All About Smart Thermostats | Ask This Old House
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- In this video, Ask This Old House home technology expert Ross Trethewey explains everything there is to know about modern smart thermostats.
SUBSCRIBE to This Old House: bit.ly/SubscribeThisOldHouse.
Ross Tretheway and Kevin O’Connor talk about Smart Thermostats. Ross explains how far thermostats have come to Kevin, and even some of the most up-to-date, cutting-edge features that today’s thermostats have to offer. As Kevin asks the hottest questions on the topic, Ross explains the features, cost, savings, and convenience that a smart thermostat can offer to almost any home.
Thermostats Continue To Evolve
Most stock blades with new miter saws in the box are general-purpose blades. These blades are fine for cutting a wide variety of materials, but they might not be as accurate or easy to use as a material- or project-specific blade. Having the right blade for a particular saw can significantly impact the quality of the cuts you make and your safety while performing those cuts.
These blades come in different sizes
Thermostats have come a long way in recent years. Long gone is the gold knob-style thermostat, which required running wires from the furnace, heater, or air conditioner through the home to the thermostat. To adjust the temperature, the user would have to physically touch the thermostat.
Even the first smart thermostats are now 10 years old. Now, smart thermostats can communicate with sensors throughout the house, automatically balance air temperatures, and more.
Geofencing
The latest and greatest thermostat tech allows for several convenient (and money-saving) features. For instance, many use geofencing technology. This technology detects when your smartphone leaves a preset radius (5 miles, for instance), and reduces energy consumption by adjusting the temperature. When you return to the area with your phone, the thermostat adjusts to a more comfortable setting automatically.
Smart Thermostats Can Pay for Themselves
Most of the newer smart thermostats cost between $75 and $300, but they can actually pay for themselves. With half of a home’s energy bill going to heating and cooling, the 5% to 10% improved efficiency can result in real savings very quickly.
Where to find it?
Ross explained the benefits of installing smart thermostats that provide both convenience and energy-efficiency. You can control the temperature of your house from anywhere, and by sensing and regulating air temperature, motion and humidity, they can also save you money.
Ross displayed and discussed four different smart thermostat models:
563 -Tekmar WiFi Thermostat [bit.ly/3J1wDY6] manufactured by Watts [www.watts.com/]
Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control EB-STATE5-01 [amzn.to/34pNAwH] manufactured by Ecobee [www.ecobee.com/en-us/]
Google Nest Thermostat G4CVZ [amzn.to/3owCBs7] on sale at the Google Store [store.google.com/?hl=en-US]
Honeywell Home Wifi Color Touchscreen Thermostat RTH9585WF1004/U [amzn.to/3HA66AR] on offer from Honeywell Home [www.honeywellhome.com/us/en]
Looking for more step by step guidance on how to complete projects around the house? Join This Old House Insider to stream over 1,000 episodes commercial-free: bit.ly/2GPiYbH
Plus, download our FREE app for full-episode streaming to your connected TV, phone or tablet: www.thisoldhouse.com/pages/st...
About Ask This Old House TV:
From the makers of This Old House, America’s first and most trusted home improvement show, Ask This Old House answers the steady stream of home improvement questions asked by viewers across the United States. Covering topics from landscaping to electrical to HVAC and plumbing to painting and more. Ask This Old House features the experts from This Old House, including general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, landscape contractor Jenn Nawada, master carpenter Norm Abram, and host Kevin O’Connor. Ask This Old House helps you protect and preserve your greatest investment-your home.
Follow This Old House and Ask This Old House:
Facebook: bit.ly/ThisOldHouseFB
Twitter: bit.ly/AskTOHTwitter
Pinterest: bit.ly/ThisOldHousePinterest
Instagram: bit.ly/AskTOHIG
All About Smart Thermostats | Ask This Old House
/ thisoldhouse - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![Best Smart Thermostats 2024 [don’t buy one before watching this]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/G6bAxDlhr2Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![Best Smart Thermostats 2024 [don’t buy one before watching this]](/img/tr.png)
![มองหน้ากันไม่ติด (Awkward) - โอ๊ต ปราโมทย์ FEAT. MAIYARAP [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4b02SY_r6Gw/mqdefault.jpg)
Kevin is a die hard fan of old-school thermostats.
