Searching for Thermometer for interacting with nest (Ireland)

Devices & Integrations
1

Hi,

Very new to this home automation space. I’ve got some tapo plugs I use with Google home but honestly only discovered smartthings via my washing machine.

Anyway I just got some Google nests installed for two zone heating and hot water (we are in Ireland). All my rooms have radiators with standard (not smart) trvs. The upstairs nest is in my bedroom, last night I noticed that our child’s room next door was a little chilly but mine is not.

As the children are the bosses, I would like to know is there some thermometer I could put in their room that if it falls to a certain value it triggers to increase the heat of the nest? My usual market for buying these things is UK/europe. I’ve seen a few options but I don’t know for certain what works with nest. Ideally I would like something that just connects to smartthings on it’s own and i run the automation there rather than another hub that I know some need. Thanks!

2

Virtually all contact sensors also provide temperature. Hypothetically, you could just get an inexpensive one that does so, and place it in the appropriate spot to indicate your child’s comfort. When it falls below XX, turn on heater.

3

Would something like this do the job?

https://amzn.eu/d/e6bBrTP

4

I’m finding it difficult to get anyone to install a Nest Thermostat, just north of Dublin. Where did you get an installer ?

5

If you have a SmartThings Hub most cheap ZigBee temperature sensors will be fine off Amazon UK.

6

Anything that says “zigbee” or “Z wave” or “Matter” will require that you also have a smartthings/Aeotec hub. At the time of this posting, just your washing machine isn’t enough.

The Frient Zigbee devices are quite popular in the community, because they have good features and good prices, but you would need to get a SmartThings hub to be able to add them to your account.

Also, Z wave, zigbee, or thread are popular for battery powered sensors because they are very low power so the batteries last a long time, but that also means the signal doesn’t go very far. Consequently, most people end up needing to add some “ repeating” Devices to their setup to get signal from a sensor on the far side of the house to the hub, typically a smart plug every 15 m or so, so that adds to the total cost of the project.

In contrast, you could get the Meross sensor system which has its own minihub plus one sensor for £25 and then you can add up to 15 more sensors at about £16 each.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Required-Security-Automation-Real-Time-SmartThings/dp/B0CGTM5FT8/

These use a proprietary 433 MHz protocol which has very good distance range, about 75 m indoors, and a good cloud to cloud integration with smartthings which is easy to use and will not require a smartthings hub. So I think the total cost of this project will be lower. And setup will be much easier.

(Meross also has a number of other devices which are Wi-Fi and also work well with smartthings.)

On the other hand, if you prefer, you can go ahead and get a Aeotec hub, and that will give you more options since you can then use Zigbee or Z wave devices, and many of the devices will communicate locally with the smartthings hub, which some people prefer. Just make sure you get the one for the UK/EU region, as the frequencies are different than those used in North America.

1 Like