What home thermostat do you have? (1 Viewer)

[zatsnzapps]

I currently have a Honeywell T6 pro series. I personally think it's garbage
but the new house I bought has one.
The company installed a brand new system in the house in June of 2020.
I bought the house in December and
already had a faulty T6 which they replaced for another. Let's just say the
faulty thermostat ran my bill pretty high but I caught it within 3 weeks of moving in.

So as I was sitting down last night finishing off my fourth Big Mac and large vanilla shake, I was thinking to myself, "maybe I should get a smart thermostat"

As I nibbled on the last remaining bits of my large fry, I researched a few just to see. I have a full Trane system so it made sense to look at those. The xl824 looks pretty good.

Now I'm eating a bowl of ice cream with the cardiologist on speed dial, I look at the ecobee, nest, emerson, etc etc to end the evening I sat there and said to myself, "I wonder what my peeps at SR have"

So here I am, looking for your preferences and what ya have, what ya replaced, and what is complete garbage from personal experience.......crunch crunch....now I'm eating a salad to offset yesterday's debacle.

I've been using Nest thermostats for several years, and I absolutely love them. I love the flexibility for it to learn your schedule on its own, and then it can be adjusted as you see fit. Also, having the ability to adjust the temperature without having to get out of bed at night is awesome.

I think I recall you are in Maryland. If BGE is your provider, you can get up to 3 of them with a $75 rebate for each one. They also offer other smart thermostats (like ecobee) with the same rebate. You can also get an additional $50 off if you enroll in their Connected Rewards program.

Keep an eye on BGE Marketplace for their rebates. I went back and looked at my receipt from when I upgraded from the 2nd to 3rd edition through BGEM, and I got a $100 rebate on each one. That was in May (a couple years ago), so if they keep the same schedule, it may be worth it to see if the rebates go higher.

Here's the link to their page with the Nest:

Google Nest Learning Thermostat Stainless Steel | BGE Marketplace

The Nest thermostat programs itself, automatically helps you save energy when you’re away and can be controlled from anywhere. And now, the 3rd Gen Nest Learning Thermostat is thinner, sleeker and more beautiful than ever. The display is even bigger and sharper.

www.bgemarketplace.com

 

[BELOWSEALEVEL]

Zatsnzapps....you were correct about Maryland and BGE. I moved to Lewes Delaware in December. I went from being right in the middle of DC and Baltimore to living 2 miles from the beach. I use Delmarva power coop now. I'll have to look in to what they offer and see what's up.
The 3rd generation looks a little more capable than the Nest E that most recently came out. Has a few more bells and whistles and has more stage capability.
I like that it has 10 temp sensors and has the one degree difference. That's a bonus for cold nights when a heat pump likes to take it's sweet time.

 

[49erKiller]

I feel like this thread needs Dr. Rick so he can protect some of you from becoming your parents.

 

[Beast]

We have the ecobee3 (w/ Alexa) downstairs and the ecobee3 lite upstairs. I really like all of the features and options for tailoring your AC/heating that the ecobee provides. You can tweak lots of parameters about how it behaves. You can set Home, Away, Sleep comfort settings and then use those with the scheduling app. There’s also a dashboard that you can check to see exactly when it kicked on, what the temp inside and outside were, how long it ran for, etc.

 

[TheRealJRad]

Ecobee. The landlord at my rental asked me to leave it, so I purchased another when I bought my house (as was mentioned, look at energy provider credits!). I dropped it when I was installing it and cracked the screen. They took it back and sent me a replacement, no questions asked. That alone is enough to keep me loyal.

I also have the room sensors. When we went WFH I quickly discovered the room I use as my office gets unbelievably hot. I have a schedule setting that only monitors the office, and another that only monitors the bedroom (I sleep better when it’s cold, so it helps not freeze the rest of the house), and it’s worked great.

We have Nests at the office, and they only respected your schedule when it detected someone was “home” and that really turned me off to it. That certainly could have changed in the last year though. I just didn’t like having to remember to turn on the AC/heater before I left for work to avoid some ridiculous temperature in either direction.

 

[TheRealJRad]

Oh, and it sounds like you’re covered here already, but make sure to check the C wire requirements of what you get.