3:33 You can feel his lack of energy. 4:49
The next need is vent control so rooms can be cut down when they are too warm and that air can be sent to a room that is too cool. That will really increase the effectiveness of your room sensors and lower costs.
There are vent control options at the registers that I have seen... But I think smarter supply trunks would be better.
There's an Ask TOH clip where Richard retrofits zoning baffles into existing ductwork. The system he had used inflatable sacks that can block airflow in the ducts and creates zones that way.
If you are going to do a new system, make sure it is a fully balanced one.. 1 supply and return duct into each room (or more depending on size)...
Great information. As always. Thanks to you guys at This old House 🏡.
I had 2 eco bees. I loved the convenience of being able to control it away from home, but after 2.5 years, one of them went bad. It would call for heat, but not actually turn on the furnace. Switched back to the old school and everything works fine. 2.5 years isn't a great return on investment for how expensive these things are!
They want you to buy new ones.. That is how they keep the share holders happy... Planned Obsolescence for profits..
I got a Honeywell one back in 2014 I think it was. My local utility was giving rebates so it was basically free. I chose the Honeywell over Nest because the display was more colorful 🤣. Well and it was cheaper. I was able to get it for free with the rebate but the Nest cos more and I would have had a leftover amount to pay out of pocket if I got the Nest. It was a good thermostat but didn't have the learning capability of Nest. I could control it via my phone though which was a plus (and the display was really colorful) I moved last year and it was still working but l left it in the house. I wanted to get either an Ecobee or Nest for my new home. I'm evaluating those 2 right now
This old house !!
Top ratings again.. well done !!
Most newer construction within the last 30 years would run a 5 or 6 conductor thermostat wire. So if you only see 4 conductors try pulling the wire out of the wall and see if the other 1 or 2 is wrapped around or cut. But if the home is 30+ years old you most likely only have 2-4 conductors. If thats the case you would actually swap the fan control wire & turn it into a common wire giving you the 24 volts needed for the smart thermostat.
Why not just splice a wire onto the fan wire and use that to power the thermostat?
You may need to add a cap or two to insure the thermostat doesn't get spiked when the fan is turned to on.
@@scotttovey do the job right not a cobble job.
@@TheElderOne2003 I agree. You're totally hacking your smart thermostat by NOT wiring for a true common conductor.
@@TheElderOne2003
Doing the job right requires running a new cable with five wires. Not simply swapping the fan wire to run the thermostat.
Personally, I wouldn't install any device in my home that will allow a third party to cut off the power like he stated. The explanation requires a bit of a back story if you're genuinely interested and you may decide not to put one of those things in your home either.
Why I won't give the power company control over my thermostat.
A few years back I didn't use AC, just kept the windows open and ran oscillating fans to keep cool. Then one summer during the 90 degree dash days I decided to use the AC and realized on the 80 degree days, I wasn't withstanding the heat as well as I had thought.
So the following summer I decided to use AC more which obviously meant I would use more power. In response to my additional use of power, the power company kept sending me email notices and warning me that I was using more energy than I had done in previous years.
Yeah, those psychopaths will require you to die of heat stroke just so us peasants can't use the energy we are paying for.
By the way, California has power shortages because they do not produce enough electricity for their population. That problem may diminish as people move out of California rather than do the hard work of securing their elections and electing leaders that will actually represent them and permit the needed improvements to their infrastructure rather than forcing them to suck the poison of green energy.
I got lucky, im in a 80s mobile home, with central air and heat, it had wires for 24v power, heat, cool, fan. but no common, checked and it did have a wire behind the wall but wasnt connected, luckily i was able to get a pinout of my HVAC unit which had a tap for common, and i was able to add that wire to it to power my smart thermostat.
although i only use it for wireless control, im home most of the time and due to being a mobile home it sucks for insulation so if i let relax heating or cooling when im gone, it takes a long time to get it back to normal temps
The best way to use those sensors, IMO, is only for multi-level homes particularly if you have both heat and A/C. Put one sensor on each floor or at least the top and bottom floors. Then, you can tell the thermostat (at least for my model) to pay attention to a particular floor. So in the winter, I tell it to keep the house heated so the temperature on the top floor is good and in the summer, cool to the temp on the bottom floor.
