Ok, savvy folk, I need thermostat help. We’ve had the Nest for years, and I used to love it until Google got their grubby hands all over it. I’m now on my 3rd (4th?) unit that randomly decides to not blow cool air anymore. The house was stuffy last night and at 71 or something, so I wanted just a bit of AC to dry things out and cool a few degrees. I woke up drenched with the house at 77! I’ve been through all the same troubleshooting things they recommend, and what Support will make me do again when I call. So, does anyone have any recommendations for an app-connected thermostat that won’t make me jump through useless hoops once a year or so?
I don’t need or want ultra fancy smart things, but I find an app connection helpful.
Be careful with smart thermostats if you live in Texas: In exchange for entries into sweepstakes, some smart thermostats are enrolled in a smart-saver energy program that will allow the power company to adjust your thermostat upward or downward during periods of high energy demand. In the example cited in the news story (from a mainstream media source-- this is not a conspiracy theory), at one point someone’s thermostat was raised as high as 80 degrees on a summer day, potentially endangering the life of a three-month-old infant.
I have an Ecobee on a heat pump and it works just fine. Thing is, the old-fashioned thermostat it replaced had a set point that agreed with the nearby digital thermometer. If I set it to 78 in the summer, the thermometer would indicate 78, within hysteresis limits.
The Ecobee had to be set at 76 to make the thermometer get to 78. Neither being calibrated, I don’t know which one is correct.
Funny you mention that. I knew our local energy co-op had a smart thermostat program going, but didn’t know anything about it, other than Hey! Free Ecobee with our sign up!
Looked into it today, and:
About 5-6 times per month, the thermostat will be adjusted remotely based on system-wide peak periods. The events will be 4 hours total, which includes a one-hour pre-cool/pre-heat period and three hours of peak-saving adjustment. Most control times will follow this pattern:
(Won’t let me paste the jpeg, but from a habitual setting of 75 they’d raise it to 79. )
You’ll be notified of control during peak times on the device’s display and via email with an option to override. You can override control up to 40-percent of the time. If you were to exceed 40-percent, the cooperative would have the option to recover all cost as a charge on your bill.
Yep, that’s a hard no. I can pay for the thing myself and decide when I can stand it being warmer etc. FWIW, I live in SC, and my house is small and older so while it cools/heats pretty quickly, it also doesn’t maintain it all that well.
Same here - had my Sensi for about 8 years and you set your schedule(s) and forget it. It may drop the Wi-Fi signal on rare occasions but many devices have that issue and resetting it is a no brainer.
Why do you need a smart thermostat?
I have a programmable-but-not-connected one. I rarely change it outside of it’s programmed windows because I don’t need to. Even when I do change it, it’s quicker to walk over & push the up/down button than pull out my phone, unlock it, & open some app to then push a button / spin a dial to adjust it that way. It can’t be hacked, either.
Fourthing the Honeywell. I had two rental condos for years and I replaced the existing thermostats with WiFi Honeywells so I could adjust temps from my home as necessary. Guests could still adjust them manually themselves but once they checked out I put them back into a scheduled mode which was the most efficient setting I could determine. I also have them in my home. Make sure whatever one you buy can restore itself after a power failure. Some of the early ones would reset to some pre-programmed factory setting if the power failed for some reason and you and reprogram them all over again.
From my couch or bed: “Alexa, 71 degrees.” No phones or walking.
I’m actually getting quite annoyed with having to even say that. So why do I need it? Lazy I guess. I also like to control it when I’ve gone out of town and forget to change it.
My experiences are way different with smart thermostats. I outfitted the house with them and really regret it. They take a significant amount of programming, and then dump it all frequently because our power is unreliable. They’re only good for about an hour without power. The brand is “aube”.
We have the Venstar for the very scientific reason that it looks really cool. Plus it has wireless remote sensors so we can average out the house temperatures or measure downstairs during the day and upstairs at night. Besides the convenience of Google hub voice control there’s also the ability to turn off your heater if you go away on a trip and forget to set away mode before leaving.
No complaints other than the occasional reboot for mysterious reasons.
I like it because the app allows me to monitor the temp during extremes when I’m not home. When we’re away for a weekend or something I can set the temp to a little warmer or cooler than I would if we were in the house, and then on our way home get it heating/cooling again.
I’m also lazy enough to tweak the heat or AC as I’m lying in bed. Like I said, this is a small house and it doesn’t always hold temp very well. It also can feel really damp on a day when the temps are low enough not to trigger the AC, so it’s nice to be able to just run it for a bit from bed, or turn the fan on if it feels stuffy. As a 60yo woman my own internal furnace occasionally goes into overdrive, and I need some exterior cooling assistance!
I just installed a pair of Sensi Touch thermostats a few days ago. I went with these because they were the only ones I found find whose app let you create and save multiple schedules and swap them in and out. My work schedule alternates every 7 days and I was getting tired of manually reprogramming my thermostat schedule every Monday.
One thing to note about the Sensis: their geofencing feature is severely limited compared to others’. All it does is adjust your temperature by 3 degrees when you are more than 3 miles from home. Both those values are hard-coded. I understand other thermostats let you adjust both the radius and the away temperature.
One more question - how difficult is it to have multiple users? Google’s Family Sharing nonsense is a pain. We’ve spent WAY too much time trying to get us both access to the thing, and I’m DUN done.
So, does anyone have any recommendations for an app-connected thermostat that won’t make me jump through useless hoops once a year or so?