Home Automation

[FlyerInHi]

spdrun, I have used thermostat that have dial up interfaces back in the day.

Nest is the only one with auto away features as far as I know.

True, smart home companies want the data. They are working with utility companies.

SDGE gives out free ecobee thermostats if you allow them to mess with your temperature during peak demand.

[spdrun]

Easy enough for that to be a one-way street — thermostat that’s given free to an end-user can be programmed to check a utility company’s site once in a while for instructions. It doesn’t have to send personal data back.

Haha — it would be amusing to take a utility’s free thermostat, take the discount, then install an SPST switch in parallel 🙂

[plm]

[quote=FlyerInHi]spdrun, I have used thermostat that have dial up interfaces back in the day.

Nest is the only one with auto away features as far as I know.

True, smart home companies want the data. They are working with utility companies.

SDGE gives out free ecobee thermostats if you allow them to mess with your temperature during peak demand.[/quote]

Looked at the ecobee offer from SDGE since I just bought one. The one they are offering is a cheaper model. The Ecobee3 that I bought has the remote temp sensor support which I bought it for and also the auto way feature but not planning on using that.

[spdrun]

You can probably add a remote temp sensor by desoldering the existing sensor from the board and connecting it remotely using relatively thick (read: low resistance) wires.

It’s likely to be just a thermistor.

[FlyerInHi]

The remote sensor is useless, if you ask me.
I’m assuming that your only one 1 AC unit, or 2 at most.

Unless you have fancy mechanical dampers, all the remote sensor will do is make the AC run more to cool that one room where the remote sensor is located. That in turn will affect the temp in the rest of the house.

BTW the more fanciful thermostat use the same smart phone interface.
If you get the sdge free thermostat, you get a little credit on your utility bill also. You can always bypass the temp they set for you.

[spdrun]

Or just connect the thermostat to the Internet, but not to the HVAC unit, then use a different ‘stat for the actual control.

I think the remote sensors are good for certain situations, like if a thermostat is mounted in an area (kitchen or near a window) that doesn’t reflect the true temperature of the rest of the home.

It might make sense to have it in a certain place to maximize ease of access (or because the home was built that way with the wiring), but that doesn’t make putting the sensor there a good idea.

[plm]

Remote sensor is important for me because its a large house and I’ve got the vents adjusted to give more cooling/heat to the master bedroom. But the thermostat is not in the master so its really difficult to dial in the proper temp so I have to get it up and adjust it when its too cold or hot. Sensor would fix the problem of measuring an accurate temp in the master while the Echo should let me adjust without touching a thing.

Downstairs unit, I don’t care about since its hardly ever used.

Perfect use case for me but not for everyone.

[FlyerInHi]

Spd, The number displayed on the thermostat is just a number. Just set it to to whatever is comfortable.

If the thermostat is somewhere where there is no airflow, then I can see when a remote sensor would make sense.

My dad has the free ecobee. SDGE might mess with you by a couple degrees. Not a big deal in San Diego where the weather is mild. That might be a deal breaker in hot/humid areas.

Makes sense plm. If I were you, I would fish new wires down the attic and relocate thermostat to master bedroom

[plm]

Weather outside affects the temp where the thermostat is so its not possible to use a single temp setting. On hotter days, need to make the temp higher to avoid freezing.

I’m not very handy. I think its easier to replace the thermostat than to relocate since you need to fish wires and also patch the old hole. New thermostat also gives voice control. Hoping to program the thermostat to use the remote sensor when it detects a person in that room and just the main thermostat if I’m elsewhere.

[FlyerInHi]

Actually, it is a single setting because the main thermostat operates the unit. The remote sensors just tell the main thermostat what they want. Essentially the main thermostat ignores its own reading until the remote sensors are satisfied.

[spdrun]

You mean, just ignores its own reading. It uses the remote sensor, period — just ignores the internal sensor entirely.

[FlyerInHi]

Yeah. I don’t have remote sensors, but i am assuming that, with remote sensors, in cooling mode, the AC will run until such time the coolest temp requested by a sensor is reached, regardless of the temp in other parts of the house.

[spdrun]

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