Alternatively, if you're home has the thermostat on a floor where you usually aren't spending much of your time, you can put a sensor on the "main" living floor and just leave it to use that as it's default reading.
we recently had a new 2 stage heating and cooling system installed in our older home. same york system as the older 25+ year old units. we have a honeywell t9/10 tstat, and we enjoy the features it has, but it seems to run forever. we were told with cooling not to drop the temps further then 2 degrees from desired or it will run longer. i have ours set to cool to 75 for specific times, then raise to 77 like when not home for specific times. when home and it calls for ac to run, it only takes maybe 15 mins to get to desired temp, but never shuts down for like 30-40 mins. then once it shuts off, it kicks back on in 5-7 mins. it does this all evening long. so our first elect bill was really high $267. to me this seems something is not right. why does it run for so long after desired temp is met. it just sits there and runs when its showing the desired temp. any advice would be great. we did find you can change the indoor offsets, so we changed it to -2, and its better but instead of running for 30-40 mins to runs for 10-12 mins. just odd its not holding the room temp. thinking i just might do programmable tstat like we had before
Something that doesn’t get much airtime on these smart devices: after a few years, you don’t see as many if any software updates. While the convenience of setting your thermostat remotely is nice, you eventually have to deal with a potential security issue going forward bc Nest wants you switching out thermostats every seceral years.
Not to mention it takes Control out of your hands. See what happened in Denver recently. They got locked out of their thermostat
It would have been nice if you would have told us a little about each feature so people could decide what was right for them.
Love the show😊
Air quality monitoring in the future. Heat, humidity, pollen, dust, cooling all in one.
all over network, easily hacked.
@@degenwow yeah? Then hack it.
@@MrObvioous514 I won't.
@@degenwow you cant. You say its easy so why not prove it?
VPN trace if the user uses one, Router Firewall and device firewall. Its Possible. But so is a meteorite hitting you on the head.
make sure to check your local power company for rebates
bought 2 Google Nests... 250 each
power company had them for sale at 150, or a 100$ rebate
they pay for themselves though with their energy saving features
Rarely do they actually pay for themselves.. Have you done a before and after comparison of your usage and heating degree days or cooling days?
There is a white paper on programable thermostats that states most use more energy...
Curious about options for older homes with a two-wire thermostat
We have a one HVAC unit, but two thermostats for the top and bottom floor. There is a flap that controls the airflow at the HVAC unit in the attic. Is there a smart thermostat that can control that flap also?
What should your humidity be in your house in the winter time and in the summer time
I just install my Nest thermostat E thanks for reminding me I'm old
Also remember rebates! Some electric companies, like SRP, will offer discounts off your electric bill, in my case, $50 per smart thermostat.
Make sure they can't disable cooling. Gotta read the fine print..
If you opt into the program that allows them to remotely change your temperature
I'm just gonna stick with my round golden oldie. Seems to work just fine for me.
In many ways those are the best, especially if you have steam heat. Also, they keep working, not disposable like most others.
Ah the round Honeywell
Love Ol House.
Nests also can use the wireless sensors in other rooms, I know because I use them.
Any options for geothermal systems?
So my nest has been changing the temperature readings on colder nights saying my house has been hotter than it is. I checked with 2 other thermometers right next to it they both read 68 when my thermostat said 74. i'm throwing away my nest and going back to an old school thermostat. Screw Nest and any smart thermostat. During warmer nights the thermostat reads correctly.
I have a furnace and a separate hrv system. Can these new thermostats run them?
Love my Nest 3rdGen
Can you replace a jotto smart thermostat with a different one?
It's amazing that the 10-year old Nest Thermostat (on the 2nd gen software) can do all the things listed by these "next-gen" smart thermostats. Still very relevant and it looks like these "next-gen" ones have caught up to it's capabilities. Curious this was seen as a relic on the table, should be on the wall as the contender.
Yeah, that's immediately what I thought too. And able to do it from all kinds of third-party sensors and not locked to one ecosystem like the others.
I looked at the Nest back in 2012 but it couldn’t handle three heat sources (I have a heat pump with both “backup” (oil) and “emergency” (electric resistive coils) heat). Can they handle that now?
I prefer Nest in so many ways but I feel like I already feed the Google machine too much. Like I’m doing right now.
@@adamcboyd I was going to say the same thing, can do pretty much all of the things or could with a software update. the nest also can utilize additional temp sensors in other rooms and geofencing as well as auto schedule, but not using sensors to determine if you're at home but your phone's location for away mode, but having sensors works better if there's more than one person living in the home. It also senses when you walk past it.
