I think I’m done with most of Google for HA

[LarrylLix]

Here a happy camper with the serially wired Omnistat and remote sensors (both thermostat and panel sensors) and having no Internet dependencies.
 
 
 
I have read of a new improved Ecobee stat with a better Alexa speaker and microphone.  All of the reviews are positive.

I have an ecobee4 with built in Alexa. I have it disabled after the first month of trial. Having microphones within 1" of a hard wall surface doesn;t work well.
 
Another bad engineering design is adding extra WiFi transmission heat inside a thermostat and then trying to compensate the sensor by fudging the calibration.
 
We got tired of it babling back to the TV sound about 3-4 times every evening. The other Alexa Echoes work quite well in the same room so we stopped fighting with it. Funny thing, standing right in front of the ecobee4 stat usually failed understanding  our voices but from across the room was usually successful.

 

[pete_c]

Yes; read that they redesigned it recently to use a digital microphone and it has a better speaker now.

 

[LarrylLix]

Main thing for me is how fast a thermostat reports changes to Homeseer. With my Nest thermostats even though they are monitored over the Internet a manual change is detected instantly and the voice announcement of the new setting happens before you even take your hand off of the thermostat. Is Ecobee that quick? If not I might need to move to a serial thermostat or s super fast reporting Z-Wave model.

Ecobee demands no faster than 3 minutes between polls or they threaten to cut you off.
 
That seems excessive between polls, but I fail to see any reason why I would need any faster updates. The ecobee is the closest to home automation and needs very little remote control. I only turn my heat nd A/C back and forth, when needed. That happens sometimes twice per day in my climate. Other than that I have never touch it as it flips between two climate styles with heat and A/C with many user definable climate styles and remote room sensing to match your location in the house.
 
My HA does Automatic Intelligent Setback on it as well as Automatic Intelligent Recovery. Having owned many different brands of stats, none ever had Intelligent setback, despite knowing all the needed parameters to make an educated guess. I don't play with temperature or fan cycling Ecobee does all that very well. I do play with climate settings though to cause intelligent premature setbacks in the evenings of warm weather. I don't like going to bed in a warm house. It also controls my HRV and humidifier.
 
The sensors do not wander as badly as all the other stat brands I tried, measured against 8 other sensor averaging and is not affected by internal heat or room draughts like most are. One brand varied the displayed temperature by 4 degrees F with heat being called for vs heat not called for. All designed by software nerds and not by HVAC people.

 

[upstatemike]

The reason 3 minutes does not work is because I want immediate voice alerts whenever a thermostat changes. If a person changes it inappropriately I want to speak with them immediately and find out why they needed to change things (I have a lot of guests who might not know the heating is controlled automatically) and if I hear an unexpected change that was not made manually I want to troubleshoot why it happened which is easier to do if there is no latency between the event and the announcement. This might not be a common requirement but I don't need some vendor telling me how I should run my system so I guess Ecobee is a non-starter for me.

 

[LarrylLix]

The reason 3 minutes does not work is because I want immediate voice alerts whenever a thermostat changes. If a person changes it inappropriately I want to speak with them immediately and find out why they needed to change things (I have a lot of guests who might not know the heating is controlled automatically) and if I hear an unexpected change that was not made manually I want to troubleshoot why it happened which is easier to do if there is no latency between the event and the announcement. This might not be a common requirement but I don't need some vendor telling me how I should run my system so I guess Ecobee is a non-starter for me.

You coud just install a password on ecobee for the settings.

 

[upstatemike]

Another use is immediate feedback to sight impaired people who need to hear in real time what their changes to the thermostat are. A thermostat is not something that should be polled. It should push change reports in real time.

 

[LarrylLix]

Another use is immediate feedback to sight impaired people who need to hear in real time what their changes to the thermostat are. A thermostat is not something that should be polled. It should push change reports in real time.

That would ne nice but then the thermostat may have to be specific for that HA system.  Some are.
 
The era is young and stats were never created for remote control originally. Thermostats are home automation devices themselves, requiring nothing other than themselves, or are supposed to be.
 
People that need to constantly remote twiddle thermostats should get a better model or learn how to use them. I find so many use them as on/off switches.

 

[pete_c]

Never touch or adjust thermostat here.  Watch it and watch temperature sensors.
 
Have mentioned a few times that it is your home build and efficiency rather than your thermostat that makes heating and cooling work best.
 
A thermostat is a thermostat is a thermostat.  (over 100 years now).
 
 
I still do an hourly chime (not really high on the WAF).  The hourly chime reports time, temps (inside and out) and a one sentence weather forcast.

Really mostly feel if the heat or AC is not working. AC compressor went out last year during outside temps of 90-100 degrees. I did not really need to hear the temps when I could feel the temperature.
 
Only physical thing here is that I change filters or clean filters once a month and keep furnace, humidifier and outside compressor clean (not automated).

 

[LarrylLix]

Biggest problem with thermostats is the marketers dont have any idea what they do.

I had one start my compressor backwards once. It was wired as second stage and that doesn't count in the rest period.

Luckily I was outside by the compressor. What a racket!

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