how well it works since it has been 90* here for the last month, so no heat required. Secondly you can also use the Ecobees as motion/occupancy as well as humidity sensors in ST not just as temp/thermostats . I don’t believe you can with the Nest.
If you are still in the planning phase, there is a New one coming out from Honeywell this fall, but I can’t go into details. It will also be in the $200-$250 MSRP price range before rebates . My old ( 4 years) Honeywells worked great, I just upgraded to Ecobee3s for the remote sensors.
Like RLDreams I went with the Ecobee3. I have not integrated it with ST, why? because I think ecobee has a well designed system. I used to install HVAC when i was in college, so I’ve messed with a few different systems. While the Ecobee3 doesn’t immediately switch to away mode when I leave, I don’t think it needs to. The carryover of temps and how well the house is insulated means runtime after I have left is so small its not hardly noticeable.
With multiple people in the house it might help some but I doubt it. The worst I’ve had is when I work from home on Friday’s it might take a little while for it to realize I am still home. So it goes into away mode at 9am, and at like 9:30 I might be like, its a little warm. But me walking by the tstat a few times to the kitchen solves it.
I think it does a good job of doing its one job. I also figure I can integrate later if I want. Plus with all the hiccups that ST has had, I’m fine leaving that computing power to it and not have it randomly think to turn the heat on in the middle of a 90* day.
I’ve been using the official handler for the Honeywell with success. It also has an IFTT channel if needed. The scheduler in the Thermostat works great for me and I haven’t let Smartthings handle that.
I love having the HVAC system shut down when a window is opened and then start back up when the windows are closed. Probably my favorite feature.
I have an Ecobee3 with 5 remote sensors which definitely transformed my homes comfort (split level).
I do have it integrated w/ST but now after all that trouble over the past 2 years i don’t feel integration has much benefit. It’s more novelty than functionality unless you plan on smart vents i suppose.
I let the thermostat do it’s thing for the most part. For my application, the only thing ST adds is more immadiate presence on/off. I doubt there’s any real savings there vs. Ecobee3 presence detection.
You can pull Ecobee3 sensors into ST and look at them but you cannot take any usable action on their results due to latency. There’s just not much reason for an upper end thermostat to be connected with anything other than whatever is within it’s platform.
One could buy a simple z-wave thermostat and with integration into ST acheive somewhat similar results with a lot of work I suppose; however, you will not experience the reliability due to ST dependency / failures.
For your requirements, any cheap z-wave thermostat will work. Our house had a Trane XR524 that worked very well for our same scenario with my wife being a stay at home mom. I’ve just recently decommissioned it only because i’m beta testing a Honeywell unit.
I picked up a used Honeywell zwave thermostat for a song on ebay. Guy said he switched security companies, and they replaced the thermostat. It shipped in a CT-100 box, so I guess that’s what he got. I paid under 35 bucks if I recall correctly. Works with the built in handler, but I may look at others later when I am not in the middle of a big remodeling job.
Stick with it if it works. I would have bought the cheapest zwave thermo I could find that was reliable.
Nest and Ecobee are great if you need a standalone solution, or cannot rely upon your HA.
But as flaky as ST can be, it’s reliable enough to control a thermo. There is so very little interaction, at least in my home. Small adjustments here and there based on mode changes and everything I have setup is checked and double checked with notifications etc. Whenever the thermo changes from one mode to another (heat, cool, auto, fan) and then alerts if any temp sensor exceeds thresholds - I just see no reason to invest the money in Ecobee even though it’s a great system.
EDIT: Now that I said that I am sure to jinx it. Countdown to Meltdown.
any thermostat that has the wifi module works awesome by radio thermostat. i have the 3m50, and you read someone else here has the ct100. all dirt cheap on ebay bc everyone is enticed with these thermostats that do things when ST will handle for you
A little more info about mine. I paid less than this one, but there are many of this model new, and a few used on ebay. I paid $26 plus $7 shipping
I had an older Honeywell thermostat which ran on batteries. I had to use one of the extra conductors on the thermostat wire (already in the wall) to carry the 24V common from the furnace up to the thermostat. This powers it. It has a coin-type lithium battery to hold the settings during a power failure only. I was able to find both the install guide and the user guide online without issue. Google is my friend.
Hi…i am a new user here they are really cheap through my utility’s rebate programs, I get paid through their “rush hour rewards” (about $40 each summer), and my wife likes them (and the stand alone app) very much.
If I were doing it all again and basing my system around Smartthings from the start, I’d probably get an Ecobee. The integration is robust, and it still offers stand-alone functionality.