I’m on my second nest thermostat and four years and nothing but issues always showing low battery and Wi-Fi Not connecting. Going back to basic simple reliable thermostats.
So which one is the best?
As an ac tech I use the simplest thermostat I can. Set and forget baby
First time catching an episode without it being 5 years old
Are smart thermostats worth it for heat-only systems?
Just got a new furnace. Found that my thermostat has 4 wires not 5. What would it take to make it 5 wire? Installer said if I want one with wifi that it would cost additional $300. If I got a wireless one it would be bulky and the graphics would not be very good. I feel that I am being told a story so I need more information. The thermostat is currently in the hallway to the right of the entrance. The house is a concrete slab ranch. The other half of the house feels cooler because the thermostat is in a hallway on the other side of the house.
Yeah, the ecobee had demand response and use rates via eco+
Any recommendations on whether and how you can hook up one of these smart thermostats with a boiler that only has a 2-wire system?
My baseboard heater (208/230 ) wall thermostat has only 2 wire. Any suggestion?
The two wires don't carry power. By connecting together it turns the boiler on. Smart thermostats need constant power. But it doesn't need to come from the boiler. You could surface mount cable or open up the drywall and connect in somewhere local.
Most utility companies also pay their customers rebates to buy smart thermostats to help offset the costs of the device. I bought a Nest Gen 2, with rebate and a Black Friday special, for $70 US.
Same, I got an Ecobee for about $30 after rebate and sign up for Demand Response. Great deal.
They can also set your thermostat to a different temperature without your controlling it. It happened during the Texas freeze.
@@N3ttwerk yup! Gotta read the fine print..
@James D yep, always read the fine print. Make sure that initial rebate is separate from the TOU program. That program should give you continuous benefits and allow you to turn it off and on, not just a 1 time benefit.
I have a Nest 3rd gen, and have six remote, wireless temp sensors paired to it. I guess Ross didn't know about them.
He was probably referring to the older nest model, those temp sensors only work with nest thermostat E or the 3rd gen nest learning thermostat, and don't even work with the newest nest thermosat for some reason
Make sure you buy these through your power company. They usually give hefty discounts sometimes 50% off.
I got the $249 nest learning thermostat for $73 after instant rebates with my power company. 👍
Very interesting, one question. I have old steam radiators. How will one of these thermostats work for MY house. I have one of those old gold dial ones.
I have hot water radiators. You probably only have 2 wires. You can power them with a transformer that plugs into the wall. I was able to plug it into an outlet in my basement and run new thermostat wire and the transformer wires up through the wall to move the thermostat to a new location to solve the issue of the Nest losing power.
@FlyingSioux did something very similar with an ecobee, but I have steam radiators like OP. I would recommend an ecobee and set the differential higher while setting the min run time longer. That way you don't start-stop the system before steam reaches all of your radiators. Time how long it takes steam to close the valve on the last radiator to close off and add a few min of heating to get the min run time. Adjust the differential to avoid too much overheating.
They will work just fine for that. You just have to set the type of heating in the settings for them to work efficiently.
If you have a two wire system you can buy a C wire adapter. Which you install at the furnace and it allows the thermostat to be powered and control it through the two wire system.
I have a old 'smart' thermostat. Useless (IMO). I need a better style. is there anything out there for Steam heat? My problem is if temp is raised more that one degree (calling for heat) the boiler and radiators get so warm that the room temo will got up the '2' degrees and keep going. need something that is temp and time combined
@@donc-m4900 that's why most of these newer thermostats are not ideal for stem heat. The old style round non programmable are good for steam because they have an "antisipator" that can be adjusted to account for the temperature rise after the boiler shuts off and the radiators continue to give off heat.
I'd like to find something that adjusts to the outside temperature so your ac unit will adjust so it could keep a steady temperature the whole time inside your house
You're looking for something called weather compensation. We have it in Europe for gas boilers and heat pumps. I don't know if you have it for a/c I would guess so as a heat pump is a/c in reverse
So if your internet goes down does it shut off power to your wifi thermostat? I could see that that would be a problem.
No. You just have to manually adjust your thermostat instead of through the app.
Why is EVERYTHING now micromanaging my life via my phone? The dishwasher wants to talk to my phone. The range/oven wants to talk to my phone. Nuts.