 

[Buickman]

I replaced my heat pump last year with a Bosch system and had them replace the existing thermostat to a Nest. I like it so far.

 

[livefromDC]

2 x Ecobee 3 here...I can see the savings on my electric bill. Well worth the investment. The entire house up and down are at a constant temp.

Yep...

Oh, and it sounds like you’re covered here already, but make sure to check the C wire requirements of what you get.

Yeah, I've only ever heard of 2 problems with Ecobee. The first, people who try to install it themselves and don't know what they're doing. I got my tech straight from Ecobee and he said this was usually their issue. The second, is people thinking that there's a little oval piece of peel away plastic on the face of the thermostat itself. That's actually a room sensor, he said you'd be surprised how many people sit there and scrape it away despite it resisting being peeled.

 

[Beast]

Yep...


Yeah, I've only ever heard of 2 problems with Ecobee. The first, people who try to install it themselves and don't know what they're doing. I got my tech straight from Ecobee and he said this was usually their issue. The second, is people thinking that there's a little oval piece of peel away plastic on the face of the thermostat itself. That's actually a room sensor, he said you'd be surprised how many people sit there and scrape it away despite it resisting being peeled.

I had the C wire issue two different ways. The first time I installed upstairs (don't disrupt the main living area first). Old wiring in the house and got the wires backwards. Had heat when A/C kicked on. Talked to Ecobee support and got it straightened out. So I figured I could apply that lesson learned downstairs and be good to go. Only I have a Trane downstairs, which has a different reverse engagement configuration than most other A/Cs, so flipping the wires got me heat downstairs too.. That was fun.

 

[livefromDC]

I had the C wire issue two different ways. The first time I installed upstairs (don't disrupt the main living area first). Old wiring in the house and got the wires backwards. Had heat when A/C kicked on. Talked to Ecobee support and got it straightened out. So I figured I could apply that lesson learned downstairs and be good to go. Only I have a Trane downstairs, which has a different reverse engagement configuration than most other A/Cs, so flipping the wires got me heat downstairs too.. That was fun.

If only you had started downstairs?

 

[dtc]

After the Sally flood, we replaced both systems in our house with Carrier Infinity 18 SEER units and the fancy, dancy thermostats that came with them seem to be awesome. My wife loves it. I'm just along for the ride of extra blankets at night, but it does alert the vendor if it's working poorly. It tells you when to change the filter and our power bills have dropped dramatically.

It's wifi enabled and can be controlled from anywhere from what I'm told.

The only drawback is when it's really cold I have a hard time figuring out how to turn the air up from 70 to 73 or so.

 

[BELOWSEALEVEL]

For the Nest users, what model do you have? If you could go back in time, would you choose a different nest model?
Some are regular and some are learning.
Seems the 3rd generation learning can have sensors added and uses the Google home app.
Thanks

 

[Zack Lee]

I need to install one of these. Current thermostat is in an upstairs hallway with no vent. We have to keep those doors closed because my two nieces live with me. So what I really need is the remote sensor to put it somewhere else. Problem is that the old thermostat is battery operated and has no C wire going to it. Are there any smart thermostats that are completely battery operated? I haven't found one. We ordered an Ecobee that has the PEK (basically just repurposes an existing wire to the unit into a C wire )converter for the H-Vac but the panel isn't easy to access and my confidence in the installer is very low.

 

[Zack Lee]

may have found my answer. One of the google Nest models supposedly works without C wire or adapter MOST of the time. They say 95% So I am going to try it but MOST of the time I may as well answer to "Hey 5%!"

 

[FLEA]

I need to install one of these. Current thermostat is in an upstairs hallway with no vent. We have to keep those doors closed because my two nieces live with me. So what I really need is the remote sensor to put it somewhere else. Problem is that the old thermostat is battery operated and has no C wire going to it. Are there any smart thermostats that are completely battery operated? I haven't found one. We ordered an Ecobee that has the PEK (basically just repurposes an existing wire to the unit into a C wire )converter for the H-Vac but the panel isn't easy to access and my confidence in the installer is very low.

Ecobee support is incredible...they literally walked me through the install with the PEK , it took all of 30 minutes. I sent them a pic of the wiring and voila. DONE!!!