beelzerob
Senior Member
So, as part of my geothermal adventure, I have to secure a thermostat to handle the requirements. I currently have a RCS TR-15 that has worked good enough for my existing heat pump. But since I'm upgrading everything else, I might as well go fancy on the thermostat too.
I've looked over all of the contenders I know about, and there seems to be a dearth of viable choices. Here are some of the requirements:
Now, I don't know if humidifier control is a reasonable expectation. Is there a thermostat that does all that? Is that something that is even reasonable to want to control through HA? I mean, isn't that pretty much a set and forget? Basically, I want to add a humidifer to the system, and I guess I want to know when the humidifier is "On". Not much else to know about it I think.... The one contractor so far has suggested the Aprilaire 400 Humidifier, and I think that comes with its own controller, which is *not* communicating I believe.
Then for damper control....I know that normally you would have a thermostat for every zone, and let them haggle and fight about when dampers open and close. However, I really don't want thermostats all over the place. I already have datanab temp sensors in all pertinent rooms. So I'd be just as happy controlling when the dampers move by myself. But I would need some interface for doing that, obviously. I know I can use relay control to power open and closed dampers....but I thought thermostats sometimes included that control too, and if they do, do they open up that control to a PC through a protocol?
I looked at the Aprilaire 8870, which seems to be the only one they have that is "communicating", but it didn't seem to have a wealth of features....at least, not the ones I was looking for. Is that pretty much the standard of what I can expect to find?
I've looked over all of the contenders I know about, and there seems to be a dearth of viable choices. Here are some of the requirements:
- Heat Pump compatible
- Heating Stages (3)
- Cooling Stages (2)
- Humidifier Control
- Damper Control
- HA controllable (duh)
Now, I don't know if humidifier control is a reasonable expectation. Is there a thermostat that does all that? Is that something that is even reasonable to want to control through HA? I mean, isn't that pretty much a set and forget? Basically, I want to add a humidifer to the system, and I guess I want to know when the humidifier is "On". Not much else to know about it I think.... The one contractor so far has suggested the Aprilaire 400 Humidifier, and I think that comes with its own controller, which is *not* communicating I believe.
Then for damper control....I know that normally you would have a thermostat for every zone, and let them haggle and fight about when dampers open and close. However, I really don't want thermostats all over the place. I already have datanab temp sensors in all pertinent rooms. So I'd be just as happy controlling when the dampers move by myself. But I would need some interface for doing that, obviously. I know I can use relay control to power open and closed dampers....but I thought thermostats sometimes included that control too, and if they do, do they open up that control to a PC through a protocol?
I looked at the Aprilaire 8870, which seems to be the only one they have that is "communicating", but it didn't seem to have a wealth of features....at least, not the ones I was looking for. Is that pretty much the standard of what I can expect to find?