Hopefully the chip shortage will convince manufacturers that simple is sometimes better
You don’t have to buy those or and you don’t even have to set it up that way 🤦. To some people it’s convenient to turn your heat on when you’re on the way home. You don’t like remote starters for cars either?
Nope. Nor do I like Alexa, which is little more than a high tech Clapper. The only thing I have gotten used to is the TV remote, but that’s because I rarely watch the television and when I do it’s more often than not my own DVDs. All of those so-called smart gadgets are collecting information about my age, purchasing patterns, current location, etc. so that online advertisers can annoy me.
Alan Watts talked about washing dishes in a podcast. He suggested most people think in terms of how many dishes they will wash over the course of there life. However if an individual is to really look at the task at hand. All you ever wash is one dish at a time. And that is all there is. It is the pure experience of washing the dish that can be joyful when observed from the right attitude. As in comparison from an attitude that screamed oh my God look at all of these dishes in the sink is full. Do people have no compassion on their dishwasher? And there is a dishwasher right there that is overlooked and neglected. Just as the corners of there own mind where they have forgotten to see the Joy of Life. I have heard many couples argue that the other is lazy because they don't do there own chores. Neither one is justified in there psychological attacks. As the old saying goes Monkey see monkey do.Certain people throughout life go through it not experiencing even the little joys of washing one dish.. nor do they really ever experience the gift of Love from there husband or wife.To really listen to an argument one has to be silent within. Otherwise you will only hear the chatter of egos. Not the peace of God that you and them really are.
Now if only those dang kids would get off your lawn…
Same shirt!
Which thermostat was it that recirculated the air using just the fan?
I used the Sensi thermostat and it circulated the air 15 minutes within the hour. I just upgraded to the nest and it does the same thing
When you live up north ( for example NY, Canada), where winter temperatures are subzero, and summer temperatures are above 95F many of the new technology thermostats are really lagging in functionality. These thermostats do not appear to learn the time-constants for warming or cooling. That is, in winter, how many hours will it take to bring the house back up to temperature, if the heating is lowered by 3 degrees at 9am when people leave and at bedtime beginning 10pm.
Second, my smart furnace circulates hot water to radiators based on outdoor temperatures. My heated water circulates in the house radiators at just above room temperature in the late spring and early fall. As it gets colder, the circulating water temperature is increased.
What would be required is a thermostat that learns the house temperature heating and cooling rate, based on the outdoor weather, and the desired amount of setback requested.
A thermostat that does not look at the outdoor temperature, and knows not the delay time to raise the temperature of the house two degrees, is not for me.
My hot water furnace has an outdoor sensor. The colder it is outside, the hotter the circulating water temperature. Coupled with that smart furnace, I use a digital thermostat that has programming of 4 periods per day, for 7 individual days With a 2 degree setback at 10pm and 9am, Due to temperature change inertia, we need to restore the room temperature setting at 5am, to have the house comfortable at 7am.
Essentially, for our needs we have a 5 day Mon-Fri program with 70 F set for 5am to 9am, and from 3:30pm to 10:30pm. With a 3 degree drop for the other hours. For the weekends, the thermostat only does the 10pm to 5am drop, we are home all day and because it takes about 3 hours to recover the 3 F degree setback.
My thermostat is a common off-the-shelf device that we bought for under $50.00, as mentioned, four periods each day can be programmed.
FYI, in summer, the settings are reversed, (human slide switch to switch from winter to summer)
Thank you for the information about new technologies. It is quite informative.
Mr Satenstein this is awesome I love your setup and attention to detail in explaining it.
You can use the Ecobee one shown here to communicate with a hub system like Apple Homekit or my favorite: Home Assistant, and the possibilities are truly endless, just whatever you are up to programming yourself. getting into that type of programming might be a little daunting but after that comment I know you can handle it. and it can switch from winter to summer for you :)
@@djangodoescomputer I will be exploring the Ecobee device. As an aside, we own a Duplex, and each floor has the programmable thermostat.
The garage is under the side of the house, as part of the basement. We just installed a R18 Garage door and I am hoping that it too will cut the heating/cooling expenses, and reduce the mainfloor and basement temperature swings. Next year, it will be triple pane (pain $$) windows
What I nice way to track someone
Should have added information about smart vents.
and how much of this works when your internet is out? what happens when you are away from home and internet goes out, will your house still maintain comfort?
