Need help finding a thermostat with a remote wireless temperature sensor

The thermostat in my home is terribly misplaced and needs to be relocated to a different room. The problem is that I have no time to do this task myself at the moment and after paying someone to move it, patch drywall, etc I'm looking at a sizable amount of money. There is no way to move the thermostat without putting holes in the walls and ceiling in this particular case.

So I would like to replace my existing thermostat with one which supports an external wireless temperature sensor. That way I can place the wireless sensor in the appropriate room without having to tear up the walls and ceiling.

I have not found one like this, has anyone else? I had heard Honeywell makes one but I haven't tracked it down. I have seen wired remote sensors, but that will not work for me, the sensor must communicate with the thermostat wirelessly and the thermostat must be able to use the remote temperature when comparing to setpoints (as opposed to just displaying it on the thermostat but not using it).

And of course if the main thermostat unit had a documented RS232 port that would be perfect.

Thanks,
John

Hi John,

I ran into the SAME problem at my new house. The top floor has two main areas - enclosed master bedroom and a "loft"/den/office space that's open to downstairs. The thermostat is in the loft, which leads to 3-5 degree temperature differential between the bedroom and the loft. Not comfortable.

I picked up a Honeywell Prestige HD thermostat with a Portable Comfort Control remote. The thermostat proper, with a color widescreen LCD, brings a smile to my face every time I look at it. The Portable Comfort Control tabletop unit has its own temperature sensor and can control the thermostat remotely via RF. So, you can use the PCC unit to keep the room YOU are in at a preset temperature, and adjust the temperature without getting up.

Sadly, the Prestige has NO HA integration capability whatsoever, though, and I'm evaluating replacements that are more HA-friendly (but with a wired remote temp sensor).

Here are the links:
Prestige HD: http://www.forwardthinking.honeywell.com/products/wireless/prestige/prestige_feature.html
Portable Comfort Control: http://www.forwardthinking.honeywell.com/products/wireless/portable_comfort_control/pcc_feature.html

The PCC also works with a lower-end wireless-enabled thermostat, the Vision Pro 6000:
http://yourhome.honeywell.com/home/Products/Thermostats/5-1-1-Day-Programmable/FocusPRO+6000.htm

Also, this looks interesting:
http://www.smarthome.com/30408/Venstar-Wireless-Indoor-Outdoor-Remote-Temperature-Sensor-ACC0414RF/p.aspx
http://www.smarthome.com/30422/Venstar-Wireless-Sensor-Receiver/p.aspx

The temp sensor is battery operated and wireless like you want it. The receiver hardwires into the remote sensor connector on the thermostat.

Thanks for the feedback. It's too bad there is no PC control interface on the Honeywell devices.

I've been looking into the Prestige HD thermostat... but I see there is also a Prestige IAQ thermostat which looks exactly the same. I "assume" the only difference is that the IAQ can control a de/humidify system as well as HVAC. It also looks like the IAQ only uses 2 wires but has an additional controller device that needs to be installed at the HVAC unit?

How many wires does the Prestige HD thermostat use? My HAI thermostat uses 5 wires but I'm not sure about the Prestige HD.

Robert Shaw makes one. It won't integrate with an HA system though.

I had one at my old house, and it was great. It controlled the humidifier also, lowering the humidity the colder it got outside to avoid condensation on the windows. If you put in two indoor temp sensors, it will by default take the average of the two and use that for turning on/off the furnace. Not sure if you can tell it to ignore the one in the control unit.

John Hughes said:

Thanks for the feedback. It's too bad there is no PC control interface on the Honeywell devices.

I've been looking into the Prestige HD thermostat... but I see there is also a Prestige IAQ thermostat which looks exactly the same. I "assume" the only difference is that the IAQ can control a de/humidify system as well as HVAC. It also looks like the IAQ only uses 2 wires but has an additional controller device that needs to be installed at the HVAC unit?

How many wires does the Prestige HD thermostat use? My HAI thermostat uses 5 wires but I'm not sure about the Prestige HD.

Click to expand...

The regular Prestige HD has a regular thermostat interface - i.e. 5 wires for single stage heating and cooling, with extra wires for extra heating and cooling stages. 24V Common is required.

The IAQ seems to have a separate "equipment interface" box that you mount near your HVAC equipment - in the attic, garage, etc. The interface unit in turn connects to the furnace, the humidifier, the dehumidifier, external temperature sensor, etc.

