# wi-fi house thermastat



## Danny (Oct 17, 2012)

Hey guys looking for some recommendations. I'm looking for a thermostat that I can control when I am away from the house on business. I have a rental unit in the basement and need to control over the internet if there are any issues when I am away. I see all kinds out there for sale and was curious if anyone has any recommendations. Black Friday is soon so may try to find a good deal.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

If you stay with common brand name stuff you should be ok. Some are way expensive for stuff you don't need IMO. A simple honeywell wifi should do you.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Ecobee if you prefer iOS home kit security
Nest if you prefer Android/google data mining

I just got a $40 amazon gift card from my electricity provider. I guess because I allow them to pre-cool the home when a surge is expected.

They also sold me the Nest around black friday for $35


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## livewell (Dec 1, 2013)

I chose the Ecobee as its a Canadian company (Toronto based). Also seems a bit more configurable than the Google Nest.


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

Is there a networkable thermostat that supports operation without a cloud? I can support connection to a local server, but not to the internet at large. It would be nice to have a locally manageable thermostat connected to my smart home server, but all the ones I can find only support connection to a corporate central server.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

gardner said:


> Is there a networkable thermostat that supports operation without a cloud?


Good question ... I bet most (all?) will run via their control app using a cloud connection. Might be some DIY projects (like Pi based) that would support LAN use only.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

gardner said:


> Is there a networkable thermostat that supports operation without a cloud? I can support connection to a local server, but not to the internet at large. It would be nice to have a locally manageable thermostat connected to my smart home server, but all the ones I can find only support connection to a corporate central server.


Yea you can do it if you know how to manage your own network

r/homelap
r/selfhosted
r/homeautomation

I'd toy with that stuff but I move every 3 years. My last house was setup with Sinope Tech (Quebec) and this time I use mostly Apple HomeKit. There's always the risk a small company like Sinope disappears with their servers but I don't think Apple is going away anytime soon

If you want something reasonable for guests and family to use Apple HomeKit is just so far ahead and reasonably private/secure (unlike google imo)


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

m3s said:


> There's always the risk a small company like Sinope disappears with their servers but I don't think Apple is going away anytime soon


Since he doesn't want internet connectivity all those external server options are out.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

cainvest said:


> Good question ... I bet most (all?) will run via their control app using a cloud connection. Might be some DIY projects (like Pi based) that would support LAN use only.


Naw there are WiFi ones now you can self host like Z-wave. This topic gets very deep which is why I just posted the subreddits.

Apple HomeKit also works offline. I just looked on r/homelab and people even have ways to selfhost and control Nest, Hue everything

If someone is asking randomly on this forum instead of some basic research on google I kinda suspect this will be more work than they are ready for


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

m3s said:


> If someone is asking randomly on this forum instead of some basic research on google I kinda suspect this will be more work than they are ready for


True enough, most are looking for complete end to end solutions.


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## 30seconds (Jan 11, 2014)

If you are an Enbridge customer you can get one free including installation! I highly recommend it. Just need to get sensors if you want them separately. 









Smart Thermostat | Greenbrain Inc.


Greenbrain is working to deliver and install Smart Thermostats to help save energy at home.




www.greenbraininc.com


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

gardner said:


> Is there a networkable thermostat that supports operation without a cloud?


For what its worth, Radio Thermostat products seem to fill the bill. They have documented interfaces to control their schedule and settings and to read back the operational data.





PRODUCTS | home







www.radiothermostat.com





They seem to be hard to get in Canada.

One of the problems I was trying to solve was to monitor if the furnace is actually giving heat when commanded, and enabling an alert or something if there is a problem with that. A couple of years ago we came back from a holiday to discover that the furnace had developed a blockage in the condensate drain that resulted in it being unable to run at full blast and it could not get the house above 15C. I would have wanted indications of that sort of issue ahead of time.

What I wound up doing was connecting directly to the furnace control signals and sensing when heat or AC is commanded, and measuring the plenum temperature. With that info I can assess whether the furnace is operating properly and chart all the nifty info. But I can't change the temperature target settings.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

gardner said:


> What I wound up doing was connecting directly to the furnace control signals and sensing when heat or AC is commanded, and measuring the plenum temperature. With that info I can assess whether the furnace is operating properly and chart all the nifty info. But I can't change the temperature target settings.


The supply plenum temp should tell you if the furnace is operating properly for the most part but wouldn't tell you if the target temp was reached right?

How about comparing the start temp vs ending temp to see if the rise (or fall) is in the expected range? Looking at my furance data the rise is 1.0 to 1.1 degrees C on every run.


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

I am only looking at the outlet plenum and can tell by that if the furnace is operating -- the red lines are plenum temp from 25C to 50C. In my case stage one goes to about 35C and stage two to about 50C. I can measure the time heat is commanded and the on/off duty cycle. Same for AC.

Although visible in the chart readily enough, it's hard to correlate the actual inside temperature with the furnace operation because I am only picking up temps at half hour intervals. The thermostat is commanding heat in bursts of 5 minutes about every 15-20 minutes at present (-1C outside) and the temperature info is just not finegrained enough to pick up the effects of a single burst.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

gardner said:


> I am only looking at the outlet plenum and can tell by that if the furnace is operating -- the red lines are plenum temp from 25C to 50C. In my case stage one goes to about 35C and stage two to about 50C. I can measure the time heat is commanded and the on/off duty cycle. Same for AC.
> 
> Although visible in the chart readily enough, it's hard to correlate the actual inside temperature with the furnace operation because I am only picking up temps at half hour intervals. The thermostat is commanding heat in bursts of 5 minutes about every 15-20 minutes at present (-1C outside) and the temperature info is just not finegrained enough to pick up the effects of a single burst.


Yes, the outlet plenum is the supply plenum (cold side is the return plenum). I don't know what system/setup you're using but is there no way for you to track the inside temperature?


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## gardner (Feb 13, 2014)

I could add more/different sensors for sure, but for the moment I am using battery powered Z-Wave sensors to pick up inside temperatures and they only update a few times an hour. I have the box sending furnace data powered off the furnace "C" line the way a wifi thermostat would be, so there's no battery life penalty updating quite often (every 2 mins + when thermostat command state changes).


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

If z-wave has a temperature sensor with a low temp alarm push notification that would likely be the easy solution.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I just ordered 3 x Emerson Sensi WiFi for $15USD on black friday

They're basic and old but they do iOS HomeKit and geofencing which is all I want. Sounds like they also do the humidifier which I'm not sure the Nest E does

I might sell the 3 x Nest Thermostat E cheap


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