Yes. You will lose the remote connectivity though (Web, smartphone)
ecobee smart thermostats will still follow your set schedule and can be adjusted manually if there is a connectivity issue.
The ecobee runs all power through unprotected mosfets instead of relays. So if you have a shorted contactor coil for an A/C unit, instead of blowing a 10¢ fuse it will take out the $150 T-stat.
The Honeywell Lyric (round) was built the same way. They are actually designed to FAIL! The more compact the cheaper the build quality.
I have a Honeywell T6 Smart pro. Wi-Fi control. It worked well for two years then the Wi-Fi in the thermostat got a glitch and my App would not talk to it. Well I was controlling it 1200 miles away…not good. So I went to my vacation home and tried and tried to reset it. No good. I finally pulled it off the wall and out of the cradle to reset it, by removing all power. Plugged it back into the cradle and had to get it to relearn the network to get it all working. If you are not good with apps and setting things up. Stay away from Wi-Fi thermostats.
I implore anyone listening who is shopping for smart thermostats to stay away from the Nest! I spent a documented 60 hours trying to fix it and on calls/contact with them trying to fix it. It never worked properly and they said it should with my system. Got an ecobee and it worked the first time and no issues. The Nest looks nicer, sure, but not worth the hassle.
I have ducted Mini-Splits from MrCool in our OffGrid home. I have yet to find a thermostat that works with it. Very frustrating because the basic one that came with it is horrible.
TOH you are welcome to visit and figure it out. That would be cool!
Post the model of your current Tstat. Any smart Tstat with heat pump option should work .
They don't like to be cycled off and on like that.. you can't operate a minisplit like a traditional system with a separate thermostat..
@@FJB2020 Yes you can.
@@Duke93720 never seen it done.. Have a link to a functional setup? I can't find any...
@@FJB2020 if it's a single zone you can use a Tstat that has a heat pump option.
Which 9
Ones have password lock?
I took out my nest thermostats and got nest to refund me after a year of back and forth.. Their lack of C wire cycled my boiler to "recharge" it and cost me hundreds in fuel.
Some of the technology is nice, but I don't like how everything is wanting to connect to my WiFi or my phone.
So the geofencing feature... how does that work in a household of more than one person? I'm sure people staying at home wouldn't like the heat being lowered on them. I suppose this would force them to have smart phones of their own, which not everyone wants. I don't see that feature being terribly helpful unless you're living by yourself.
Well you probably set it for vacations and stuff that way your house isnt cold or hot when you get back in
my wife and I have the Google nest
the eco mode only turns on if everyone leaves the house
so every person has to have the app installed on their phone
but the geofencing will also disable if the device detects motion... so if you have family over and the primary residents are gone the system will stay on via motion detection
Do smart thermostats work with hot water radiators?
I have hot water radiators. You probably only have 2 wires. You can power them with a transformer that plugs into the wall. I was able to plug it into an outlet in my basement and run new thermostat wire and the transformer wires up through the wall to move the thermostat to a new location to solve the issue of the Nest losing power.
Similar with steam radiators
So yea, common does not provide the 24v power. Red does. Common only negates the need for a battery by completing the circuit. Also, installing your own thermostat without being HVAC certified voids any manufacturer warranty
Skipped right over wiring. Very important for older homes. Ecobee offers C-Wire adapter for houses that don’t have C-wires. Nest doesn’t and you’ll have to watch some videos online to get it working or hire an electrician to run new wire to your thermostat
Because there isn’t much differentiation there. Running a thermostat wire isn’t significant for most DIYers, definitely doesn’t rise to the “hire an electrician” level as you suggested.
@@sloan1919 I see your point
Nest also offers a c-wire adapter, its called Nest Power Connector but it is a separate purchase currently $25 directly from google.
We have a handy video all about installing with the included Power Extender Kit. Check it out, here: th-cam.com/video/jU05_ke8JOw/w-d-xo.html
Just had the NEST replaced with "normal thermostats" in a house I just bought and the tech said it was a good decision as these "smart thermostats" are very hard on HVAC components and can ruin a system in no time.
What you don't mention is that on lots of homes the thermostat wire is run to a single gang box and companies like ecobee have no solution on how to mount their product. The suggest that YOU create an adapter plate to mount to the box (!). Perhaps TOH could focus on the audience homeowner rather than sponsor selling products that have issues in real life.