As a side benefit, if you happen to find thermostat relay "clicks" annoying, the IAQ system relocates the relays out of the thermostat and to the attic- or garage-mounted equipment interface module

Another wireless thermostat with display and receiver
http://www.elekhomica.nl/product_info.php?cPath=26_30_58&products_id=617

Following this thread with interest. I've been attempting to find a thermostat with a remote temp sensor for outside air temp so that it can properly control my humidifier as someone stated above. Right now it's on manual control and we go from +5C to -20C in a day and the casings around my windows are starting to crack from the condensation build up that occurs. If we don't turn on the humidifier I'm likely to Defibrillate my wife in the morning

Thanks guys, I ordered a regular Prestige HD. It doesn't support automation but at this point I'll have to sacrifice it.

John Hughes said:

Thanks guys, I ordered a regular Prestige HD. It doesn't support automation but at this point I'll have to sacrifice it.

Click to expand...

John,

You'll love the HD. I swear by Portable Comfort Control remote and I really like the "timed hold" feature which overrides the scheduled temperature until the time you specify.

I just wish you ordered yours a smidge later - my own Prestige HD is going to be for sale soon as I'm replacing it with a less fancy but more automation-friendly RCS TZ43 Z-wave stat

manxam said:

Following this thread with interest. I've been attempting to find a thermostat with a remote temp sensor for outside air temp so that it can properly control my humidifier as someone stated above. Right now it's on manual control and we go from +5C to -20C in a day and the casings around my windows are starting to crack from the condensation build up that occurs. If we don't turn on the humidifier I'm likely to Defibrillate my wife in the morning

Click to expand...

Manxam -

Based on my experience, few automation thermostats measure external temperature, and none of them activate based on the temperature. The external temperature sensor is for display only. Maybe heat pump controllers make use of external temperature readings.

Your sig says that you run Homeseer. I was thinking that you could use any sort of external temperature sensor that can be read by your PC or your automation hardware (such as a PC-controlled weather station, a Z-wave temperature sensor or multisensor) and control a regular thermostat based on the temperature sensor readings.

The other option could be an RCS TR60 thermostat system. This is a two-piece thermostat system that uses your existing thermostat wiring but adds an "thermostat control unit" near your furnace.

If you have a zoned system already, you replace the thermostats with RCS TS60 and the zoning controller with a ZCVx series "Zone Control Unit" that supports as many thermostats as you need.

These thermostats use RS485 protocol to communicate with the zone panel, and the zone panel itself connects to an external temperature sensor. All thermostats then have access to the external temperature. The TCU / Zone control unit has an RS485 interface for connection to your home automation system.


What's neat about this setup is that there's no new wiring to the thermostat(s). And, since your furnace is likely in the garage, or the attic, it's easy to run the external temperature sensor wire to it.

manxam said:

Following this thread with interest. I've been attempting to find a thermostat with a remote temp sensor for outside air temp so that it can properly control my humidifier as someone stated above. Right now it's on manual control and we go from +5C to -20C in a day and the casings around my windows are starting to crack from the condensation build up that occurs. If we don't turn on the humidifier I'm likely to Defibrillate my wife in the morning

Click to expand...

Good luck, the only one I found was the Robert Shaw one. Someone told me the HAI thermostat did this also, but I don't think that's true. I HAD to have this at my old house because of the crappy windows and insulation. It does work quite well. I'm actually thinking about buying another one for my new house instead of getting one that integrates with HA. Preventing mold and rot on my windows (an unseen places) is more important to me than being able to control temp through an HA system.

The first one I had started flaking out after about a year (rebooting, bad display). They sent me a new one, no questions asked. Great guys over there.

signal15 said:

Good luck, the only one I found was the Robert Shaw one. Someone told me the HAI thermostat did this also, but I don't think that's true. I HAD to have this at my old house because of the crappy windows and insulation. It does work quite well. I'm actually thinking about buying another one for my new house instead of getting one that integrates with HA. Preventing mold and rot on my windows (an unseen places) is more important to me than being able to control temp through an HA system.

The first one I had started flaking out after about a year (rebooting, bad display). They sent me a new one, no questions asked. Great guys over there.

Click to expand...

While this won't help with a display, I've had good luck with my Adicon Bobcat Temperature sensors connected to my Adicon SECU-16. www.appdig.com. Work great with Premise.

Hi
I just found this old thread and am looking to get this thermostat

Here are the links:
Prestige HD: http://www.forwardth...ge_feature.html
Portable Comfort Control: http://www.forwardth...cc_feature.html

My question is if I want to use the Portable Comfort Control and an indoor wireless sensor do I have to get the whole Red Link Internet Gateway or would they be able to be used as a stand alone without the whole internet gateway?

Thanks