Wifi, web enabled home AC thermostat

[Rusty Heap]

I really don't see the need or purpose for this other than techno geek Captain Kirk in some of you.

But then again, I don't Text on a phone either.


I love being "disconnected" from techno dependence.

It's called a map, folded paper, with red and blue lines, I'll show you where to stick your GPS.


I'm really worried about the younger generation that relies on all this techno garbage when Skynet takes over and people have to survive on their own wits.

[motion]

For me, the environmental conditions can swing pretty widely in my Montana shack. I have a lot of glass and sun exposure, which means it can be cold in the morning, and baking in the afternoon, just because of the sun exposure. I leave the place sometimes for weeks or months at a time, and sometimes for just several hours. An intelligent thermostat could easily save $30 a month, so a Nest would pay for itself very quickly, plus I could monitor the temp in the winter months from my beach in Kauai

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

I really don't see the need or purpose for this other than techno geek Captain Kirk in some of you.

But then again, I don't Text on a phone either.


I love being "disconnected" from techno dependence.

It's called a map, folded paper, with red and blue lines, I'll show you where to stick your GPS.


I'm really worried about the younger generation that relies on all this techno garbage when Skynet takes over and people have to survive on their own wits.

There is useless technology and useful technology. For some of us. Minimizing my heating bill and coming home to warm house seems like an brainer for $100.

[willtel]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

I love being "disconnected" from techno dependence.

Says the guy typing on a computer connected to a global network.

If you don't want one, don't buy one. It is that simple.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

There is useless technology and useful technology. For some of us. Minimizing my heating bill and coming home to warm house seems like an brainer for $100.

My digital thermostat does that, without my having to change the settings manually

[aigel]

This would be a quite useless gizmo to me. I don't even use the program function on my thermostat. I put it where I want it when I am home and turn it off when I sleep or am not home.

Of course, I also own a flip phone, so I couldn't connect to it anyway ...

G

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by motion

For me, the environmental conditions can swing pretty widely in my Montana shack. I have a lot of glass and sun exposure, which means it can be cold in the morning, and baking in the afternoon, just because of the sun exposure. I leave the place sometimes for weeks or months at a time, and sometimes for just several hours. An intelligent thermostat could easily save $30 a month, so a Nest would pay for itself very quickly, plus I could monitor the temp in the winter months from my beach in Kauai

The other thing is that if you are coming back home after being gone for a while you would want to ramp up the temps at home. Being able to monitor it while away and adjust as needed would be a nice things.

[krystar]

Originally Posted by red-beard

My digital thermostat does that, without my having to change the settings manually

i would agree normally however wife's job has her on a rotating schedule. never know what hours on which days she works. that's my only reason to get this.....and to play out the geek in me

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by red-beard

My digital thermostat does that, without my having to change the settings manually

Works great on a fixed schedule. Not so great when you leave work anywhere between 5PM and 9PM each day.

And the Digital thermostat is how much cheaper? (I assume you meant programmable digital thermostat)

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Works great on a fixed schedule. Not so great when you leave work anywhere between 5PM and 9PM each day.

And the Digital thermostat is how much cheaper? (I assume you meant programmable digital thermostat)

This is the biggest advantage; when you're coming home at all different crazy times, this is an excellent way to avoid heating an empty house.

I run a space heater in the room where the cats like to sleep and let everything else cool down to 62-63 in the winter months, starting the warm-up about 45 minutes before I get home. I never walk into a cold house, everyone is happy and I've shaved about 20% off my heating costs (give or take) by simply being diligent and using the free iPhone app whenever my schedule diverges from the "usual routine" program that I've got loaded in.

These are well worth the $$$.

[RKC]

Nest here too. Got it for $250 last year. Works great, and it IS programmable if you want to. Or you can just set it for a week and it learns.

Had a Honeywell programmable thermostat for years, and wife and kids never understood it. Nest is simple enough for my 10 year old (or mother in law) to set.

With the wild spring heat in Chicago, it was actually nice to have it on my iPhone - was able to turn on the AC while away....