All those "wireless sensors" are nice until all of them start beeping for low battery in the middle of the night, a few days apart from each-other.
or when wifi gets too dense in your area and wireless connection starts to suffer.
@@degenwow Good news! ecobee SmartSensor uses 915MHz radio waves-not Wi-Fi-for secure, energy-efficient communication with your ecobee thermostat.
I have 4 zones and I can buy alot of oil @ $300 a piece.
Do you know how much these would have to save me to be worth the $300 ? No thanks
None of the units shown are suited for zoned heating. Richard has covered systems that do (Hot water & air) in the past. These typically cost more than $300, but will pay for themselves over time.
Peak rate is optional.
One major ignored problem is that in the summer we save when the home is 84f but probably half us must sleep during the day so to cool the entire home down to ideal-80-hour-work-week temperatures for sleep is not cost effective. & there sometime comes a problem when our tiny homes/living-space isn't getting the healthy 15-CFM per person of fresh air. IMO the Smart thermostat needs a room-to-room upgrade for modern life.
I keep my house at 72 and i am proud to ignore request to conserve.
@@001looker I do too but my climate is humid so more cold air can create more condensation that might grow mold in hidden places of someones home. I think I may just window-unit the problems & test its efficiency this summer. Maybe I'll cut my bill in half by cooling only one room vs cooling more than six spaces. If I set an exchange rate of 15-CFM I could probably predict the savings.
But that requires a zoned heating/cooling system. You can use smart baffles for ducted systems or smart release valves for a radiator system or if you have a ductless, each unit should be able to be separately controlled. Then just pull it into a smart hub system like HA or one of the costly hubs if you don't want to get your hands a bit dirty.
If you have a heart pump for heating then stay away from Honeywell smart thermostats. I have a T9. It doesn't let you set lock outs for the auxiliary heat. So the thermostat will always call for auxiliary heat when the thermostat is set a few degrees higher than the current room temperature. Basically this wipes out all your savings when you have a schedule set for the heater.
Kevin "Good Information" O'Connor
Geofencing is useless if you have a family. If you leave but your family is still at home what happens then?
Got honeywell can't find C wire 🤔🤔
Honeywell sucks for smart thermostats. They have no features compared to Ecobee or Nest. It's just an old school thermostat with a fancy touchscreen and WiFi.
They need to make them for 220v 20 amp 2 wire systems. Thats what i have. Have yet to find one that takes that power.
They do make them search for "Line Voltage" smart thermostat or "High Voltage" Smart Thermostat.
You need to run pilot relays. 24vac coils switching the 220v
@@mgzukows not for systems over 20 amps with 2 wires.
Check out Mysa. Smart thermostats made for electric baseboard heaters at full line voltage
Actually I just checked and they are rated for 20A max
I enjoy the conveniences of my smart thermostat - I just wish that I didn't have to tell Big Brother my daily info.
Lol, geofencing is going to cost you money in a place like Lousiana where this old house will get to 82 degrees if I don't cool it off, and then spend an entire day trying to get the temperature back below 77.
Our hvac guy recommends a programmable Honeywell thermostat but suggests picking one temperature (actually one for heating and one for cooling) and just leaving it there.
All the savings for turning it down while you were away are lost when it has to run extra duty to get the house back to your temperature again when you are home.
The only exception being if you are going away on vacation for more than a few days, then definitely turn it down and then back again once you get home. He said that makes perfect sense but doing it every day or sometimes even several times a day is mostly pointless.
So we’ve been doing as he said for the last few years and honestly we have saved money rather than playing the “keep changing the setting game”
Why do so many TH-cam HVAC pros hate these things?
Because they add complexity and many potential problems.
1:42
I'm the last person who prefer non-smart solutions
3:30 "ya cool" he really meant "I don't care but anyways"
Nest too have remote room sensors like ecobee. This feature is not mentioned here. In no way nest is older generation!
Essentially these save you money by lowering the heat.
I imagine the money would be better spent on some caulk for air sealing windows or cellulose insulation for the attic
I wish that there was a wifi thermostat that I could control when I am on vacation anywhere in the united states. The smart thermostat wants to always turn the air on or the heat on even when I am not there because they think that I will be back. All I want is to have the control, not the smart software.
why would i ever allow a company outside of my home have access to what/when I use my things? Good lord people. Ya'll never see where Amazon turned off this guys house basically?
