Sacedog
Active Member
I have read a lot of posts that say that they do not like their Zwave thermostats, and not many posts that actually like them. I am working on installing an Elk system in my in-laws house, and need some advice on what type of tstats to use.
They have 4 seperate Heating/AC units, with a seperate tstat for each. 2 of them I could probably run Cat5 to, 1 would be very difficult, and 1 I'm not sure I could get a wire run to. The house is rather large, with the thermostats being a ways apart from each other. Also, the wiring can is in the basement, so technically 2 floors below one of the thermostats (the one that would be the most difficult to get wire to).
Would you recommend Zwave thermostats for this type of retrofit installation? Is the range for Zwave long enough for good communication? Would I be better off cutting holes in the sheetrock to hard-wire, and hiring someone to patch the holes (so that you can't tell that they were patched)?
What I do not want to do is install a system that will not be dependable. Any suggestions or +/- comments you have on Zwave are appreciated.
They have 4 seperate Heating/AC units, with a seperate tstat for each. 2 of them I could probably run Cat5 to, 1 would be very difficult, and 1 I'm not sure I could get a wire run to. The house is rather large, with the thermostats being a ways apart from each other. Also, the wiring can is in the basement, so technically 2 floors below one of the thermostats (the one that would be the most difficult to get wire to).
Would you recommend Zwave thermostats for this type of retrofit installation? Is the range for Zwave long enough for good communication? Would I be better off cutting holes in the sheetrock to hard-wire, and hiring someone to patch the holes (so that you can't tell that they were patched)?
What I do not want to do is install a system that will not be dependable. Any suggestions or +/- comments you have on Zwave are appreciated.