Remote thermostat

[gunnerone]

Hi, I'm looking to replace a thermostat at a cabin. I'd like to be able to check and adjust the temperature from home. I'm pretty new to all this automation stuff so I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the options. I'm just concerned with the thermostat for now, but in the future I may want to add onto the system, like with lights or a camera, but I'm not too worried about that for now.

In my searching I found a few that recommend getting a z-wave thermostat. If I got something like the Vera Lite Z-Wave Gateway, and one of these thermostats:

Honeywell Z-Wave Thermostat ZKT1

Honeywell Z-Wave Thermostat TH8320ZW1007

Trane Remote Energy Management Thermostat TZEMT400BB3N

Do you think that would be the way to go or would you suggest something else? Would that be everything I'd need? Any other recommendations or suggestions? Would it be worth getting the Vera 3 instead?

Thanks!

 

[mikei-ma]

Quick question... Do you have internet access year round? or POTS (plain old telephone service)? Are you looking to set the temp before you arrive or monitor for out of band (freeze/hot) issues?

 

[ano]

If you have Internet and Wi-Fi, these are pretty cool...

http://www.nest.com/

 

[gunnerone]

Yep I do have internet there year-round, but I don't have a plain phone service. It would be nice to be able to set the temperature there before I arrive, in addition to monitoring it.

That nest thermostat looks kinda cool, I'll have to check it out more.

 

[tmbrown97]

For what it's worth, check the reviews on the Nest before you commit. I've heard first-hand from several people that they have been locking up/crashing and either letting the house freeze or freezing up the coils on the A/C, etc. I don't think they're reliable enough yet to be running the HVAC in a remote home. Most of the people I've talked to that have tried it have since removed it and gone back to their old thermostats.

GREAT concept - just needs some time to mature/stabilize. That said, there are even Wifi thermostats at Home Depot with remote control; or as you noticed, the Vera - that's what I would recommend to anyone who thinks they'll want to tinker with a little more automation in the future.

 

[gunnerone]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, reading some of the reviews on Amazon I read quite a few saying the same kinds of things about the Nest. It might be better to go with something else.

Yeah I see a couple wifi thermostats at Home Depot that look nice. So if I instead went the home automation route, you'd recommend the Vera? Then I would just need a z-wave thermostat? Anything else I would need?

Thanks!

 

[tmbrown97]

That's the basics - the Vera will be your gateway and it'll connect to a Z-Wave thermostat. You can add a light or two, or slowly expand if you want to; toss a Z-Wave lock if you need to remotely let someone else in, etc. It's a great starting point.

 

[video321]

The Vera works well for me. However, I only use a couple minor plugins and don't have it loaded up - just around 30 Z-Wave devices and my security system, so it is pretty stable. If you go with a Vera make sure you install NTP for reliable time updates. Do you have a security system? If so, you could add a relay to reboot Vera if you should need to. I actually have Vera and my Elk M1 ethernet adapter able to reset each other as long as I could SSH into my router.

 

[icerabbit]

I have two of the $100 wifi thermostats sold at the orange big box hardware store. Price and positive reviews that it works were a convincing factor. I looked at NEST, but don't want it to "learn" and find that whatever green energy star settings are not agressive enough. I basically wanted it to be programmed how I want it to be programmed with remote override control. And for that it works great.
Setup was a big PITA for a few hours due to the lack of details in the instructions and lack of troubleshooting information - for instance they'd say to set up your thermostat, program it, then sync it to the web, which wiped what you just painstakingly programmed - and some limitations of their iOS app back then. Ok. Start over. Same thing. The video instruction will say to hit reset and then you get stuck ... so ... be patient and be prepared it may not go without a hitch.

It helps if you have an iPhone or an iPad to set it up, as you can switch wifi network to the thermostat for initial setup.
After setup, it has been solid.

I use it to monitor the temperature in the house manually during winter time via the free iPhone app while I'm away from the house. I turn down the temperature, put in hold for a few days, then flip it back to normal upon return when the plane lands at the airport.

Works a treat, after the initial setup.

 

[homejones]

We have the Nest. At first, it was difficult to justify the extra expense + I wanted something that would integrate with Insteon.

However, after 2 months, I realize that it is probably one of the best purchases we've made. My praise does not even take into account the learning aspect of the thermostat. For us the best features are Auto-Away, Detailed energy reporting, Airwave, Proximity Sensor, and Web/Smartphone interface.

I still would have appreciated integration. However, the standalone Nest website and smartphone apps are superior to the look and feel of most integrated solutions that I've seen.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

We have the Nest. At first, it was difficult to justify the extra expense + I wanted something that would integrate with Insteon.

However, after 2 months, I realize that it is probably one of the best purchases we've made. My praise does not even take into account the learning aspect of the thermostat. For us the best features are Auto-Away, Detailed energy reporting, Airwave, Proximity Sensor, and Web/Smartphone interface.

Please keep us informed how this performs for you in the long run. I was considering this once, then was scared away after reading some of the reviews on Amazon.

Glad you are having great results with this unit.

 

[hpservertech]

Get a Proliphix. Been happy with mine for the past couple of years. You can find them on ebay for $150.

There is no "APP", but when you set it up it syncs with their servers that let's you access a web page to make any changes. The nice thing is they trend the temps/settings so you can look at what things were for the past year.

 

[dgage]

I have a 3M-50 wifi thermostat, which is the same as IceRabbit mentioned in post #9. It is actually a rebranded Radio Thermostat model. Unlike IceRabbit, I had no issues connecting to the thermostat's wifi network and setting it up to connect to my network. However, since it has a touchscreen and wifi, I did have to run an additional "C" wire to provide power, but I think you'd have to do that for any fancy thermostat. Overall it has been working very well.

Also, Nest just announced a new thermostat to address some issues with the previous version. However, Nest turned me off when they purposely broke some of the web features some users figured out (see Amazon reviews). To me that does not show a commitment to the DIY or HA community, but then again they do come from Apple so I guess we shouldn't expect for them to be "open".

David

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Also, Nest just announced a new thermostat to address some issues with the previous version. However, Nest turned me off when they purposely broke some of the web features some users figured out (see Amazon reviews). To me that does not show a commitment to the DIY or HA community, but then again they do come from Apple so I guess we shouldn't expect for them to be "open".

Does it have a bigger screen?

 

[tmbrown97]

Does it have a bigger screen?

No, but if finally supports a manual Fan mode. Even though every other thermostat for the last 50 years has had that, they left it off until they could "perfect" it.

I keed, I keed... Apple is a strange world, but they do have a habit of innovating the things around us - for a premium.