There's nothing "future" about demand response. In Michigan, you could sign up for this back in the 80's.
Nest sucks. I hate that it always wants to override the temperature that I want it to be.
its smarter than the home-owner
@@degenwow haha. you will comply to 80f lol
It's like watching sober Jim Breuer.
None of that stuff works with a 110 thermostat have a upgrade
I want a 3 wire, power open and power closed smart thermostat.
What do you mean by "power open" "power closed", a heat only or cool only system? These can do that (provided the third wire is the common wire).
Just a fair warning ⚠️ those who opt in for your utility companies to control your thermostat, there seems to be no way of opting out or turn the feature off.
I have an Ecobee and try to turn it off but Ecobee tells me to contact utilities company and utilities company tells me to reach out to the manufacturer. On Reddit people say it’s a software bug but it’s been 2 years still no fix.
Utilities usually give you $5 a month to allow them to control your thermostat when they need to. Don’t do it. No legitimate HVAC contractor is going to agree to installing a new system utilizing a Nest or Echobee thermostat. They are expensive consumer junk and are a source of issues he will have to contend with for free during the warranty period. Honeywell ,White Rogers and Emerson are the contractors choice because they can be fine tuned more precisely to your installation. Nest and Echobee only have generic setup features.
So these are essentially all "spy" tools as well
Wood burning stove and a sweater.
Beam me up, Scotty…
So nest also has sensors…. So does Honeywell…. Lol “new gen”
I'm retired and don't have a set time schedule. I had my heating and cooling system replaced a few months ago (original one was about 50 years old and still working) and it came with a newer style thermostat. What I don't like about it is that it only has one schedule for 7 days and you cannot deviate from it. I kept my older "smart" thermostat and may reinstall it this summer and NO, I do not trust WIFI.
If you really did just upgrade your heating/cooling system to be zone based, then you don't even need to follow a schedule, just use occupancy detectors in each room and heat/cool based on occupancy detected.
Edit: I do find you not trusting wifi concerning though. Do you mean old security standards like WEP, unencrypted wifi signals, wifi spoofing, or wifi dead zones?
@@Bremend I live in a 200+ condo association. My unit is 900 square feet two stories. A few years ago, I had double pain windows installed and that helped a lot but one problem is that these buildings have old insulation in the attic and walls. The attic is a common space for two units. Realistically, I just run the ac when I need it and live with the bill for a few months per year. Since installing double pain windows, I haven't turned on the heater since then.
I do turn on my wifi for short periods but only when I'm home. My GF and her son are computer geeks by profession. The son has a master's degree in wireless communication engineering and even he doesn't trust wifi much. I found out that some hackers can get your passwords too easily these days over the air. I know I may be over reacting, but then I'm old and don't want the hassles.
More to fail. Why complicate something that doesn't need to be. Il stick to my basic. All I want is it to go on and off
imaging allowing the government to control your thermostat..lol
"Yeah you didn't pay your bill? We will lock your thermostat until further notice".
@@venividivici4253 doesn’t the utility company already do this?
It wouldn’t be the government, it’d be the utility company. And they compensate you for your permission.
@@StreetcarHammock The government will sure ask them to shut it off....have you been paying any attention to current events? Regular Russian people, who have nothing to do with nor want war, just had basically all financial services cut off. If they can do it to Russia, they can do it to you. Even for one mean tweet.
@@maxpower2511 Oh boy. Get back to me when you have one example of when someone's right to speech was infringed by getting their power cut off. And how is any of this related to what's happening in Russia?
Got the downvoted from me. You talked features, you showed 4 different smart thermostats, didn't say the difference in any of them.
If u don’t think allowing the government to control your thermostat is a bad idea, then I got swampland in Oklahoma to sell ya.
Why heat it? Because you might have pets and/or plants that may need heat. Duh.
These do not save you money.
If you manually set it, it's the same thing.
I don't want anything ''smart'' anymore, give me mechanical, analog, anything other than so called smart crap.
I'm with you man. Things that just work hardware wise are the best
I went full blown smart house a few years ago.. I have pretty much gotten rid of all of it (minus a few wifi switches).. There are smart home solutions that are internal looped (no outside connections) but it is pricey and not as stable as say a google system..