Why do most WiFi thermostats require you to register online?

[purple_motion]

I gave up and went with a honeywell stat with ZWave ($140 ish on Amazon). I only have a basic heat/AC system and it controls it just fine. I use OpenZwave + custom SW to control it. No cloud services!
 
Seems like most wifi devices (not just the thermostats) come with cloud services....ugh.

 

[LarrylLix]

Some form of cloud service needs to be implemented.

When your router reboots many time your ISP will issue a new IP address and then your remote access will be lost.

My New Netgear router contains a DDNS service setup and provides it free. This notifies the DDNS service of my IP addresses and I connect through them. I don't like the cloud dependence but there isn't many other ways.

Automatically sending your IP address via SMS or email would allow one to manually change their IP access link.

 

[2vevnull]

Almost 2 years on, and I'm wondering if anyone has come accross any other thermostats that do NOT require a cloud connection?
 
<rant on>
I currently have a CT30, but it's 1/2 brain dead thermostat...  You get what you pay for.  The entire API is in F, so I need to do F to C conversions everywhere in my HA setup.  On thermostat itself, the rounding F to C conversion is flakey.   Depending on what the thermostat is doing, fan, heating, cooling, etc it may not let you set it to 20C.   (It will skip from 20.5 to 19.5).  The API doesn't let you set aux/stage 2 heat mode, you can't set the differential temp when to engage aux.  Their is no energy recovery mode for heat pumps.
</rant off>
 
I 've looked at the Honeywell, Nest, Ecobee...  They are all cloud based.   Unfortunately my heating/cooling data is not for sale or analysis, so I don't want a cloud service.  Venstar has a local API, but it is very limitted and still doesn't have some the features in my rant.
 
Any other options?
 
I'm actually pondering if it's worth going back to a wired rs232/485 tstat!
 
Tim

 
I wish there was better improvements in this area. I too am looking for a thermostat with a local open API. Other than the Radio Thermostats, not many seem to want to go this route. I see automation startups like smarthings and others hacking the cloud APIs but as stated earlier in this thread, fear of them changing or going away altogether will be problematic.

 

[2vevnull]

Build a Nest in a day with REST API etc. Would be nice to have something like this produced:
http://blog.spark.io/2014/01/17/open-source-thermostat/

 

[viroid]

Performing an 'nslookup myip.opendns.com' should return your current IP. Could be used to script your email. If scripted, might want to clear the dns cache before you run the command to ensure the host doesnt return a cached result.


...v