It supposedly knows the local weather and can turn on the heat or AC sooner/later depending upon the day.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

This is the biggest advantage; when you're coming home at all different crazy times, this is an excellent way to avoid heating an empty house.

I run a space heater in the room where the cats like to sleep and let everything else cool down to 62-63 in the winter months, starting the warm-up about 45 minutes before I get home. I never walk into a cold house, everyone is happy and I've shaved about 20% off my heating costs (give or take) by simply being diligent and using the free iPhone app whenever my schedule diverges from the "usual routine" program that I've got loaded in.

These are well worth the $$$.

62-63? HAH! You spendthrift! I used to set mine to 50F during hours we were not active in the house and even from 11PM to 4AM! This was when I had a poorly insulated house in West Stockbridge, MA.

I had a cat too! Cats have fur coats!

[Moses]

Just bought 3 Nests. I LOVE gadgets! Can't wait!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by red-beard

62-63? HAH! You spendthrift! I used to set mine to 50F during hours we were not active in the house and even from 11PM to 4AM! This was when I had a poorly insulated house in West Stockbridge, MA.

I had a cat too! Cats have fur coats!

LOL! I would run it down further but it's a balancing act between reasonable warm-up time and cost. Even when I set it back to 62 or so during the day the boiler typically won't cycle more than once or twice during the day when I'm not there, so I can kinda' live with that. I ran through a whole lot of make/break settings on the aquastat to optimize efficiency; prevailing wisdom states that thermal transfer in the living spaces increases exponentially with temperature setting so one might think it better to run hotter. I tried it for a while and while (yes) the rooms warm up faster, there's a hell of a lot of heat loss through the boiler and piping when there is no call for heat (and yes, I've insulated the crap out of all the HVAC components, I still need to do the basement itself which will no doubt help more and possibly change the equation). I found that it was far better to dial back the make/break settings to as low as I could reasonably and still get the interior spaces up to 72-73 on the coldest days and get reasonable warm-up times. IIRC they're 160/140 and 10 on the differential. Never a problem with domestic HW (currently off boiler, I have an electric HW heater sitting there that I installed and just need to make final connections to once I shut off the boiler for the season in a month or so, which will change things as I'll use it for DHW and heating the return heating HW before it goes to the boiler, which should definitly cut down on oil consumption). That's a whole separate discussion - electric costs per BTUH are actually getting better than with oil...

Anyway, once I get all the other modifications done (basement insulation, floor insulation to living space, electric HW heater, etc) I'll reassess everything and possibly be able to dial back further next season and still get good warm-up times. That's what I'm hoping anyway. We'll see. Either way the programmable/remote WiFi t-stats are awesome. The nest ones sound cool but way too "blingy" for the look of my place.

[krystar]

3 nests? baller!

[motion]

Originally Posted by krystar

3 nests? baller!

Beat me to it!

[RWebb]

who will be first to hack into his new thermostat and freeze him out or amp up his electrical bills?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RWebb

who will be first to hack into his new thermostat and freeze him out or amp up his electrical bills?

That's my only concern. The thing is that the impact wouldn't have much if any visibility, and the folks that do the hacking like to see the results of their work. It would be too boring for them. Even if they could see the results, they would be too slow and mild, again, boring.

[homer944]

From what it looks like the Filtrite unit is wifi enabled, but doesn't come with the wifi module. Is that accurate?

I've been using the Proliphix and the only problem I have had isn't from getting hacked, but getting too much traffic to the port forwarding on the firewall so it can communicate back to their monitoring system.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by homer944

From what it looks like the Filtrite unit is wifi enabled, but doesn't come with the wifi module. Is that accurate?.

Nope, the come with the wifi unit installed. I'd guess that they are taking a loss to get their unit out there.
http://www.radiothermostat.com/filtrete/products/3M-50/

This Filtrete™ Wi-Fi Remote Programmable Thermostat can be controlled from your computer, iPhone®, Smartphone or PDA,
which comes with a Wi-Fi module installed.